Balancing a tip down

  • Ingy
    Posts: 135
    March 9, 2011 at 2:50 pm #1302544

    What’s the trick to balancing these things? I was out yesterday and I could not get the thing to stay balanced. Some times it would only want to point down, other times, straight up. I tried adding and removing shot to the line, wrapping pipe cleaners around the handle in different spots, with no success. After I while I just got frustrated and left the thing pointing up in the air with predictable results. Should the stand be in a vertical L-shape, or more Z-angled?. It was kind of windy, and I tried it pointing into the wind, wind at the back, etc with no better luck. I did get 1 12″ crappie on it right away, while I was still dinking around getting it set up.
    Thanks,
    Ingy

    Joel Ballweg
    Sauk City, Wisconsin
    Posts: 3295
    March 9, 2011 at 3:10 pm #945386

    Although I have never actually used one, I believe they are suppose to point upward (not straight up) until a fish hits.
    At that point, it will be pointing downward into the hole.

    If balanced correctly, my guess is it won’t take much for a fish to pull the tip down.

    targaman
    Inactive
    Wilton, WI
    Posts: 2759
    March 9, 2011 at 4:18 pm #945413

    On my tip down the rod can only point up so far. What I do to check the balance is point it down towards the hole and make sure that it goes back up very very slow. I’ve never heard of a tip down sticking straight up in the air. That might be a design flaw. My rod also has a cap on the butt of the rod for split shot to be placed in to balance it out.

    icenutz
    Aniwa, WI
    Posts: 2540
    March 9, 2011 at 11:28 pm #945620

    Check my pictures here for proper angle. The pole needs to rest on the cross brace and be at roughly a 45 degree angle. I set the stand at a slight angle so that when the pole tips down the very end of the pole hits right at the end of the base of the frame and the edge of the hole.

    I wrap a little solder around the end of the handle, you can move the solder up or down the rod handle to fine tune balance. You can see in the pictures where the tip of the pole ends up when tipped down and also the angle that I have the frame at.

    http://s947.photobucket.com/albums/ad317/cmherrmann/Tip%20downs/

    Feel free to ask me any questions that you may have, we have been using Tip Downs for well over 10 years.

    Here is a little video of my son catching a crappie on a Tip Down.

    http://s947.photobucket.com/albums/ad317/cmherrmann/?action=view&current=fishing032.mp4

    mrCROWLEY138
    La Crosse, WI
    Posts: 49
    March 10, 2011 at 12:42 am #945657

    I’ve had the same propblem with the Sure Strike tip down I bought recently. I have my home made ones that I love and work great but was curious to try the commercial ones as well. I can’t get the thing to ballance at all. I’ll have to keep working on it I guess.

    icenutz
    Aniwa, WI
    Posts: 2540
    March 10, 2011 at 1:07 am #945672

    Quote:

    I’ve had the same propblem with the Sure Strike tip down I bought recently. I have my home made ones that I love and work great but was curious to try the commercial ones as well. I can’t get the thing to ballance at all. I’ll have to keep working on it I guess.

    Are those the Sure Strike Tip Downs from Fleet Farm? I think they have the balance rod too far toward the tip of the pole. You want it to tip very easy. I think it is better to have it tip too easy and have to add a little weight to the handle end than the other way around.

    Glad they stole our design, the least they could of done was change something!!

    Ingy
    Posts: 135
    March 10, 2011 at 12:13 pm #945772

    Quote:

    I’ve had the same propblem with the Sure Strike tip down I bought recently. I have my home made ones that I love and work great but was curious to try the commercial ones as well. I can’t get the thing to ballance at all. I’ll have to keep working on it I guess.

    That’s the one I have too(fleet farm version)! Maybe I’ll try re-drilling the hole in the handle to see if I can get it working better.

    icenutz
    Aniwa, WI
    Posts: 2540
    March 10, 2011 at 1:09 pm #945790

    Quote:

    Quote:

    I’ve had the same propblem with the Sure Strike tip down I bought recently. I have my home made ones that I love and work great but was curious to try the commercial ones as well. I can’t get the thing to ballance at all. I’ll have to keep working on it I guess.

    I use Aluminum Ties for chain link fence as the balance rod for mine. I put it through right where the bottom of the reel and the pole handle first come together. You can see it in the pics here in the first picture.

    http://s947.photobucket.com/albums/ad317/cmherrmann/Tip%20downs/

    That’s the one I have too(fleet farm version)! Maybe I’ll try re-drilling the hole in the handle to see if I can get it working better.

    mrCROWLEY138
    La Crosse, WI
    Posts: 49
    March 10, 2011 at 2:32 pm #945820

    I left the balance rod where it was and just moved the reel back. Works all right

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