I have what may be a stupid question. I just placed an order for my next build and it includes an Alps MVT casting reel seat. The only casting reels seats that I've installed that were the type of seat that needed to be ordered to fit the blank, have been Pac Bay Minima casting seats. I've always just fitted the thread barrel with a urethane foam arbor and reamed it to fit.

I'm assuming the thread barrel portion of an MVT reel seat would require, or at least could accept the same type of arbor?

I guess what I'm asking is ....... how have you that have used the MVT reel seat, installed them?

I'll definitely appreciate any tips or tricks that are shared.

Thanks folks !!!

Mr. Baylor,
All of our MVT, TX16, and GTB reel seats have splines that reduce the threaded barrel portion of the reel seat body to that of the rear (butt side) of the reel seat. So no arbor should be needed.
Our split reel seat barrels come with a shim pre-glued in the barrel (both aluminum and graphite) for easy install.
One tip about ordering the right size; always order the I.D. size slightly smaller than your blank's O.D. where the reel seat will go. Example: blank O.D. at install location is 12.4mm, order reel seat I.D. size 12.0mm. The reel seats exposure area needs to fit either perfectly or have a slight press fit. Otherwise gluing will be a mess. Reaming of the reel seat may be necessary to achieve the appropriate fit. Fine cut rat tail files and small Dremel-style drum sanders work better for this than using your coarse grit cork reamer. Hope this helps out. Enjoy the build.

-The Batson TEAM
BatsonEnterprises.com

Mr Staples,

Thank you very much for your response, it is very much appreciated. I'm happy to hear your description concerning the construction of the MVT seat. That eases my mind quite a bit. It seems that the install will be very straight forward.

I ordered the seat from Utmost Enterprises today, along with an Immortal IMMC73ML blank and am having them fit the seat to the blank at a specified distance. My experience with Utmost has been fantastic, and I have no doubt that they'll get me the right reel seat for the blank.

Once again, thank you for responding, as well as for the tips about fitting the reel seat. Both are very much appreciated.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/2016 12:06PM by David Baylor.

Comments deleted



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2016 04:33PM by John E Powell.

I agree John. There's a few like that we've been discussing. I'll mention it to the Marketing guys.

-The Batson TEAM
BatsonEnterprises.com

I received my order from Utmost on Saturday, and discovered something about the MVT reel seat that is going to be a problem for me. The thing is just too darn sweet, and I'm going to be spending a lot more money on reel seats in the future. I guess that's not the worst problem to have though.

One of my concerns when I was ordering it, other than how the thread barrel was going to fit, was whether or not the knurled nut and locking nut was going to be uncomfortable. As I haven't fished with the completed rod yet, I have a bit of a hung jury on that aspect. I do plan on leaving the locking nut off though. It just feels weird.

Anyhow .... I have an additional question for those that have used this reel seat. How do you handle the space between the spines inside the thread barrel? Once you epoxy the seat to the blank, do you fill those spaces in with epoxy? Or do you simply put on your fore grip?

I'm not using a fore grip per say, I cut the majority of the thread barrel off, and I'm just using a 1/4" thick EVA nub that I turned down so its O.D. matches that of the thread barrel. That way when I need to put on or take off the reel, the nut will slide over a the nub.

I'm concerned about the possibility of water getting into the reel seat if I don't at least seal the end with epoxy. But if I just seal the end, should I be concerned about air that is trapped inside expanding from the heat of the sun, and causing me problems down the road?

Any thoughts shared will be greatly appreciated.