# Van Staal vs. Zeebaas



## Pair-a-Dice (Jan 20, 2009)

I have owned both reels and would have to say that the Zeebaas is the finest Spinning reel i have ever used, with being able to apply 35 pds of drag against the VSwhich maybe only able to supply maybe 20pds you can really put the heat on the bigger fish. As far as Maint. the VS you have to send back since it is a sealed case and in about 6 months you "might" recieve it back and it "might" not be in as good as condition you sent it in at...(my brother sent his in and it took 1 year to get it back and they said they couldnt fix it, plus the reel casing was scared up from them putting it in a vice.) The Zeebaas you can service yourself in about 5 minutes and it still keep its lifetime warranty. Price difference between thetwo i believe is about $250 but if you think about it, its really worth it...by the time your VS is 2 years old you will have more than $1000 in it after sending it off to get service so it retains its lifetime warranty. The other kick ass thing is that with the Zeebaas you really have 2 reels in 1 if your purchase a spare spool of a different diameter, the 25&27 use the same rotor and the 20&22 use the same rotor so it has the ability to handle a wide variety of fish in about the 5 seconds it takes to swap the spools out! The best part Zeebaas is that if you call them you acutally talk to the guy that built the reel, they are a small business and you get great customer service with the reel, as for VS i have owned them for 10 years and i can say that their customer service inmy brother andIcases they have been horrible. I hope that helps anyone with any ideas of purchasing either one of these two reels!!!


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## rigrunner05 (May 8, 2008)

can anyone around get them? or do you have to order? i would love to see one...I've seen them in magazines but thats it ...I need a new reel for Cobia season...


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## Pair-a-Dice (Jan 20, 2009)

as far as i know you have to order one, i have yet to see one in a tackle store...


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## Travis Gill (Oct 6, 2007)

One ot my buddies got a Zeebass last year and I was very unimpressed with it


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## off route II (Sep 28, 2007)

i've got a closet full of VS of all different sizes and i've had some ofthem for a lot of years. never had to send one back and never had an issue. i see people posting on here about sending them back, what goes wrong with them and what am i to expect sooner or later?


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## Dylan (Apr 15, 2008)

They send them back because in order to maintain the warranty it must be serviced by VS once a year..


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## Drew Mixon (Oct 4, 2007)

once you tool for production, its tough for a small business to change all the machining. the original van was a fantastic reel. still is, pretty much. but, by turning over to zebco, richard was allowed to use the liquidity to develop the ideas he developed while producing the original reel. those ideas came to fruition with the zeebaas. by not being tied to the original product, he could let those innovations flow into the new reel. sometimes its great to turn over your product line toa larger parent. zebco has the means to reduce costs of the reel by using their leverage to reduce material costs, and marketing under their established program. and it allows the 'inventor' to go on to develop his next idea. 

i love the zeebaas. i'd have a quiver of 'em if i had the means. and the greatest selling feature--other than the obvious quality, is the user servicability. that rocks.

cheers.

drew


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## true-king (Oct 2, 2007)

I didn't have trouble with the van staal service. The case came loose on my reel, which gave me an incentive to send it in for yearly maintenance anyway. I got it back in about three weeks with no problems.


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## Pair-a-Dice (Jan 20, 2009)

i agree, the only VS that i had that was worth a damn was the original although i paid about $150 less for it brand new than the reels sell for now. we had 1 sent back to us in pieces and damaged the casing greatlysaying they couldnt fix it, after having it a full year, i took it back to my service department and had an automtive techincian break the shaft free (it was lock up was the only issue). We then sent it back to VS and they replaced part of the casing and the internal components which was good of them but now the casing is 2 diffrent gold colors and we were just very unimpressed with the customer service.


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## Pair-a-Dice (Jan 20, 2009)

> *Freespool (2/17/2009)*One ot my buddies got a Zeebass last year and I was very unimpressed with it


what made you unimpressed with the Zeebaas?


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## Pair-a-Dice (Jan 20, 2009)

> *off route II (2/17/2009)*i've got a closet full of VS of all different sizes and i've had some ofthem for a lot of years. never had to send one back and never had an issue. i see people posting on here about sending them back, what goes wrong with them and what am i to expect sooner or later?


These were my experiences with VS, im not saying they are all like this ...just in my case they were, just like with anythingpeople have good and bad experiences


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## pcolafisherman (Feb 3, 2009)

There both really good reels.


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## Tyler Massey (Oct 2, 2007)

> *Pair-a-Dice (2/17/2009)*
> 
> 
> > *Freespool (2/17/2009)*One ot my buddies got a Zeebass last year and I was very unimpressed with it
> ...


Our friend purchased the biggest one they make and he had a few problems with it from the begining. The spool would rub up aginst the body of the reel and cause the drag to stick and the rubber rings on the handle also fell off after a short time of use. I think he sent it back in and they replaced the part that rubbed.

Another thing i didn't like about it was the drag nob being the whole top of the reel i couldn't get used to that and every time i would go to move the manuel i would adjust the drag.


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## Pair-a-Dice (Jan 20, 2009)

i would agree that the drag is easy to adjust, i havent accidentally bumped it yet but i will keep my eye on the rubber handle..


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