Brother:
With the shaft all the way down, the spinner has to go "uphill", if it is set to spin away from the flag end and towards the spring end. Also, the spring end has no "give" to it, while the flag end does, at least with the original polar tipups. As a result, the flag end will flex down as the spinner turns, thereby decreasing the resistance. The attached end is fixed, therefore the spinner actually has to bend the flag pole itself, in order to trip. Again, my experience is with the original Polar, but when I set it both ways and then pulledd the line by hand to trip the flag, the difference between the two sets was noticable.