How do you transport your fishing rods?

[Todd n Natalie]

The cast aluminum locking hatch and U bolt bracket are used on service trucks and are called conduit carriers. Try searching "8 inch conduit carrier kit". The ones I use are made by Buyers. I dont recommend the 6 inch version- too small. The aluminum tubing I got online from DX Engineering. Go to "departments" then "rigid tubing". The have many diameters and lengths available and also have fiberglass tubing. I bought 1.875 in OD/ .058" wall tubing in 6 ft lengths and spliced them together with a 2.000" OD (1.884" ID) splice tube and epoxy because the shipping cost more than the tubing does if you order longer than 6 ft. The grey piece is 8 inch PVC. PVC is getting expensive, but this length often gets thrown away on large construction projects. Carrier kit- $95; 4 pieces 1.875" OD 6ft tubing- $110; 1 pc 2.000 OD tube 3 ft- $16. various 1-1/2 in PVC fittings- the ID of schedule 40 pvc is 1.900" so the 1.875 OD aluminum fits real nice when you epoxy it together- $15. All in around $250, but try finding one that can hold a spey handled flyrod and a bait caster in one vault. Plus this thing is as bullet proof as the $500 vaults.

Thank you for the breakdown. I appreciate it.

 

[ButchW]

A couple of years I bought a 1986 Suzuki Samurai as a toad for my motor home, and to run to the beach for surf fishing... The Samurai is pretty short , but I wanted to carry my 2pc rods inside... I had about 5-1/2' of roof line to mount them in... 1st of all, there were only 3 overhead grab handles for the passengers, to mount to.. So I installed one more over the drivers side door, using jack nuts... It looks factory and is very sturdy... It worked out well... Then I bought a rack system off of Amazon... https://www.amazon.com/LITTLEMOLE-F...cphy=9031059&hvtargid=pla-1454310648947&psc=1 ...It is well made, and easily sturdy enough for my light weight 9-1/2' & 10', 2 pc rods... I pretty sure I could fit a 11', 2pc rod if I wanted ... I decided on a solid mount, as apposed to a web type, because there isn't a lot of room for movement in the tiny Samurai... Here is the final result...















Butch

 

[ButchW]

I carry the same two rods inside my truck's cab... Before I just laid one rod across my folded up rear bench seat of my extended cab 2008 GMC Sierra... That has worked fine for as long as I only carried only 1 rod, but recently I bought another heavier rod... One rod is a two piece 9-1/2", and the other is a two piece 10' ... Both will barely fit cross ways in my cab... So this is what I did..


1st I bought a Attwood Vertical Mount Rod Holder... It is a well made product of heavy rubber that wont scratch the rods.. It could have a little more spacing between the rods, because with reels attached, you can't get more than 2-3 rods on it... But for my purpose, it was fine... I then bought a piece of Kadex (You gun guys use this for pistol holsters) from McMaster-Carr to mount it to... I cut it to size and bent to shape, before mounting the holder to it (It is easy to work with)... I then used a quick connect strap I re-purposed from an old suitcase clothing tie-down... I hooked one end of the straps to the child seat tie-down loops behind the truck seat headrest... Once disconnected from the rod holder, these could be flipped out of the way...


























Butch