Used to, it was no problem to find good two piece rods. Now, it seems that most of the rods I’m interested in are one piece and mostly 7’ or longer. That presents a problem in transporting them. I’ve a GMC Sonoma (S-10 type) and the bed is only 6 ft. So, my rods have to lay diagonally. Plus, its not a gentle ride for them and I prefer to rig them before I leave the house. Saves time and I get it right. I’m looking for a better way to carry my rods.
I have Yakima racks on my camper cover. They have the long cross bars. I’ve looked at the Thule rod carrier, but don’t really like the fact that much of the rod remains exposed. Plus, its a bit expensive. Haven’t found any other rod carriers that fit the bill. I want to carry the rods on my racks. Has anyone built a rod carrier for mounting on racks? Plans? My longest rod these days is 7’6" and I’m looking at acquiring a 9’ rod.
Have you thought
about making a rod carrier out of 4 inch PVC? You can glue one end cap on and slip the other on and fasten it with a screw or small clevis pin. Then carry the PVC on your rack.
I’ve done that years ago. Used the pvc
pipe to store a bunch of rods around. But, it doesn’t offer a good way to carry rigged rods…I usually take three, two medium wt rods rigged for catfish and one ultralight rigged to catch bluegill for bait, or, in the late spring until late October, for eating purposes. Don’t really want to have three 4" pvc pipes on top.
May not work for you
I’ve got a home built kayak rack in my truck, based on the “Quick N Easy” stands over the cab and then a frame at the rear of the truck. I ran steel pipe the length of the truck to have tie off locations anywhere I want. I drilled holes down through the 2x4’s and made loops of thin diameter rope and put fender washers against the knot so that they can’t pull through. Then I used some El Cheapo wall mount rod holders and mounted them to plywood, drilled holes through the plywood and put line loops through those. Now, all I have to do is clip the line loops together with ‘biners and I can hold eight rods up to 10’ long on my truck suspended over the bed and cab.
- Big D
Sounds like a good way to carry long rod
I’m considering building a plywood box, 10 ft long to carry the rods. Probably use one of the Berkley rod holders to secure them. Another idea is to build a small box and use 1 1/2" PVC pipe to put each rod into. The box would hold, protect the reels. Just haven’t figured out how to attach the PVC to the box yet. I do know that if I had a surf rod to carry, I’d just carry it on top of the racks sans reel.
Yakima Multimount
Given you already have a Yakima setup, you could get a Multimount. It is intended to carry paddles on the rack. The Yakima website says it can hold up to a 5” diameter object. You could secure a store-bought or DIY PVC-type rod holder with it.
Good luck with whatever you choose.
PVC Pipe
I know you don't want to use PVC pipe, but I watched a guy build a really cool roof-top rod carrier from PVC pipe. I didn't measure the pipe, so I have to guess, but what he did was:
1. He took 4 lengths of pipe, maybe 2 inches in diamenter, with both ends threaded, and then glued PVC spacers between each of then. The spacers were maybe 5 or 6 inches wide, trimed with a hand saw so that they could be glued on to the sides of the larger pipe.
2. Then he glued on end-caps on one end of the 2 inch pipe.
3. Then he threaded and glued on a funnel like piece of pipe, to neck up the one end. (He used a short piece of connector pipe so all he did was apply glue to the threads of the connector and just screwed on the pieces.)
4. Then he glued a larger pipe to one end, that he lined with a foam sheet that he bought from a hobby shop.
5. Once the carrier was done, he glued on multiple sets of legs on the 2 inch pipe that hade little holes drilled on the end legs. When I say multiple, what I mean is that there were at least 24 legs glued on. When I watched him build it, the number of legs seemed excessive, but when he was done, it made sense.
6. He then put rubber chair caps on the little legs.
7. After he was done, it fit on his mini-van roof, and he secured it by running electrical wire ties through the little holes that he drilled on the leg sets that straddled the roof rack cross bars.
He told me that the biggest pain is hand cutting the spacers and legs so that they stood flush on the larger pipe. (He had them all cut when I watched him put it all together).
He told me the key was to order all of the pipe from a plumbing supply company. He said they cut all of the pipe to length and threaded it at nominal cost.
Good idea.
I’ve given thougt to multiple 2" thick pvc pipe carriers. Its not pvc I have problems with…very protective environment for rods, but I want to carry them rigged. With modifications, your suggestion may work. Think I’d look at some other way to do the spacers, though.
Rod Carriers
Hi Jeri:
The rods are carried rigged. That is why there is a larger pipe attached to one end that the guy lined with foam. It is also why he need to put legs and spacers on the 2 inch PVC pipe, to help to off-set the height difference (but the legs were shorter than the height difference because the slope of the minivan roof helped).
What I noticed when I watched him put all of the pieces together is the difference in pipe wall.