Any creative in-vehicle rod storage out there?

I'm bouncing back & forth how to store my rods along the ceiling in my 2dr Blazer (beater vehicle used for boat towing and winter driving) so that my two kids and three dogs don't get into them when we're traveling around.

I'm sure I'm not the first person on this site to have pondered over addressing this, I've tried bungees strung from oh-#*&!-bar to oh-#*&!-bar and there's just too much slop with them sliding side to side and bouncing up & down. I'm fairly tall too, so keeping everything tight to the ceiling is a must. The setups from BassPro seem to be more of the same bungee style rigs, so I'm not keen on them. I was thinking of running 3/4" PVC mounted to bows run side to side along the headliner and notching out the tubes at the end like you would a rod holder on a saltwater rig, but that's a lot of material to have hung all over and I didn't want to go that route if someone has come up with something cleaner.

I fashioned my own using two 1x4 size boards and some aluminum "L" brackets. Use a hole saw to cut a hole and a key way on each board.

Screw the set up into the roof and you have a rod carrier system. In my Ford Explorer i was good to a 10' rod and made a system that carried up to 8 rods at a time



You can also go with locking ski racks on the roof - that is what a lot of surf guys use here

I'm trying to keep the rods inside - we've got a long vacation road-trip coming up and we'll have some over-night stays along the way so I need to secure everything - that and I'd never store a rod outside the car, one ill-placed loose stone and a guide or the rod itself is toast.

what about those steel rods you hang stuff on by the hangers in vehicle

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onthewater102 said:

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Probably the closet poles you see in cars sometimes that attach to the coat-hook hanger above each rear passenger door.

yeah - but the ones i've seen are **** flexible mounts that sag in the middle where my kids will easily get hold of them...i'm thinking making something out of wood is going to be my best option.

the closet rod thing sounds more realistic . . .
get a 1/2" conduit pipe from the Big Box Store, cut it to size,
drill a hole in each end, some electrical wire, bingo-bango done.
I guess you could drill holes a few inches apart along the conduit to make some
wire ties to hold the rods from sliding around.
I know PVC will be sag - so that's out

my problem is that I have a '96 Jeep Cherokee XJ and a 7' one piece rod must
ride on the top. I can store it inside as it will fit from the tail gate to the dash.

I think I will give the clothes rod thing more thought - - - it will not bother me to
drill some holes or make some brackets in the plastic frame along the roof line inside.

I remember these tourist Snow Birds driving in their big Cadillac with about 75 pounds of
suits and dresses hanging on one of those clothes hanging bars with no sagging !! :LMFAO:

I used pvc pipe to build one for my Suburban but the poles do sag in the middle. My mounting points were farther away than I would have liked and it rides so rough that sometimes a pole will work loose but not too often. Used this in the back.





To make this.



Used a bit of 550 cord for the front. Some larger pvc that the poles can go through would be best and with the shorter Blazer you're hangers are going to be closer together. Might work great. Although mine could use some tweaking and are somewhat crappy, it's much better than worrying about the dog getting hooked in the foot or tangling the poles up.

Edit: Just to clarify the pvc doesn't sag at all. The 550 is way up front and the poles sag down in the middle because the mounts are too far apart.

Yeah - between the dog and the kids there are a lot of reasons to keep everything as high as possible - I really like the 4-way coupler PVC setup for the back - just gotta find what pipe size fits the guides on my spinning rods. Awesome design - and budget friendly too

Here's what I did...take 2 "closet rod things" and zip tie DuBro holders to them. The DuBro has rings on one bracket and clips on the other, but don't use the clips, order a set of extra rings for both. Then zip tie the closet rod/DuBro assemblies to the coat hooks in the truck, one in back, one near the rear seats. Use a bungee cord across the back to keep the rods from slipping forward.

I've got a pic around here somewhere, I'll see if I can find it.

Not great pics, but hopefully you'll get the general idea. Ignore the velcro strips, those are just hanging there. To load the rods you run them thru the front ring first, then pull the rod butt back into the front-side of the rear ring. I used a DuBro clip on each end of the rear assembly to clip the bungee cord in, which goes across the reel feet, and it keeps the rods from slipping forward when you stop. You'll have to space the rear rings based on the width of your reels, but the front rings can be side-by-side in the middle since only tips are up there.

We have a couple of these. Have worked well and have lasted for years.
https://www.basspro.com/Rod-Tote/product/7558/

RivRunR said:

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Not great pics, but hopefully you'll get the general idea. Ignore the velcro strips, those are just hanging there. To load the rods you run them thru the front ring first, then pull the rod butt back into the front-side of the rear ring. I used a DuBro clip on each end of the rear assembly to clip the bungee cord in, which goes across the reel feet, and it keeps the rods from slipping forward when you stop. You'll have to space the rear rings based on the width of your reels, but the front rings can be side-by-side in the middle since only tips are up there.

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I see someone is a daiwa fan.

I LOVE my daiwa capricorn.

Actually, all of those are Shimano.

Shame

I've just put a cap on my crew cab and trying to figure out best transport ideas myself........