What is the best to ship a rod wanting to find something lighter than pvc

Drain pipe, the lighter cousin of PVC pipe. You can find it in the same section of your local hardware store.

I was wondering, what about folding a big piece of cardboard, like the rods blanks I get , what I mean is like using bubble wrap and paper stuffing, and tape it up, with a piece of really thick cardboard taped on the bash for support, seems to mre it would work and would cost less. just curious.

Hi Bucky,
Whatever you ship them in make sure you pack the blank or rod with newspaper so they don't get banged around on the inside of the tube.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia

Bucky,
Triangular boxes made of cardboard are incredibly strong and work very well for shipping rods.

If I am shipping a dozen or more rods at a time, I just use a cardboard box of the appropriate size to ship the rods. I always pack each rod in its own plastic sleeves that I seal up. Of course, bubble wrap around the rod/s take care of any bouncing around.

The note about the drain pipe works well. The only problem with drain pipe is that it is not as stiff as some of the other materials. But, I have shipped quite a few rods in drain pipe for the reasons mentioned above.

By the way- normally the weight of the container is normally not a large part of the shipping equation. Normally the balloon charge for the long length completely out weighs the actual weight of the package.

REW

On top of using the drain tube, I have got to where I use the foam tubes like you would use on an AC or copper tubing. It has a slit in it and can be sealed if you want, but usually just put a few wraps of tape on it. If I ship a spinning rod, I just cut inserts in the tubing for the bigger guides and pad just the guide. Saves me a ton of time and the foam cost is cheap.

Black ABS pipe is cheap and significantly lighter than PVC. The 2 inch diameter works for fly rods, and most spinning rods will fit in a 3 inch diameter pipe. I mail some of my rods back and forth to Alaska every year and have never had a problem. As I recall, it costs about $25 to send 2 rods in a 3" x 55" ABS tube priority mail. Regular mail would likely be even cheaper.

It's pretty tough and much better protection than cardboard in longer lengths.

I have purchased many many rods during mourning after my wife passed. I would never ever ship a rod or a rod blank except in some hard tube. "EVERY" triangular cardboard box from the post office I received had a significant crinkle....or crease about 18" down from the top. They must stack them on end and stack stuff on top. I have taken pictures to prove it to doubters. Just had a hard drive crash. New hard drive.....lost pics. Will recover them from old hard drive soon. One of the triangular boxes was so torn at the same exact place.......that it was only being held together on one side by aboout 1.5" of cardboard. You could simply tilt it back and look inside. Now if any of the fibers inside the graphite rod were injured during shipping you may not see it or know it. But when the fish is on....kapow! Rod breaks. I would only use something as strong as PVC schedule 40 or an aluminum tube. Other suggestions probably work. But I would never ship one without a tube. Just my experience.

I have never had a problem shipping rods in a tri-angle box I do use four bends instead of three to make the tri-angle plus I also stuff news paper around the rod , some times I use paper towel rolls to sheath the rod , one thing , I always use , is the U.S.P.S. rather than the alternatives , the U.S.P.S. has a lower "crash rate" for me none . Larry

Simply put, as long as the shipping containers are not "abused" during shipping; almost any reasonable shipping container will be just fine.
But, if a shipping container gets caught in a conveyor - the shipping container will break - no matter the material. Many of the conveyors are hundreds of feet long - powered by multi hp motors. Nothing as small as a shipping rod container for a fishing rod will stop a shipping conveyor.

I had gone for several years and have never had the misfortune of ever having any damage done to a rod, or receiving materials that were being shipped to me in a damaged state.

But one summer, every single shipper - USPS, UPS and Fed Ex in just a matter of weeks, each snapped a shipping container for blanks that I was receiving. Fortunately, these were all receiving blanks and not shipping completed rods.

In each case, it appeared that the container had gotten caught in a conveyor and had been bent exactly double. Of course, everything in each container had snapped at the bend in the container.

One container was thin wall PVC. One container was schedule 40, and one container was a cardboard tube. Each container broke in the identical way, and each had its contents destroyed 100%. Fortunately - insurance was on 2 of the 3 containers.

Each package came from a different location in the world, so it is not very likely that each package was caught in the same conveyor.

So, I still believe that as long as reasonable care is used for packing and shipping and as long as package is shipped with reasonable care and NOT caught in a conveyor, it is very likely that the package will be received in an undamaged state.

Be safe
REW