I seriously need to get sleeves, or cloth.. Something.. I am planing on getting a rod vault soon enough here.. But they are hard to fond for 7' 2 -piece rods... I have a really cool leather fold for the fenwick... Wife made it for me.. Unfortunatly we are out of leather.. What do you guys use? I waa thinking of finding the material that the brand, frog togs, uses they have this like.. Papery, plasticy, nylon...y.. Stuff they make thier rain gear with... I think my 3 forks cabelas 4 pc. Rod has the same material in its roll.. Im not a fan of tubes... Or wool.. Suggestions?

Are you talking about a cloth rod "sock".
If so, REC will make custom sizes. More trouble than it's worth making them yourself.
Herb

Awesome.. Thank you herb.. They can make what i need for about what it would end up costing me to make it myself.. And it seems the material i was looking for is tweed.. I guess.. One thing i dont get.. Whats the big deal with those rod sleeves? Or socks, or glove.... as they are also advertized, more accurately, as braided mesh tube.. They seem like they could cause more harm then good.. To the guides atleast.. Its like a giant chinese finger trap

Anthony,
Have you checked out the cloth socks on sale at Schneider's in the Hot Specials section? I have some upholstery grade velvet socks that are decades old and still in great shape, the gingham I've tried over the years abades at the guide frame on spinning rods fairly quickly. Ripstop nylon works, but harder to find in some places.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2018 10:53AM by Spencer Phipps.

I have not, but will now lol

Rod tubes are what one would slip rod sleeves into since rod sleeves offer no real protection from a crushing force . Rod sleeves are a lightweight protection and as long as there aren't any heavy objects that can fall onto the sleeve they offer good protection .

That makes "cents".. You just never see them for sale sitting outside a tube..

If you value your rod's you need a Hard tube to protect it , lots out there . there is one person in Col. that makes them as well , Mud hole can hook you up also , they farm them out to a rod case maker
lot of sizes an a good unit , if you look around there are more do a search if you don't want to spend the money make a hard tube out of plastic water pipe , it is cheaper but a lot more weight

William Sidney
AK

Ive been looking into rod vaults.. Hard plastic multi rod box with heavy duty latchs.. I almost always have 3 rods on me.. But 2 are 7'... Tgey make a vault thats half decent for 50$, but is 40" long.. The next size up is 42", but 170$ kind of a unrealistic jump for 2"

Ive had a few rod tubes.. One was retractable.. Needless to say, it retracted once with the rod in it.. Good by tip top... Since then ive been turned off from all tubes... Plus they tend to roll around... So im looking for box or cloth style



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2018 02:27PM by Anthony Unger.

Woodstream/Fenwick made a plastic case that looked like a rifle/shotgun case, 3 latches and each had a padlock tab. They weren't expensive and look a little beat, but 30 years later I passed them on to the kids and their family to keep their rods in and I use aluminum tubes, or my big multi-rod Alaska proof tube.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2018 06:00PM by Spencer Phipps.

PVC 4x4 fence post 8 ft long for around $20 and can hold many rods and no rolling around. Can even use the pvc fence post as caps for on the cheap. Somebody can surely make it look nice covered in a nice covering with wood caps.

If you want a case to protect a bunch of rods, just take a 4 inch thinwall or DW pvc pipe and cut it to be about 3 inches longer than the longest rod that you want to store. You can store a dozen rods in such a piece of pipe if you lay 1/2 of the rods in butt first, and the other 1/2 dozen in tip first. Lay the rods up together with the correct orientation, and slip the bunch of rods into the piece of pipe at the same time. Then you can use two pipe caps to top off the case. You can either use a pressure fit, or sand a bit off of the ends of the pipe and tape the caps onto the rod.

But, in later years, since I did not need the protection of the pvc pipe, I simply made an 8 foot long bag of about 4 inches in diameter from heavy duty rip stop nylon with a long flap cover for the open end. After inserting the rods, I fold the flap over and tie the strings on the flap to hold the cover closed. When not using the bag, I simply roll it up into a very small area for storage. I have a heavy duty industrial sewing machine so making any sort of bags or doing upholstery work is an easy thing to do.

If traveling to a fishing destination as in a cabin, I will also bring along some rod racks. For my rod building, I have several 12 inch stool tops that I picked up from a surplus store for 50 cents each. I then take a forstner bit to drill holes in the top 3/4 of the way through of a size to accommodate 12 inch lengths of pvc pipe of a size that is a slightly larger fit of the rod butts of my fishing rods. i carry the rod holders disassembled in a compact case. When I get to the destination, I put the top on the floor, insert the pvc pipes and am able to store 10-15 rods without reels. Or, with reels, I can store about 8-9 rods in a vertical position that takes up very little space.

After a day of fishing, I always bring the rods in from the boat, so that I can go over each of the rods, and do any maintenance on the reel, rigging, or terminal tackle for the next day of fishing. Also, if it has been a day with a lot of heavy weather, rain and waves and or bugs, I will take the opportunity to clean up the rods and reels so that they are fresh and ready for use the next morning.

As the trip ends, I remove the reels, remove the rods from the rack and restow the bare rods back in the nylon case, and put the disassembled rod rack into the case for it and journey home.

Good luck

PVC Tube cut to size with at least one removable end. You can make a sleeve with clothe or any other material to put it in if you want to get fancy.

Sage has some 4 and 6 inch round tubes in two length, most expensive around $70 would be interesting to see what it' s built out of.

ABS plastic pipe is the stuff to use. It's lighter than PVC and very strong and tough. Most of my rod cases are ABS and the few that are not are thin wall PVC which use the same fittings.

Thin wall PVC works well too.

I've even recently put travel rods in PVC down spout which works great. (Just back from a trip to AK with travel rods in downspout! No issues)

Fly rods are easy because they generally travel in 2 inch PVC. Spin rods are harder since the first guide tends to be big. Rectangular PVC downspout works well for this since it can fit a larger guide on one side.

I'm not a big fan of pre-made and expensive rod tubes, but Landmark used to make nice tubes from Aluminum. Maybe they still do. But ABS plastic rocks.

So basically in a nutshell.. You all suggest some form of pvc piping.. Lol

Anthony,
This 3 inch pvc drain pipe is what I have been using for many years for both shipping as well as transporting fishing rod.
Inexpensive, light weight, easy to cut to length and caps for the pipe is also available.

Locally, I have found that Lowes is the only place that carries the pipe locally.

The key with this pvc pipe is that it is thinwall drain pipe and is not intended for high pressure use like schedule 40 or schedule 80 pipe.

No need to use the thicker and much heavier pipe for this purpose.

[www.lowes.com]

Caps:

[www.lowes.com]

I will typically get two caps for each pipe. Then, I will glue one cap in place and use tape if necessary to secure the other cap.

However, for self transport of rods, the caps will normally be fine with a friction tape and no glue or tape necessary.

Good luck

p.s.
You can use a wood saw, hack saw, band saw, jig saw, chop saw, abrasive cut off wheel saw or similar to cut this material.

If you happen to have a table or a skill saw, you can use a fine toothed saw blade in the saw. However, before using the saw, remove the blade and put the blade on backward. By putting the blade on backward, you can still easily cut the pvc material, but you will not catch the material on a forward facing saw blade tooth and tear out a piece of the pvc material from the end of the tube.

Good luck

I learned that trick doing roofing and sideing.. Vynl siding explodes if you dont turn the blade around.. Also after you cut pvc piping the best way to debur it is with a razor blade held at a 45° angle, dont cut into the pipe, pull the blade away from the cutting edge.. Works beautifully.. Learned that doing underground work as a high voltage electrician.. Last thing you want while pulling wire 6' underground is to find a burr that rips the wire jacket.. Could very well cause a explosion..