When you think you've taken the right steps to ship out a newly built rod, it arrives broken. Shipped a beautiful 13 1/2 ft float rod last week. Even went through the trouble finding 3 inch pvc pipe, bubble wrapped it, used pvc end caps, one end cemented on the other on with gorilla tape. Sent it through USPS , arrived on time. looks like someone used it as a crow bar or wrestled it out of a tight place. Tube had a bad kink in it and the bottom section had 2 flattened guides and the section itself was broken in half. Weirdest thing is the top section is totally untouched , no bent guides and not a scratch .Guess it was more flexible cause it didn't break.
Guess next time i'll have to use schedule 40 PVC and pay a higher shipping rate because of the weight. At least I insured it , now to go through the process with the post office to collect. I'm sure this is going to be a project in itself.

Fishing is not a matter of life or death, it's much more important than that

John,
1. You did insure the rod for at least the cost that the client will pay for the rod?

2. Thin Wall pvc is just fine for shipping rods. If a thin wall gets crushed in a conveyor it iw quite likely that the schedule 40 or the schedule 80 will be crushed as well.

Best wishes

Another option for shipping is Southwest Cargo. The client will have to pick up at the airport though. I think it is animals that handle our packages sometimes. Just about any long package with rods or blanks in it will arrive with some type of damage.

Roger, yes I insured it for the full price of the rod.
When I get this next one finished I'm delivering it by hand out in Ohio. Meeting up with him for some steelhead fishing.
People just don't care and the post office has been a nightmare this past year.

Fishing is not a matter of life or death, it's much more important than that

John (and others),
When shipping anything, “ship happens “. I am not attempting to defend USPS or any other carrier for that matter. But the long yet skinny dimensions of rods/blanks being shipped are certainly more prone to damage than the typically-dimensional packages. Yes, agreed, anything shipped should arrive in-tact, but again, “ship happens”. I feel it has more to do with automation than careless personal handling; Roger is probably correct in that even schedule 80 PVC might not have survived automated handling in this case. Shipping “is what it is” and all we can do is adequately insure the package to minimize the impact if and when “ship happens”. Consider not purchasing a Lotto ticket this week.

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

On shipping a rod that you made , make sure to cover's the whole rod , not just the cost of the bits an blank as your ""TIME AN LABOR "" is worth some thing , as stated before "" SHIP "" happen's all the time
for the most part the carries do a good job at doing it , as I see it ,

William Sidney
AK

John,

I've had two rods (only two, thankfully) damaged during shipment. FedEx killed the first one, Southwest Air (not Cargo) broke the tip on the other one when I used it as checked baggage during a flight. Both were shipped in Schedule 40 PVC and it was obvious that they had been damaged by a conveyor. The FedEx rod was insured for retail value, the price of which covered my materials and labor adequately. Southwest Air would have covered the damage to the tip on #2, but I didn't file a claim in time, which was my oversight. Since then I've been lucky not to have any damage to shipped rods. I always use either PVC; usually Schedule 40, but have also used the heavy 1/2" thick cardboard tubing that manufacturers often use if I can get my hands on it. I also mark it heavily with a wide tip felt pen as "FRAGILE- GLASS- DO NOT CONVEY" on both sides of the tube. I don't know if it really helps, but I haven't had any problems since. And I refuse to ship anything USPS.

Dave