# Heavy Duty Rod transportation tube - EZ to make



## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

Ever bust a rod tip in your car during a roadtrip to a distant lake? Well I was heading to Canada for a quick trip with my son and didn't have a rod tube for my 7' muskie sticks.....No problem a quick trip to the big box store and a five minute assemby job and I had a HD 7 fooot rod storage tube for 4 rods for under $20.....

Bill of Material (Lowes)
1 10' x 4" Charlotte PVC Drainpipe* $10.29
1 4" PVC Cleanout Plug $2.70
1 4" PVC female Adapter $4.24
1 4" PVC Endcap $.95
Total $18.18 = tax
* Make sure you buy the lightweight PVC drainpipe not the heavy PVC sewage pipe.
You also need PVC cement/solvetn $3.87 if you don't have a can laying around.

You can have Lowe's or Home Depot cut the pipe for you or use a hacksaw or I used a sawzall to cut the pipe to the length of my longest rod. I made sure everything fit together before cutting. Make sure you cut frrom the right end. I cut off a 3'foot length that contained the flared bell as the parts I picked up fit the smaller end of the pipe. I like using the cleanout as a secure way to open the tube to insert rods and to close the tube. You could cheap out and just buy 2 end caps and only glue one cap but I like the screw plug option. DON"T GLUE THE PLUG, just glue the adapter and end cap....LOL

Options: You can fit a piece of foam in the end cap (before glueing) to give you rod tips additional protection.

You can cut a couple of 8-10" pieces of leather from an old belt to make a handle to pop rivet to the tube. Or the deluxe route would be to buy a couple yak handles to pop riviet to the tube.

Bottom Line - this was a quick project and safely tranported the rods in the car to Canada and back.


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## silver shad (Jun 18, 2006)

Thanks Snakecharmer great tip.


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## Weekender#1 (Mar 25, 2006)

Measure twice and cut once. 
Check the length of the longest rod you are taking before cutting the tubee !


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

Weekender#1 said:


> Measure twice and cut once.
> Check the length of the longest rod you are taking before cutting the tubee !


Yep. I took my longest rod and held it along the outisde of the tube and marked the tube with a sharpie.... About 2 seconds with the sawzall and the tube was cut nice and straight. I'm pretty sure you can cut that pipe with a crosscut saw too.


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## saugmon (Jun 14, 2006)

I made 1 exactly the same way,without the handle and extra padding many,many years ago.I broke my favorite 7' eagle claw black diamond II taking it to kentucky back in the late 80's.
It easily handled 4 rods up to 7' during transport.They're not expensive rods and I'd put 2 in 1 direction and the other 2 in the opposite direction. I never had a broken rod or tip after that.

I never thought about a handle for it.I'd probably get a handle like on my cornhole boards and shape them to the tube,then use hose clamps.


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