DIY Interior Fishing Rod/Pole Storage (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Jul 15, 2014
Threads
4
Messages
49
Location
Tahlequah, Oklahoma
I'm surprised I haven't seen more fishing rod setups in here. After a few half-hearted attempts to store all my fishing rods from my ceiling and being annoyed with them bouncing around on bungee cords and rope, or notched out dowels and bungees, here's my serious attempt at a stout storage option that didn't cost a ton of money. It holds 11 rods. I could've drilled the holes slightly smaller to maybe get another 2-3 in there, but this suits my needs just fine.

Still to do: While there is absolutely no play or bounce in the actual rack, I still need to staple a small bungee cord to the read of the rack that I can easily slip over a rod handle once it's inserted into the hole to keep it from rattling around.

1. I bought 1 stick of 1/8" x 1" steel 36 inches long and was able to cut it in half to span the distance from the front bolt of the rear grab handle to the spot I wanted it in the back.
1_Steel.jpg


2. The steel brackets cut and drilled:
2_Steel Cut and Drilled.jpg


3. Brackets test-fitted in:
3_Steel Bracket Test Fit.jpg


4. Wooden 1x4s cut down to size to match the ceiling shape:
4_Wood Cut and Routed.jpg


5. Finished product all mounted up. I bought the closest-matching color of rattle can I could find at Lowe's and gave it a couple coats.
5_Finished Empty.jpg
 
Last edited:
I'm surprised I haven't seen more fishing rod setups in here. After a few half-hearted attempts to store all my fishing rods from my ceiling and being annoyed with them bouncing around on bungee cords and rope, or notched out dowels and bungees, here's my serious attempt at a stout storage option that didn't cost a ton of money. It holds 11 rods. I could've drilled the holes slightly smaller to maybe get another 2-3 in there, but this suits my needs just fine.

Still to do: While there is absolutely no play or bounce in the actual rack, I still need to staple a small bungee cord to the read of the rack that I can easily slip over a rod handle once it's inserted into the hole to keep it from rattling around.

1. I bought 1 stick of 1/8" x 1" steel 36 inches long and was able to cut it in half to span the distance from the front bolt of the rear grab handle to the spot I wanted it in the back.
View attachment 2279722

2. The steel brackets cut and drilled:
View attachment 2279723

3. Brackets test-fitted in:
View attachment 2279724

4. Wooden 1x4s cut down to size to match the ceiling shape:
View attachment 2279726

5. Finished product all mounted up. I bought the closest-matching color of rattle can I could find at Lowe's and gave it a couple coats.
View attachment 2279727
For consistency sake:

I really like this!

The only thing I might do for my own purpose is to move the centers of the holes in the front rack together a bit so that all the rods are pointed to the center of the truck and not directly over my head (or the passenger's head). I sit pretty high in the seat and my head would be on those.

What keeps them in their hole when you're hard on the brakes? Will they tend to slide forward and end up in a pile? Or is that what the elastic bungee you're talking about would be for?
 
One more view to show the color match. I'm pretty pleased with it. The rack is VERY sturdy. So much so that I'm thinking about rigging up a fire extinguisher can mount on the rear, but I'll have to think on that.
6_Finished Side.jpg


View from the middle seat. I attached a small 2x4 to the 1x4 to give me extra real estate to screw to the steel bracket. I also put three large washers between the grab handle and the ceiling to give just a bit of extra room to hopefully prevent the bracket from rubbing on the ceiling and damaging the head liner. For that same reason, I also cut the rear rack about 1/2 an inch short to sort of suck the brackets in toward the middle, away from the ceiling liner as well.
7_Finished from mid.jpg



8_Loaded Rear Shot.jpg
9_Loaded Side.jpg


I have just enough room between the front rack and ceiling to get to the dome light switch.
And not pictured: I had to do a lot of test-fitting on the front rack to get it to fit well in the middle grab handles, and then I drilled a hole in the rack and secured it to the grab handles with a large zip tie.
12_Loaded from Front.jpg
 
For consistency sake:

I really like this!

The only thing I might do for my own purpose is to move the centers of the holes in the front rack together a bit so that all the rods are pointed to the center of the truck and not directly over my head (or the passenger's head). I sit pretty high in the seat and my head would be on those.


You can't really tell from the pics, but I did move the holes on the front rack in a bit to give it more of an angle in toward the front. I probably could have done it a little more though.
 
For consistency sake:

What keeps them in their hole when you're hard on the brakes? Will they tend to slide forward and end up in a pile? Or is that what the elastic bungee you're talking about would be for?

Here's a very crude idea of what the bungee would look like. I'm going to drill a hole in the end of the rack and leave enough cord to adjust the tension, then secure the bungee to the rack in between every hole with a staple (blue on the picture), at the bottom of the hole. Then as I install the rod handle, I can stretch the bungee of the handle to hold it down.

Bungee Idea.jpg
 
excellent work @LetUsHoldFast ! I have a bunch of fly rods in my 4runner that I keep like that but I use 2 nylon web daisy chain straps that are looped into the grab handles. Mine sags a bit and yours obviously would not.

Also you definitely need some sort of strap to hold them in place. I use hair ties that go over the butt ends. Otherwise they'll fly into the back glass when I take off
 
How does the front rack attach?

I use tie-down straps across each pair of grab handles. Twist the straps a few times to create loops to separate the rods. Not a beautiful as your solution though.
 
How does the front rack attach?

I use tie-down straps across each pair of grab handles. Twist the straps a few times to create loops to separate the rods. Not a beautiful as your solution though.

I cut and notched the front rack to get it into the middle grab handle as tightly as it could, and still high enough for my kiddos to use the handle to pull themselves in, then used from heavy black zip ties to secure. It's definitely the weakest point, but if it breaks, I always carry zip ties in my car.

View from the middle seat:
Front Rack 1.jpg
Front Rack 2.jpg


View from the front seat:
Front Rack 3.jpg
 

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