Rod Vault Install

[C6H12O6]

Just putting this up in case people want to be able to easily find it in a search. I will likely do a build thread for my truck at some point, but I'm excited about my new toy and I wanted to get this up.

I finally got my RodVault from Denver Outfitters. The wait sucked and their customer service leaves a little to be desired, but so far I'm pretty happy with it. They are doing $299 pre-sales, but I don't know that $299 isn't just the real price. I feel like I got a little suckered into ordering one when I did at the end of last summer, thinking I was getting in on a limited time discount, but the price has been the same ever since.

I was originally quoted a couple months for shipping when I placed the order in August, but I just got it last week. One blown delivery promise after another and a couple frustrating emails/online chat sessions had me a bit disgruntled, but I guess they're doing what they can to make them in the USA. Ultimately, worth the wait. I'm mostly fishing with spey rods this time of year anyway.

 

[C6H12O6]

I have some locking Yakima round load bars mounted to the stock rack. The RodVault bolts and locks to the bars, which were kind of necessary to lift the whole affair off the roof a bit more. I could have mounted it to the OEM rack, but it would have needed to go forward a bit farther to clear the wing.

The only thing I would probably like to do differently would be to have an aftermarket rack that extended farther to the front. The front load bar is still quite a ways back behind the sunroof, so there is a fair amount of tube sticking out in front of the first mount. It bounces a little, but doesn't seem like a deal breaker. A longer rack would allow the front mount to move farther forward, which would probably be better.

The RodVault website says it fits up to a 4" reel. For reference, here are two 4" reels (Nautilus 10 and an old Bauer M4) and a large arbor Danielsson/Loop 4-Seven reel. I've actually been able to fit even bigger reels without issue. I have a 12-wt. Winston BL-5 with a monster Bauer MX-6 reel that fits, but my Sage RPLXi 10wt. doesn't, only because of the fighting butt diameter. If I sand the butt down a bit, I can fit any single-hand rod/reel outfit I own. I'm pretty stoked, as I thought I would be out of luck for my bigger rods.

 

[planomateo]

Nice! Buddy of mine has a cheap DIY version of this, some pvc pipe and a used pelican case that he modified a bit.

 

[C6H12O6]

We took a trip to the Henry's Fork in ID and Yellowstone last summer. I probably put together and broke down at least three rods 3-4 times a day. It drove me nuts. I kept seeing other rigs with some sort of rod holder like this driving around and the thought of being able to just slide the rods into the tubes at the end of a fishing session was just too much. I pretty much came home and ordered one. When I'm by myself, I can just slide the rods into the truck whole, but with the wife and an 8-year-old along for the trip, or a truck full of fishing buddies, but I'm amazed I never broke one doing that.