Until today, I’d have the two pieces of my 8’6” rod kept together by a strip of Velcro. However, doing this does little to protect the two halves of the blank from banging around against things in the trunk or each other. I suppose it’s the upper half of the rod blank that probably needs to be protected more.
To address this, I placed most of the upper half of the rod in some ½” pipe insulation tubing and the lower part of with ¾” pipe insulation as shown below:
Two strips of Velcro hold the pieces together.
This is a closer look where the two pieces of pipe insulation meet.
I hope that the insulation material will serve to absorb the vibrations and protect the blank from loose objects in the trunk.
So far, as a unit it feels secure and is easy to hold. The upper half doesn’t move much, if at all.
The protection of spinning rigs, which by nature have larger guides, might be a little more limited but it should still work to the extent where the tubing covers the guides.
For one piece rods, I think that placing pieces of the tubing strategically on the blank in areas we know where banging around occurs (like the tip) could be helpful. The tubing could also be kept in place with Velcro.
I think I will keep the insulation material in trunk when I hit the water. I don’t like to carry more than I have to.
I got the tubing at Home Depot. They come in packs of 4 with $0.98. In my humble opinion that’s a small price to pay to protect our precious gear.
What do you guys do, if anything to protect your rods during transport in your vehicle?
