I'm looking for a good method of storing my rod tubes in my truck bed. I have an ARE cap and I'd like to hang them from the top. The ARE fishing rod holder won't fit the tubes only the rods. The guy at the ARE dealership offered folding clothes hangers but I'm not sure they will be secure and they will probably fall out after about 2 minutes. The cap is brand new so the thought of drilling holes to mount something kind of scares me.

What do you use? Do you have pictures?

You could probably epoxy some velcro straps like the ones at home improvement stores for extension cords and such.

ive seen people make wooden tube racks that mount to the side of their bed (like on top and on side of their wheel wells). one thing you can look into, is making sort of the same thing but mounting them to a brace on the ceiling (assuming that the ARE caps have the framing showing from the inside). that way you can drill holes in them and not worry about the risk of a slight leak during rain. i am looking into trying to copy the titan rod rack (make it inside my suv), they are way way to expensive to buy, so im just going to see if i can come up with something similar thats a heck of a lot cheaper

I've been camping and fishing in pickups - with a cap - for a long time. And have never felt any need to mount the rod tubes securely.
I just lay them in the bed, along with all of my other gear - or stash them behind the seats in the cab. Have never had a problem with carrying them that way.

But if you want to hold them tight somewhere - you could probably mount some hooks in the flat rails where the cap sits on the truck bed. Drilling a few bolt holes there wouldn't cause any leaks.

One thing I do with all of my trucks, is install a wooden shelf - about 20 inches wide - on the bed/cap rails right behind the front window of the cap front window. It's pretty handy for getting gear out of the way when I need the bed room for other purposes. And it would also be a pretty handy place to mount rod hooks easily.

Can you bend up a rack with electrical conduit and fasten it to the clamps that hold the cap on?

your avatar reminds me of a photoshop I did for a blog post a few years back :)

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When I had a cap, I did the same thing with the shelf.

You may be able to come up with something like the Rod loft pro.
It can be mounted to the window frames.

Contact DaveS....He has a pvc pipe with some lambs wool or some crap that works.

I just throw them in the back of the truck and make sure that nothing is thrown on top.

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I tried for a year to get my sister to do that for me because that was the avatar I wanted. I gave up when she dropped out of graphic design school.

All of the rod racks that are sold on stores hold rods just fine but they don't hold tubes. I need something to put the tubes into. I like the electrical conduit idea.

What about radiator screw type hose clamps? they're cheap

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I think what you need are gun racks. They have larger J-hooks on them for holding for holding a gun stock. And would likely also work fine for rod tubes

In my old pick-up, I installed two of these. I attached then to the cap mounting brackets. There are a mulititude of hooks and basket and brackets that you can get for the backboard. It was ideal for keeping the sights on my bows from bouncing around on the truck bed. The name of the unit is "Gladiator" and I'm pretty sure I got them @ Lowe's.

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