Truck rod holder.

[kmstorm64]

Last year I busted the tip off a Shimano Trevala in the tailgate, dumb but it happened. For those of you who don't kayak fish the Pacific Area the Trevala is Kayaker favorite rod in a 7 foot Medium Light.  Good price, handles rock fish, salmon, smaller halibut, and I have heard of them being used for other things.  Well after that I swore I would get a rod rack for my truck. Well in January I bought a left over 2020 Frontier, the old truck was pushing 25 years old, and had a horrible worn drivers seat.  I took the old Gen 1 Thule X-sporter kayak rack system and crossed it over to the Nissan.  No issues.  It was then I noticed that there is a T-track on the underside of the cross bars.  While in a local Marine shop I came across a set of DuBro  6 rod holder rack.  $30 dollars, so I bought it.  Hardware was tricky, common six sided bolts would not work, I ended up ordering Thule's own T-bolts, worked but pricey at $5 each and I needed 8 of them. Some small diameter SS wire and I was off to the races.

The width was to wide so I cut from 24 inches down to 20.  This meant I was giving up two holders, no big deal as I never carry that many.  I wanted security, but  the set didn't come with anything, so I drilled some holes in each of the butt end holders so I could pass an 18"  SS cable through it, I made a loop, crimped it, then slid a heat shrink tube over , then made a second loop and crimped that. I can now lock a reel to the holder. Is it going to stop a hard core thief, no not really, will it keep a meth head from stealing a rod while I pay for gas or eat lunch?  I hope so! Lastly the clearance from the rod tip to the truck roof is not much, so I see a section of pool noodle being used to keep it from slapping the roof.

[Cor]

Ive never seen that type rod holder.

My good friend came fishing with his son and brought 3 rods.    Son opened truck rear canopy door on all threes tips, end of fishing for the day.

Happens to many, don't worry.

[oc1]

They say more rods are broken by doors than by fish.

[redfish12]

Any reason why you didn't put the tips out towards the tailgate? I use ski racks on drilled into my similar style Rola rack and they are narrow enough that I can put my kayak next to them. I lucked out bc I had the ski racks from 2002 and actually found the keys to the locks!

[Cor]

They say more rods are broken by doors than by fish.

Maybe depends on the type of fishing you do.

Here I guess amongst the guys 20 rods are broken every season because we lift/throw fish from the sea on to a rocky ledge about 6 ft above the ocean.    If the angler does not know how to do this then it often ends up in tears.

I think I know how...... but over the last 25 years I have broken probably 15 myself.

Oh and small boats cause more breakages because they are too short to put a fish in to the boat with a rod, resulting in high sticking.