Has anyone found (or even better...made) some sort of tube to store rods on top of their car/truck? I know their are options out there (rod vault, Rod Pod etc.) but I'm not looking to drop half a grand on some pipes. Just curious to see what anyone has come up with. 

I too looked as well and found something for less than $200 but it was $500 for my roof racks so I didnt do it. It took me a couple days to find it. I'm pretty sure it was lockable and held rods to 8'. I'll see if I saved it.

Conduit caps on Amazon (4, 6 or 8") for $40-50

Schedule 40 PVC tube in length and diameter of your choice $20-40.  Assuming you have some sort of rack on your vehicle, it's pretty cheap.  Buddy did it and painted the caps red and tubes black and it looked great for years.

https://www.carid.com/rhino-rack/conduit-locking-end-cap-1-piece-for-100mm-pvc-pipes-3-9-mpn-lse100h.html?view=604133&gclid=Cj0KCQjw4s7qBRCzARIsAImcAxb3XZELolvxY2p8Hc_M_lKEJCaEhoFALTc2LWlBoP8RPui8WPTeRvwaArHJEALw_wcB

Maybe this is naive but anyone thought of just a 4" pvc with a fitting with a screw on end cap? I just looked on Home depot's website. A pipe, end cap, and screw on fitting about $23. That with a couple of stainless band clamps to hold it on?? Of course it wouldn't lock, but a large hole drilled through the cap and pipe at an angle to put a padlock or some other fastener.

Just sayin', as I don't have a need for this type of thing.

I Ike the PVC idea but I'd like to store them with the reels on and have something on the end that can encompass the reels and be lockable 

As you can see my car is very small. So 7' rod tubes won't fit inside the car. I built this rig and it's a perfect solution for 7-8 rods up to 7'3". It's made from 4" drain tubing with 4" end caps from Home Depot. It took a minute to find the "U" bolts. I got them local from McMaster-Carr. I added 1" foam to the end caps and screwed them in with four shallow 1/4" screws. The bottom never comes off, and the top screws have to come out when loading/unloading. total cost was $36.00. It's fantastic! except cleaning the bugs off the front is nasty business.

In my opinion transporting with the reels attached is a bad idea. It would put a lot of strain on you reel seats and reels too.

14 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

Has anyone found (or even better...made) some sort of tube to store rods on top of their car/truck? I know their are options out there (rod vault, Rod Pod etc.) but I'm not looking to drop half a grand on some pipes. Just curious to see what anyone has come up with. 

I've seen people use ski racks around here in MA. Thule used to make a holder for rods called the 885 Castaway. You might be able to find one of those used.

Maybe I missed something, but why not use a Flambeau Bazuka and connect it using pad locks to your roof rack?

 

I have one and use a long shank padlock to secure it to my tie downs in the bed of my truck. I use a small padlock to lock the bazuka itself.