homemade rod rack
 

does anybody have some ideas about a homemade roof rack for my jimmy. i've seen ron arras and i was thining along the same lines on his.

Yeah, I made one about four years ago, still use it. I screwed a few rod tubes to a piece of board. I drilled holes at either end and passed a couple of U-bolts through them to secure it to my Thule roof rack at the front of my truck. I slid some bicycle tire tube over the U bolts first, to help them grip the rack. On the other roof rack, at the back of my truck, I used electrical tape to tape one of those mop-handle clip bars. I can include pictures if you want.

I use the Thule ski racks as a base to start with. On the front I use the whole system with the Thule ski holders and all. In back and this is going to change somewhat, I use a 1 x 6 of oak and scewed onto the oak shced 40 PVC about 12" long. Various holes drilled in PVC secure it to oak with slots cut so that the reels slide into slots tightly and do not fall out orslide forward. I am going to change oak to 1/2 clear plastic and use the PVC in the exact same way.

I had home made rod racks on my jimmy, I cut two 7/8" aluminum pipes a little longer then the existing roof rack. you can pick up white end caps for the pipe at any hardware store. Buy a pack of steel clips used to hang brooms and mops, hold the clips open and dip them a couple of times in rubba paint(forgot the name of the stuff) this cosh ins and protects your rods. Bend the base's and screw into the pipe. Cut 4 pieces of pvc, a line them and screw them into the other pipe, use a washer inside, its tricky. Using 4 U clamps clamp it to the existing roof rack and your done.

mine is similiar...
i took 2 2x4's and on one i used the pre-made 3 rod plastic systems, i think made my berkley, that a lot of people have in their boats for stand up racks. I screwed one on each side of the 2x so that held 6 rods, and then i took a "rod saver" rack from bps i think that can hold 8 rods and secured that to the middle.
on the other board i used the foam 6 rod holders from berkley. they hold the rod tips coming from teh tubes.
and between these i have the other end of the rod saver.
With the rack fully loaded I can hold 10 rods easily, and up to 14 with a bit of work.
the rod saver in the middle work great for convench.
I then secured the 2x4s with u-bolts to my factory installed racks.
i can take some pics when i get home if you want.