Center rod box mods

[Way north bass guy]

My rig has a decent length rod box that’s pretty wide too, but it only has eight rod tubes which doesn’t hold much. I’m thinking about removing the tubes and maybe lining the box with carpet or maybe vinyl of some sort then using rod socks so I can cram more rods in there. Wondering if anyone else had done this and if they have any pics showing their mods. 

[PECo]

Yes, I have a buddy who did that. I’ve considered doing it, too, because I use only spinning gear and the 10 tubes in my rod locker can handle only six max or four comfortably. I’ll probably modify the tubes, though.

[Way north bass guy]

Well, I tore out the ridiculous tubes, and found a TON of room! And it was wide open with marine vinyl all the way across too. I did a few mods though, lined the bottom and sides with padded carped from Home Depot, even matches colour wise. And I installed a piece of tie down strap across at about the halfway height so I can support more of my longer rods a bit better. Overall I’m pleased with the modification and will be able to cram way more than the four long and four short rods I had in there before.

Here’s a before with the insert still in ( I already pulled the tubes from the small area up front in this pic)

And here’s the much better box, all ready for loading up. 

[Further North]

I like it.

 

I thought I wanted tubes, but the boat I bought didn't have them...I futzed around trying to rig them up...and rapidly discovered they were a PITA, likely to damage line guides and drastically reduced the number of rods I can carry.

 

...you just gave me an idea about that strap...I'm gonna put my thinking cap on...

[J Francho]

I removed the rod tubes in my Bullet.  I can hold a ton more rods.

[S Hovanec]

been kicking around the idea for years of removing the tubes in my Lund.  This may be the year I do it as I recently took up the floor to troubleshoot a fuel gauge/sending unit issue.

[3dees]

my PT 18 holds 12 rigs but it also has two huge lockers an either side. I have one side for all my rods with room for many more. I use my center box for all of my tackle boxes.

[A-Jay]

Nice work ~ 

I left the tubes.

A-Jay

[slonezp]

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

Nice work ~ 

I left the tubes.

A-Jay

So purty?

[NHBull]

Removing the tubes would be far to expensive.

trying to limit my rods to 10-14

[slonezp]

17 hours ago, NHBull said:

Removing the tubes would be far to expensive.

trying to limit my rods to 10-14

Yep, Unfortunately I'm not versed enough in proper deck management....I said deck management to have a ton of rods on deck. Once I have more rods than I can manage on deck, I can just put the ones I'm not using back in the tubes and get back to fishing. I can see all the combo's clearly to grab what I want. Seems to tedious to find the rod sock, put it on the rod and then put the rod back into the storage, and then have to shuffle thru other rods to grab the next.  

[Way2slow]

Mine had only had eight tubes, not enough for two peoples rods unless I wanted to use both rod lockers, (mine has rod lockers on both sides) and I didn't want to do that and give up the storage space so the tubes came out.  The rod socks are a must have item when the tubes come out.  You only have to break one $250 rod from the tips getting tangled to learn that.