I got the foam ones from Academy. DON'T get them. They suck. I made new holes in them and used the existing screws from the window frame to keep from drilling holes. However they didn't work well so I switched them out with good old fashing window gun racks. I can carry six deep seas no problem now and don't even have to strap them in. The overhead ones like are posted above are the best if you don't mind doing some fab work and drilling new holes. But the gun racks work good and you can match them to the existing screws in your side windows.

 

The gun racks on the side windows is a good idea. I hadn't considered anything other than an overhead mount. I'll keep that in mind for future projects

Well, the jury's still out on how well my brackets are gonna work. I've been carrying around the four poles for a week now and I've had a few fall down during hard bumps. Crossing train tracks brought one down today and hitting a big pothole brought another one down.

But, on the entire 50 mile ride back home I had the same bumpy road with the same RR tracks and none came out. The ones that came out earlier were the bent ones and they were kind of spring loaded so that they would tend to pop out so I repositioned them and they seemed to stay.

I'll keep posting back on how its going. So far its decent but I may need to tweak the design a bit or add some sort of barrier to keep them from popping out. Stay tuned......

 

Your design is great. I was just tossing things out there for others to read. That's all. The gun racks are suprisingly harder to find these days than you would think! I like your overheads though. I in the process of fabricating a decent lumber rack for mine which will entail an inside frame to support the roof of the cap that the lumber rack bolts to via some sealed holes. I think I will incorporate your idea into the logistics of my idea and see if I can come up with something. Seems the rods falling would be easily fixed by tiny little bungies or velcro straps.

 

No problem! The more ideas the better.

I'm thinking about what I'm going to do (if anything?) to keep them from falling. It might just be as simple as making sure I put them in there properly (not spring loaded the wrong way, no eyelets near the bracket, etc)

I really hope that I can keep it so I don't have to climb up in there when putting them in. Although that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. We'll see!

 

It's funny you mentioning the "climbing in there" because my wife and I were just talking about getting a new back door that you can add. Have you seen it. They order it to fit your select design, it's a side hinge door that sits inside a top hinge door. You take your tailgate off and it essentially replaces the the topper window and the tailgate. You can use the side hinge door for entry/exit with a step in your receiver or lift the entire thing up at the top hinge for big items. Real cool and makes getting in the back a snap. Especially since mine is slightly raised. I saw it at the LEER place looking for a side window and he said he can have it made to fit my Florida Line.

 

Hmm... that sounds really useful. Please post up some pics of it if you get one!

 

Ok, this is the last time I bump this thread.

After a few hundred miles of hauling the poles, I actually had three incidents of a pole falling out. Not bad, but I added a few small foam pieces as shown in the pics. They provide minimal resistance when inserting/removing the poles, but its enough resistance to keep them from bouncing out. I road around with them for a few hundred more miles with none falling down so I declared victory. All that's left now is to go fishing!

2004 F250 Fishing Rod Holder

 

Very creative. I really like them.

Is that cajun red line?

 

Thanks!

I'm not exactly sure on the line -- that one's my Dad's pole.

 

i used a strap on the inside of the canopy running vertical about 1/3 of the way from the front of the cap.... on the strap i had the wife sew 3 loops on it for the rod tips.... and the inside of my cap is lined with felt so i just use velcro straps to hold the rod ends and reel down... it keeps it from banging my reels or swinging around....