Rod tubes

[Tone357]

Looking at the photos of Chris Johnston's Ranger, they mention that he cut out the rod tubes so that he can carry more rods. Anyone have any intel on how to do this?

https://www.bassmaster.com/inside-el...1&jb=0#slide14

[blkfalc4]

Doable, but extremely time consuming and difficult.

[Fishead1167]

I wish he would explain how he did it. I hate them enough to give it a try, but would be nice to know how to go about it.

[KYRANGERMAN]

I didn't cut mine out but installed this http://www.bbcboards.net/showthread.php?t=1133920. It works for me and can put 8 rods in each locker and they don't get tangled up.

[tajchauvin]

I can give you an overview on how I did mine. Note: My boat is only 19 feet.

1. Access the rod tubes from the front of the boat and start removing tape and foam holding the tubes at that end.
2. In the rod locker I used a dremel tool to cut the bevels off the tubes. This allowed me to remove the metal plate.
3. Remove the 4 screws and metal plate.
4. Start cutting as much foam as you can from around the tubes in the rod locker.
5. This was the hardest step. I locked some grip pliers onto each tube and turned it multiple times until the tube came free of the foam.
6. Second hardest part. Get inside of the locker and start pulling the loose tube out.
7. After all tubes are out use a dremel tool or similar to start cutting away foam. I also used a hack saw metal blade to do some of this.

Once done and cleaned up I added foam to fill in holes than applied some fiberglass to the inside of the hole to make it smooth. Last steps was modifying the metal plate and painting the hole black.

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[Fishead1167]

Really nice job, Thank you for the write up and pics, gives me hope that it can be done.

[MakingWaves]

I ordered my current Ranger without tubes and will continue to do so on my next one.

[Fishead1167]

I ordered my current Ranger without tubes and will continue to do so on my next one.

Wish I had known.

[TXDonkeyHunter]

The 520R doesn't have tubes....one of the awesome things about it. It has 3 shelves.

[cwilt]

I find it funny that the link from the op posted. This pro said to use rod socks, yet none of his rods from the pic had any. I would also love to remove the tubes.

[Ron H 520]

Mine originally had no tubes, so I decided to put some in on one side and see how it goes. I really tried to like it, but I just didn’t. I removed them, bought some rod socks, and it was smooth sailing. One of those times where simple is best.

[jc2bg]

I will say this about the tubes vs. socks situation. I am somewhat of an admitted neat freak, and the front deck space of my 519 allows [to me] only limited real estate for rods. In the heat of battle, once I’ve removed rods from the locker and reached maximum capacity on the deck, sometimes I want to pull still more/different rods out of the locker and return some of the original ones to storage. At that point, seldom would I want to take the time to reinstall the rod socks, but with tubes in place, I can quickly slide the rods into the locker, sans sock, and not worry about tangling before the end of the day. If only I had an assistant on board to handle loose rod socks for me, life would be sweet.

[Fishead1167]

Another issue with the port locker is the way the moose antler is positioned. The inner side of the antler is only about an inch or 2 away from the end of the rod box. The 3 or 4 rods you
place on that side (side toward center compartment) can't be of the same length or the reels all jam together.