I just figured this out today by accident but if you have an SUV and you want to carry your rods out of harms way you can use those extendable clothes hangers to hang your rods right against the roof of the vehicle. The ones I have hang on the existing hooks and I just laid my rods over the rod and lifted the backs in place with the rear one and locked it in place. No more bent rod tips from laying them across the back seat.