Shipping rods

[ducksterman]

What way do you recommend for shipping a fly rod.

Am I correct that the post office supplies a Priority Mail box that is long enough for a two piece 10 ft and what would the usual cost be?

[TomTrout]

Duck
I doubt they make a box that long. I have recieved rods where the shipper used 2 boxes and duct taped them together one inside the other where they meet. Since shipping rods is his, Carmine Lisella"s C Jordan Rods, business I will assume they don't carry boxes that long. You can also make PVC shipping tubes and the post office put a priority mail tape or sticker on it. You can also try going to your local carpet store see if you can get the cardboard tubes that carpets are wrapped around. It would be garbage to them, a scrap piece of wood screwed to each end would seal them pretty well.Cheaper than the PVC.

Tom

[TampaJim]

Don't even think about using anything less than Schedule 40 PVC - heck, they even break that once in awhile!

Use bubble wrap to keep the fit fairly snug - cut the PVC 6" longer than the rod. Put bubble wrap into the bottom 3" via pushing it with the rod, then put 3" more bubble wrap on the end prior to sealing. I suggest you use a glued on end cap on one end and a removable one on the other, secured with strapping tape.

[AgMD]

TampaJim is right on with this one. PVC all the way. Be sure the rod can't slide lengthwise in the pipe. The package will be thrown like a stick of pulp wood and the tip will smash itself on the inside of the cap if it has any movement at all.
AgMD

[ducksterman]

Any idea what the weight is doing it that way?

[bassman]

Some of the companys that sell shipping tubes do have Kraft Heavy Duty tubes up to 3" X 72". They have plastic ends that can be taped in place. I just did an internet search and found a lot of them. John

[James Smith]

The weight is not going to be your problem, but rather the size of the package. The USPS will take the oversize packages, but I can't recommend enough that you buy insurance since they will not assume any responsibility if you don't. Last summer I received a rod blank in a PVC tube. When I looked at the tube, you could see the tire marks on it where it had been run over and crushed, including the blank. The post office supervisor was very pleasant and agreed that the item had been destroyed while in their possession, but there was nothing she could do about reimbursing me. No insurance means no claim: period. Buy the insurance.

Jim Smith

[TampaJim]

The price is will be the actual weight if the tube is no more than 6'4" long and 2" diameter. The price will be the 15# rate if over 6'4" long x 2" diameter and under 8'4" long x 2" diameter.

For example USPS Priority Mail, halfway across the country (lets say FL to MO) on a 5'6" x 2" tube weighing 6# would be about $10.45 plus insurance ($3.35 on $200) and tracking ($0.50). The same value and distance in a 7' tube gets the flat 15# rate which would be $17.75 plus insurance and tracking (which would be the same as above).

So ... don't sweat the weight of PVC pipe, it will literally cost you pennies more, if any, over cheaper packaging - it is the distance, and or the length, that the price is based upon.

Use the strongest PVC pipe, use bubble wrap, possibly even protect the tip section with a tube from a roll of paper towels. Buy insurance and tape the heck out of the removable cap. Remember to put bubble wrap at both ends to keep the rod from moving end-to-end. The postal people DO play toss with those handy little tubes you ship in.

[ducksterman]

Perfect....thank you...you all have been very helpfull...I'm selling a rod without a metal tube so this will work out well...I'll ship in a PVC much the way I make my own homemade tubes...Thanks again.

[Fisherman John]

Go to your friendly neighborhood carpet store. The heavy cardboard tube they roll the carpet on makes a great shipping tube. I mailed some long spinning rods to my nephew (teaching job in the boodocks of Alaska), extra cost due to length, but they got there just fine.