Shipping a fly rod

[beadhead]

Need to send my Temple Fork rod in for repair. Any suggestions on packaging it for shipping?

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

You have the tube and sock?

 

[StreamBottom]

Check out private businesses that ship for USPS FedEx UPS etc
They should have square "tube" shipping boxes. 4"x4" by whatever length. Bubble wrap your rod tube and fit in box.

 

[troutbert]

http://fiberglass-fly-rods.pbworks.com/w/page/23771255/Shipping%20a%20fishing%20rod

Detailed instructions here. He recommends heavy PVC pipe, which sounds good.

I'm not sure what the cost difference is between this option and cardboard shipping tubes.

In a cardboard shipping tube the rod will PROBABLY arrive OK. But the heavy PVC pipe is much stronger.

 

[beadhead]

I don't have the original tube. I looked at pvc but thought it would cost a lot with the weight. I'll check out those links. Thanks

 

[elonDO]

I needed to send a rod back to TFO a few months ago. I got a cardboard tube from UPS store and a roll of bubble wrap. I have used triangular boxes from FedEx in the past too.

 

[UncleShorty]

UPS charged me a "surcharge" when I shipped some rods in PVC pipe.

Said it was because the shipping package wasn't cardboard.

Twisted my tail. Guess I shoulda read the fine print.

Heavy cardboard tube should be OK. Put some "Fragile" stickers in the tube, so they know it comes from Italy...

 

[sandfly]

Henry, get a triangle flat rate box from the P.O. and put rod in pvc tube and in the box ship it that way I do all my shipping rods that way. I have around 100 of those boxes in stock

 

[MJE2083]

I've always shipped in cardboard tubes. I bought a whole bunch of them last time that I moved for rods and arrows. Pack them with crumpled up newspaper inside.

 

[MD_Gene]

I have taken large pieces of carboard like form a TV. Then I bent it to create a 3-sided box. Worked great.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Carpets come rolled on a heavy tube of cardboard. I "d check and see if you can find a discarded tube that will work. GG

 

[trout48]

Go to a carpet store near you and ask for a middle tube from the carpet.

 

[barbless]

The triangle Priority Mail boxes- free with PM postage- work well, but only if the sections are less than 37.5" or less with clearance- although you can fit two together, if need be. I've had a problem getting them from local post offices, though- they're often out of them. Fedex and UPS have similar boxes, but iirc, they cost nearly as much money as PVC pipe.

PVC is easily precut by the store and not that expensive. And if you're getting the pipe back on the return, you'll have a nice generic (i.e., "stealth") rod case if you add end caps.

I wish I could find lighter gauge PVC pipe than what gets stocked at Home Depot, but it still isn't that expensive or heavy to mail, and the level of protection is very good.

The carpet roll suggestion is also good- it's lighter than PVC and just as strong as long as the length isn't too long, in which case reinforcing it with 3M tape helps to strengthen it.

I prefer saran wrap to bubble wrap, especially for uncased rods- lay out a length of it and roll up the sections one at a time all the way around until they're bundled and fold the ends over. Then add some sort of padding at each end, so the rod doesn't slide back and forth.

Always leave clearance at each end, and pad the ends- I once bought a very nice Bruce & Walker fiberglass rod that was shipped from the UK with the fiberglass spigot ferrule stuffed tightly against one end of the box, and it did not end well.

 

[trout48]

If you call the 800 number for the post office they will deliver the triangular boxes to your house and I often take the two sizes together to make a bigger tube.no charge for the tubes.

 

[carl]

I use light weight irrigation pipe (SDR 21 or sdr 26 PVC, not sched 40). And then I put it in a triangle cardboard USPS priority mail box. As long as it's a 4pc rod, the shipping is reasonable.

They start charging extra for longer packages.

the triangle tubes are pretty strong anyway and I've received many rods without pvc or a tube and only had one problem when the rod was wedged into the trinagle tube and then the tube was bent a bit. If the rod has some wiggle room, the bending doesn't seem to cause much problem.

 

[ryguyfi]

cheapest way to ship is USPS. I buy all my shipping boxes off of uline or amazon, but get them in bulk. All rods go out in their tubes but when I ship out a replacement piece it's put in a 4x4x36 box and just wrapped in shipping paper/bubble wrap. I haven't had any issue with that so far. Never hurts to put "fragile" on the box either.

You can also look for poster tubes. They're round and with the right length should work as well.


TFO is actually pretty quick with their repairs.

 

[salmonoid]

ryguyfi wrote:
cheapest way to ship is USPS. I buy all my shipping boxes off of uline or amazon, but get them in bulk. All rods go out in their tubes but when I ship out a replacement piece it's put in a 4x4x36 box and just wrapped in shipping paper/bubble wrap. I haven't had any issue with that so far. Never hurts to put "fragile" on the box either.

You can also look for poster tubes. They're round and with the right length should work as well.


TFO is actually pretty quick with their repairs.

"Fragile" is codeword for the USPS/UPS/FedEx workers to give the parcel a little extra love

Besides, sorting is mostly done by machine and most of them can't read (yet).