DIY Aluminum Rod Vault
After building a few different variations of a PVC rod vault for my car and never quite being happy with it, I decided to re-build an aluminum version instead. The main thing, no more flopping tubes! I've tested it all summer and it's worked perfectly and costed me less than $150! There is probably better ways to improve on this but here's how I did it:
- 1-1/2 in. x 10 ft. aluminum Electrical Metallic Tube (EMT) conduit (Home Depot)
- Plano plastic ammo can
- Halex 1-1/2 in. EMT set screw connectors (Home Depot), to connect the tubes to the ammo can
- National Hardware zinc gate hinges (x2, Lowe’s), to connect the two tubes together. These don’t clamp the pipes perfectly, so I added some spare foam from my garage to take up the extra width and tighten the fit.
- U-bolt plates (x5) with long screws and nylon locking nuts, to attach to the crossbars
- Uxcell 1-1/2 in. (38mm ID) black rubber/vinyl end caps (Walmart)
How I built it:
- I cut the 10' tubes down to 9' so they didn't hang over my car as much. This is optional!
- I used the discarded 1' leftover tubes and connected them both with the gate hinge to get a template for the correct width in which to drill into the plano box. (easier than working with long 9' tubes).
- I slid the set-screw connector on and then I placed the template on the plano box in upper half of the box and used a sharpie to trace the tubes.
- The biggest drill bit I had was 1-1/2 inch so I used that and then used a X-acto knife to trim around the sides until I was able to insert it snuggly.
- I then spray painted the tubes black with a few coats.
- Once dried, I slid the set-screw connector on the main 9' tubes and then inserted it into the plano box and the screwed on the locking nut tightly.
Now it's ready to attach to your car!
Throw it on your rack and align the gate hinges with your cross bars.
I used the steel u-bolt plates to then attach it with long screws and nylon locking nuts.
Added the end caps.
Rod protection:
I use Scientific Angler rod sleeves to protect the rods when they are inside.
Hopefully this helps anyone out there who wants to make their own! I'm not a pro at this by any means so if anyone has any suggestions on how to improve this please do so!