Mounting to Camper Shell question

I want to mount a fishing rod holder on the top of my camper shell (on the inside), just as pictured in the link below. I'm obviously worried about drilling through fiberglass and having leakage problems later on.

Any suggestions on other ways to mount? I've read quite a bit of information about fiberglass on boating forums, but I wanted to ask the Taco World as well. Thanks

http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?pdesc=Trac-Rod-Fishing-Rod-Storage-System&i=29987

 

Id like info as well. Have plans for my shell

 

Mounted these to the side slider window mounting screws on my Brahma Canopy.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Allen-174...bucket_id=irsbucketdefault&findingMethod=p13n

I can get 4-5 fishing rods per side of the canopy with these racks, If I ever felt the need. Drilled thru each side of the wide spot at the top and bottom of each rack, then utilized the window mounting screws as mount hardware.

If you can,,along the sides is better than the over head setup. YOU WILL bang you head on the gear if it is on the roof and you have to crawl in for something. Even worse if someone leaves a hook rigged up,,and then you catch a land lubbing suckafish,,as his coat snags on the gear crawling in for something.. ask me how I know.

If your still set on a roof/ceiling mount and depending on the weight of your gear I would look at all avenue's of reinforcing whatever holes you punch thru the top. Carriage/plowbolts, or just a wide HD cap head screw thru the top and then passing thru the mount holes inside on the rack would be a quick clean mount,,glass or seal over top of the heads on the outside, a bead of sealer where the bolt is protruding thru on the inside,then the rack against that after it had cured,,mount with big washers and Nyloc locknuts. The sky is the limit as far as however you want to go about mounting that. I wouldn't hang alot of weight on it,,saltwater gear can get pretty monstrous and heavy,,as can freshwater.

 

Thats a good idea, thanks. My side slider windows also flip open (and I use them quite a bit) so I dont know if I want the poles blocking either sides access opening. But as you mention a side mount is more ideal than overhead for many reasons.

I may be able to get away with going 2 rods on each side in between the bottom of the sliders and top of the wheel hub. Mount the top of the brackets to the bottom window mounting screws. The challenge would be where to mount the bottom of the brackets.

Either way you got the wheels churning. Thanks!

 

Well, if your going to mount them that way,,,

Just a long piece of 1/8" or 1/4" strip metal attached to the rack at the top using those mount holes you drilled,,to give the rack some backbone/brace,,then you might not need to secure the bottom with the brace there. A little bit of "give" if they get bumped when loaded with fish gear,, and plenty durable. The mount screw would pass thru the rack, then the brace, then into the window screw mounting holes. My window screws are very short little self tapper machine screws,,so I had to grab some that were a bit longer. You might want to use bolts at the bottom mount point, to hold the brace to the rack firmly.

2 mount screws and they are removed out of your way if needing to haul something that reaches them.

Run into Home depot and ask where the metal seam caps are. Next to the seam caps should be the flat seam cap strips. They are all about 1" wide,,so all you would have to do is cut it to the same length as your racks. Some of those caps/strips are wider yet.

A little bending, tweaking, measuring is going to be involved to get it the way you want.

 

What about using the bedrail tiedowns to hang something from to hold the fishing rods? I don't has shell right now but I use a small tiedown strap thru them and just let the poles hang that way - 1 towards the reels and 1 about 3/4 down the length of the rods.

 

I think I might go with this method, I dont see why this wouldnt work fine if braced properly. I just checked and I have those same small machine screws in my window, looks like 1/2 inch length, but that should be all I need. Thanks alot!! Pics to follow.

 

I have seen guys use just big fabric loops lagged to the shell bed mount rail, then they just stacked all there gear in the loops. They can swing back and fourth with the vehicle movement. I imagine your gear will get pretty beat up stacking them in the loops,,but you could probably get a dozen rods on each side of the truck with double sets,,lol.

Didn't look very good to me,,,to each his own.

 

I originally thought about going with something similar to this, but in the end I wanted something more secure to ensure that my rods (and especially my reels) have no chance of banging around. I know I can probably tie the straps tight enough to limit movement, but I want somehting more permanent that I dont have to fuss with.