Hobie rod extenders or Scotty rod holders?
 

I would like to add some Hobie rod extenders or Scotty rod holders on my Hobie. Any opinions on either one? I have a Hobie Outback.

The Hobie rod extenders work fine if you like reaching back to get your rods. There is a another way that works much better and costs less. Search the Innovations thread for "Rodholder Mod".

I made some adjustable rod holders for my Revo which could easily be adapted to the Outback. These rod holders fit into the molded rod holders that come on most Hobies but move the holders forward far enough that they can be easily accessible at all times.

An optional part of the design is a way to make the thing adjustable so the angle can be changed to have the rod extend anywhere from straight up to parallel to the water.

I have used this device for nearly a year and have found it to be by far the best mod I have come up with so far. Here are a couple photos.

Bob

Bob, that looks awsome. How come I couldn't find that when I looked??? Oh yeah.....:luxhello:

That is one nice looking rod extenders! :luxhello:

look at "D" with the great idea, I borrowin that one for my Outback...
thx for the plan....b

That looks great! This would save me from drilling into my Revo.

Bob - Can you angle it so that you can watch the rods while trolling and still facing forward?

Kevin

Bob:

Were you a plumber in another life? :) Snaky looking rod holders you got there

You can configure it just about any way you want. If you want to see the rod tips without having to look to the side, just make the thing longer. The problem with that is that if you move the rod holder too far forward, it will get in the way of paddling, (even Hobie guys paddle sometimes).

You could also angle the rod holder so it points a bit forward rather than being squared up with the hull. I don't think you would be happy in the long run with that setup but who knows.

The important thing to remember is that you can play around with the design by changing the fittings and adjusting the length of the the straight pipe until you come up with what you want. There are at least four types of angled fittings, 90, 45, 33 and 17 degrees. This is just at Home Depot. There may be other fittings available at plumbing supply stores. There are also screw and slip fittings. Mix and match, twist and extend until you get what you want. At that point, make some alignment marks on the plastic so you can reproduce the configuration and glue everything together.

Before you glue, everything is fluid and adjustable. I put everything together and sat in the kayak with rods in the holders making sure that everything worked to my satisfaction before gluing anything.

Once you have everything set in stone, remember that you must have at least two anchor points for this thing to be stable. The end that goes into the molded rod holder is one. The other you will have to create. An eyelet riveted to the hull in the appropriate place plus a webbing strap works great.

Bob

Bob:

Thanks for this information.

Kevin

I had a Revo for about a year and enjoyed the Holders I made using ABS pipe and elbows. The only tricky part was fitting the molded rod holder. I put 4 slots in the bottom piece and applied shrink sleeve which drew the sections in and gave the holder more traction to keep positionally secure.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...eRodHolder.jpg
Good luck!