Carrying Pets in the VX

[vt_maverick]

So I've mentioned in a few threads that I've customized the cargo area in my VX to allow me to carry my dog, and a few members have PM'd me asking for pictures / how-to's. Now I'm pretty mechanically challenged, so I wouldn't think of posting this in that section of the site, but I have learned a few lessons as I've tinkered over the last few months that I thought some might find useful.

Background and caveats: I have a 45 lbs. German shepherd - Husky mix, which makes for an incredibly smart and equally stubborn dog that is nothing short of a Houdini when it comes to escaping from almost any barrier you put in front of her. She's very athletic (she actually jumped a six-foot privacy fence at my old house) so anything I put in the back must be fully enclosed and strong enough to handle her pushing on it. Tight space is not too big an issue for her; I used to have an old minivan that I used as a party bus for tailgating weekends and she actually preferred to cram herself between the seats and door. So depending upon your situation, whether you have a bigger dog, multiple dogs, or dogs that prefer more space, this may not work out for you. But maybe so...

So given that background, my requirement is for a completely enclosed space, floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall, with a soft area for her to lay on and some sort of method for keeping her cool during the summer. Based on that list, this is what I've come up with:

[vt_maverick]

The first step is to find all-weather floor mats that fit wall-to-wall. (You don't want to make a nice area for your dog only to let your carpet get stained if they accidentally use the bathroom or if their water bowl overturns.) I have three layers of floor mats covering the floor, counting the custom-fit dog bed.



The first is the OEM VX carpeted floor mat, just turned upside-down so that the rubber side faces up. (Putting this mat down first keeps the nubs on the all-weather mat from digging into your carpet.) The second layer is a Hexomat cargo mat that you can pick-up from AutoAnything. Although the picture on the website doesn't look like it would fit perfectly, I can assure you that the fit is crazy good, plus it holds like 6-8 cups of water without spilling over:



The last layer is a sheepskin bed. I tried a couple different options for the bedding, including folded up towels and a rectangular foam/cloth bed from PetSmart, but they're either not thick enough or don't fit wall-to-wall. The option that I eventually went with and that you see in the pictures was made from generic sheepskin bedding material that you can get at PetSmart. It costs about $20 and you can cut it to fit any size you want. I just took the material out of the box, used the OEM floor mat as my template, and cut away.

An important point here is that you probably want to cut holes in the Hexomat and in the bedding to allow the cargo hooks to pass through. It serves a dual purpose: you can still use your hooks without removing the bedding, and it keeps the mats from sliding around or folding under when your dog jumps up.

[vt_maverick]

By far and away the biggest pain in the @#$ part of the entire process is custom-fitting a barrier. I can assure you that no "universal fit" barrier is going to fit your VX out of the box using only the materials provided. I purchased this barrier from PetSmart for two reasons: (a) it's relatively inexpensive, and (b) unlike tubular designs, the tighter wire design makes it extremely hard for the dog to get through (see Houdini comment above). I think part of it is psychological too, as this barrier more resembles the cage that mine is used to sleeping in when we go to work (implies that the barrier is impenetrable even if it isn't).

Back to the fitment... At the minimum you'll need a pair of bolt cutters and black zip ties to make this work, but a Dremel / drill and grinding bit are handy. The first issue is that even using the pieces provided, the barrier is just too wide to fit in the VX. So I used the bolt cutters to cut sections out of the middle of the barrier to make it more narrow, and then cut sections away from the corners to get a tight fit over the wheel wells:



Once you get the barrier cut and assembled using the provided brackets, you'll want to use the zip-ties to further tighten the sections or you will go ABSOLUTELY CRAZY from the rattling. With the barrier in my living room floor, I just kept shaking and adding zip-ties until there was no more vibration.

The Dremel comes in handy for smoothing the sharp steel edges that you created when you cut the edges with the bolt cutters (oh man do I wish I'd though of this up front). You can take other precautions like laying towels over the wheel wells, but I promise you that eventually one will slip down and you'll scratch the oh-so-soft plastic walls.

Once everything's finished, you just use the wing nuts to tighten the barrier against the ceiling. Believe it or not, I can actually grab the barrier and push/pull on it hard enough to make the whole vehicle move in park. It WILL leave an impression in your ceiling, but let's face it, anybody who's prick enough to notice and point it out isn't worth having as a friend anyway.

[vt_maverick]

So that's the basics of putting it together, but I've also found a few other nice uses. The first is that when the dog isn't with you, you can stack luggage from floor to ceiling and not have it topple over the back seat. (It won't fall out when you open the door either if you snake the shoulder strap from your bags through the cage wall when you load them.) The barrier is extremely sturdy and will hold up to almost anything, and let's face it, it's not like you're making the rear visibility any worse than it already is.

The second is that you can mount stuff to the wall, and in my case the first thing to be mounted were lights for the cargo area. They're LED lights by Yakima that are designed to go in their roof-top cargo carriers to help with visibility. I DO NOT recommend that you buy these things just for this purpose, as they are like $35 each if you buy them separately from a carrier on Yakima's website. It just happens that I already have a roof-top cargo carrier that I use on vacations during the summer, but in the winter it just sits in the garage. Those lights were already available so I said what the heck?

Pretty simple to mount, the lights already have four screw holes to mount them into the plastic of the roof box, so you can just use those. I bought two thin pieces of wood from Michael's, spray-painted them black, and covered them with felt to reduce vibration. (I probably could have used zip ties here, but they almost certainly would have vibrated.) The LED section is actually removable from the base, which makes a pretty handy flash light. The only unintended issue is that because the lights point perfectly horizontal, you don't get great illumination directly below them. I'm planning on adding some sort of reflective cover over the lights to fix that problem, but haven't decided on what to do yet.



EDIT: Forgot to mention the third thing: you can mount fans on the cage wall to keep the dog cool in the summer. PetSmart sells small fans that are designed to hang on the outside of pet carriers with wire pet doors for $8. I bought two of them and they hang just about perfect beside the headrests on either side. I probably wouldn't buy them again because they require big batteries (I think 4 "D" batteries), have a pretty wimpy fan speed, and go through those big batteries like you wouldn't believe. I'm still looking for a better option...

[vt_maverick]

So that's about it, like I said it's not complicated, but there are a few tips along the way that I thought I'd pass on. It's a lot of trouble to go to for a dog, but hey, it makes trips like this possible:

[tom4bren]

Nice - well thought out.

The PO on mine actually had a couple of cages mounted in the cargo area but I removed all of his mounting features.

Rekin I'm lucky. My Golden Retrievers are content to stay in the back so I don't have to go through this process.

Tom

[etlsport]

Nice - well thought out.

The PO on mine actually had a couple of cages mounted in the cargo area but I removed all of his mounting features.

Rekin I'm lucky. My Golden Retrievers are content to stay in the back so I don't have to go through this process.

Tom

and micro fits in the cupholder

[vt_maverick]

Nice - well thought out.

The PO on mine actually had a couple of cages mounted in the cargo area but I removed all of his mounting features.

Rekin I'm lucky. My Golden Retrievers are content to stay in the back so I don't have to go through this process.

Tom

Yeah, frustrates the crap out of me. She's a great dog in every other way: well behaved, calm, good with kids, loves being outdoors, loves to ride in the car and never gets sick, etc etc etc. But for some reason when she gets in the car it's like all she can focus on is getting on my seat.

[rowhard]

Very nice VT. I also went the pet barrier route, not that I have a dog. I just wanted anything I have back there to stay there if, god forbid I hit something really hard. I didn't need or want the rear seat but wanted to gain storage space. The wheel is strapped down and the barrier is anchored by a sub woof that is bolted down in front of it.

[Gussie2000]

You may start mass producing that pet barrier.


I'll be th 1rst to place order so i can carry my mother-in-law

[PHO2GR4]

I usually just let my dogs drive. They take turns.

[WormGod]

My dog is too big to keep the back seats down. I have to roll them up for fit her big arse, heh. I have a wire barrier as well, but don't use it anymore. I tend to just keep her leash on her torso harness and wrap it through the seat floor mount short enough so she stays laying down and not moving about. Not good for dogs with long legs to be standing in moving vehicles, according to a vet chick I dated, heh.