Ultimate Dream Vehicle for GSDs

[JKlatsky]

Several of the people in our club have the Honda Element. They seem pretty pleased with it. It doesn't have enough room for me...I love my Ford Expedition. I would also like a 6-stall dog trailer.

[Relayer]

The cool thing about my VW CC is that it's a fairly cool looking sedan by day, awesome GSD transport by night! The back seats fold down so that it's like a sleek SUV when we all travel together.

[angelas]

I'm sticking with the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited (4 door). Test drove one last year, loved it. It had everything I needed/wanted. Easy to clean, 4x4, A/C, cruise, auto-transmission. The one I test drove had a lot of stuff I didn't need/want too.

Sigh, when the finances work I'll buy a used one.

[Samba]

For short trips this would be great...


For those longer trips...


I mean, we are dreamin', right?

[kiya]

Originally Posted by paulag1955

I'm wondering if anyone has a Ford Explorer Sport Trac. All rubber flooring, leather seats available.

My husband just got one its a 2007, we love it, for now "NO DOGS" he tells me my truck smells like dog, theres lots of hair in it too.

[kiya]

I love my suburban, take the 3rd row seats out, fold down the 2nd row and their is plenty of room for 3 dogs. I would love it more if they made a conversion kit to solar panels, there is plenty of roof top to put them on.

[lhczth]

I want to be able to haul 4 dogs easily without playing musical crates plus haul 2 or more people, training gear and coolers comfortably. I am not a fan of vans. I need 4WD and I like my diesel engines. The ideal vehicle would be the truck I drive now, but with a way to access the dogs from front and not just from the back.

Right now I drive a '97 F350 crew cab, 4WD, 7.3 diesel, wit the 8 ft bed. I have a cap on the back, of course to protect the dogs. This spring I bought a used Kustom Krates http://www.kustomkrates.com/index.html two dog unit with the storage underneath. These were custom made so are very roomy and they lock for safety. They also have doors on both sides, but because of how my truck is designed I can't access the ones in the back. All of my equipment stores in them nicely. They sit in the front of the bed up against the cab and then I can put 2 more 500 sized Vari kennels in back. I am working 3 dogs so I only need one 500 in back. The problem with this is I have to crawl in and out of the bed to get to those two front crates. Someone did show me a roller system I could put them on to easily pull them to the front, but that would still mean pulling out the other crate. To keep the dogs cool I use 12 volt RV fans. I can run 3 for an entire day only having to start my truck once. Nice bonus when you have a vehicle that requires two batteries.

My only other option would be a dog trailer.

[Chris Wild]

In terms of total dream vehicle, I'd be thinking along the lines of Samba. An RV, with of course a set of custom aluminum crates to accommodate at least 4 dogs, ideally 6.

In terms of reality, probably another full sized van like we have now but rather than just a cargo van full of 500 Vari Kennels I'd love to have stacked custom crates in the back to allow for the middle area to be customized with bed, mini fridge, microwave, and such so we could sleep there and maybe a captain's chair seat so we could fit more than 2 humans.

Or one of the supersized SUVs, like an Excursion, that could be configured different ways to fit different numbers of people and dogs based on the situation. I'd probably be more inclined to go with the SUV if big enough, as I don't really like the look of a van, ride of a van, and the fact that it is prone to getting stuck when the parking for tracking is off the road, several hundred yards over hill and dale through hay fields. Now maybe a jacked up, 4x4 full sized van might work....

[Liesje]

I wouldn't mind a setup where I'm not living with my dogs, so maybe some kind of dog van or RV that can still pull a Scamp where I sleep. I mean, I love my dogs and all (right now we ALL sleep in the same bedroom, a queen box spring cannot fit through the door if that is any indication), but, that would be nice....

[AbbyK9]

I think Toyota's FJ Cruiser would be the ultimate driving machine for the dogs. (...) It is 4 wheel drive and made to get to those off road places. (...)

I think I just heard the entire Jeep community laughing. Seeing an FJ on the trails is a rare occurrence indeed, just as rare as seeing an H2 anywhere other than the mall parking lot. ;P Or one of the new Jeep JK's and four-door Unlimited / Rubicon types that are trying to look like Jeep-Hummer clones.

My Jeep makes a very nice dog vehicle. It's one of the original LJ's ("Long Jeep" - the two-door Unlimited they made for three years. Same as a Wrangler on a longer wheelbase).

If I had any gripes it would be the fact that the wheel wells take up so much space on the inside of the vehicle that I cannot fit two crates in it by any stretch of the imagination. I did, however, take the rear seats, seat mounts, and seatbelts out, and put custom-cut rubber stall matting into the whole cargo area so the dogs have something comfy (and waterproof) to lie or sit on.