Okay, being that we had planned a trip to San Francisco for the New Years, we couldn't let the dogs have to ride laying down on that awful ridge running across the back of the truck. But we also knew that we had to allow for at least one passenger (sister in law) while we were visiting up there so this is what we came up with.

I still have to take some more photos but heres a start...

Pic 1. This is the bottom frame work for the bed. You'll notice that it's nothing more than some simple wood frame (sorry I don't recall the size of the lumber, but maybe someone can tell from looking at the pic.

Pic 2. Shows the size of the plywood that we used. We have two large dogs, well one large one and a puppy that will be just as large so we need the entire back seat area so this plywood goes from side to side and front to back with a cutout where the center console is. This mounts to the frame rails that you see in pic 1.

Pic 3. I'm not sure if you can make it out in this photo, but where the mans hands are and the metal ruler thingy is, is where we cut out a slot so that the smaller of the rear seats can still be utilized with this bed in place.

More in next post.

Continued:

Pic 1. As you can see we chose a gray vinyl material for the covering and here the carpenter in the family is attaching it to the plywood base. Under the vinyl is 2" thick foam for padding. It's green and I don't know what brand it is but it's makes for a very cushy bed in my opinion.

Once the bed was all covered he went ahead and cut out the slot in the vinyl so that we have a hole so that the single jumper seat can still be used.

The last couple pics show the finished product in the truck, one shot shows a closeup of the hole where the jumper seat can be latched down, and one pic of the jumper seat latched down.

When the jumper seat is in the up position we have a dog crate that sits over the hole for the puppy so nobody falls in there, but once she's old enough to ride without the crate then we will stuff foam or rags inside of the hole when the seat is not being used.

In my opinion, a far more comfortable ride for the "kids" in our family and according to the sister in law the amount of leg room reduced in the back is not a problem for the short trips around town, though she wouldn't want to have to ride back there for 10 hours, but she also mentioned regardless of the dog bed she wouldn't want to ride in that jump seat for 10 hours anyway. Fortunate for me, it's just the two of us and the two dogs.

We figure on those rare occasions when we need all of the rear seats down for guests, then we'll simply pull this bed out and leave it at home or put it in the trucks bed. Though for us, it's rather rare that we will need both jumper seats brought to their full upright position, trays in place and all.

And finally a pic of the kids that ride back there. This is the pic that we used for our 2007 christmas cards so..... No, we don't dress up our dogs but the hat was for the christmas cards and next year they'll both be wearing santa hats (the pup was too young this year) and we bought two large santa dog hats while up in San Mateo at the scrub a pup store so that they both have one next year.

Amazingly they both show great deal of restraint and sat ontop of that table in this shots for as long as we asked them to hamming it up for the camera. At one point Weston decided to jump off hat and all as seen below. And Penelope was howling I think because she wanted a hat to wear too.

Very nicely done! The cutout for the seat was a great idea Cute dogs, too.

Another innovative and cozy design! I'm sure this will help others get their creative juices flowing to accommodate their furry children. Congrats on making your doggies at home in their truck.

That photo of your youngster howling is so precious. Your dogs are beautiful.

It's just the four of us too, so the back seat is a dedicated doggie deck. We made our doggie deck in the split seat style so the dogs and one passenger can still be in the truck. I think we've used it that way one time, but it's there if we want to do it again.

You don't say where in the desert you reside, but if you're in the western states, you should definitely consider coming to the Sedona meet in April. With luck Ahab and Val will return with their two standard poodles, Sabrina and Ellie.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a148/ericrwalker/stupid.jpg

ROTFLOL!!!!!!!

What a great design, especially the cut-out for the seat.

That is an excellent design. I just found out about two new additions(miniture pinschers) to my household so I will need to do the same once I get back from this crazy place..

Not to one up this dog bed by any means because I think it's a brilliant design for large dogs, but MinPins need to be up higher than the floor. Take a look at my design as well as the others on the site for ways to make the deck up to the height of the backseats so your pooches can see out the windows. This can help reduce car sickness too.

http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1087&highlight=doggie+deck

Thanks for the comments.
I forgot to mention that being anal about things in this truck with regards to scratches and what not, the two pieces of wood that you see in the first pic were covered in the vinyl material all the way around them so that any part of the wood that has a chance of touching the plastic sidewalls of the inside truck, or the carpet are covered in vinyl to prevent scratching.

Also while this looks rather heavy, it's really not too bad and one person can get it out of the truck and with all the vinyl covering everything theres little chance of scratching anything by taking it in and out of the truck.

That's a nice dog deck Truckin, I know that even our larger poodle can just barely get his head out the window with our dog deck and he gave me a fright while in San Fran last weekend, he stood up on the arm rail of the drivers side rear window and I nearly had a heart attack thinking for that brief moment that he was going to jump out *again* as he had done at the gas station on the way up there. The other half took the pup out for a walk at the gas station while I was filling the truck and I wasn't paying attention and the larger poodle jumped right out the drivers window to go be with the pup, I caught it out of the corner of my eye and yelled his name and he came to an abrupt stop while I simultaneously lunged for his collar to bring him back. Scared the hell out of me as the gas station must have had about 30 cars and trucks all seeming to be moving around at that particular moment. But anyway, nice design you got there.

Thanks very much, I do love the compliments, but I think our dogs love the bed even more then we love the compliments.

Now when we travel they actually lay down and enjoy the padding. Before this, more times then not my older poodle would either sit up in the back or he would jump up to the passenger front seat where he looked terribly uncomfortable but apparently more comfortable then sitting on the Ridge in the Ridgeline.

We did have the opportunity to utilize the smaller jump seat again for only the second time just the other day when we took our neighbor with us to the dog park with her pack and our pack and she said that she was still quite comfortable even though the bed takes away part of the legroom though she is not very tall and I relish the day when I get someone of average or tall height back there to hear at least one person complain about the lack of legroom. :D I guess for us, all of our friends are pretty much shorter than average so this works out good.

To be honest if we were ever going to do this bed again, the only change that we would make would be to make the bed be a split bed like the seats are so that we could remove either side of the bed independantly and gain the extra legroom, but for us we really rarely have people that travel in the back with us when we have the dogs so we can pull out the whole bed which takes all of a couple seconds and throw it into the bed of the truck, but IF we were doing it again we would just split the bed 70/30 but I doubt we'll ever rebuild it since it fits our lifestyle and our kids so well. More times than not the hole for the single jumper seat is just filled with a wadd of felt cloth that ensures that none of our kids feets have any chance of getting down in the hole for the chair lock and since the felt matches the vinyl it's hardly even noticible.

Very nice job! What we won't do for our Guys!:p

Very nice job! What we won't do for our Guys!:p

Tell me about it. I specifically got my Ridge because my dog was tearing up the inside of my Element. I also dropped around $2K to get the cap so he had his own 'room' to ride in. And there's the countless items he's chewed (including my wooden garage door, drywall, etc.). Just can't do without him though.

29408

-c.

I can see why. He's a gorgeous boy, such soft eyes. Is he part Dane? I'm a fool for a Dane.

Got him at the shelter. As far as I can tell, he's part German Shepard and part Rhodesian Ridgeback (which has Dane in it's ancestry). He just hates being alone - the good thing is that there's no place he'd rather be than the back of the RL. When I'm working in the yard, I just pop open the back and he sleeps there for hours.

I can see why. He's a gorgeous boy, such soft eyes. Is he part Dane? I'm a fool for a Dane.

By the way - I didn't mean to hijack your thread :D . Beautiful dogs you have there. I've been thinking about getting a standard as a buddy for my 'buddy'.;)

And finally a pic of the kids that ride back there. This is the pic that we used for our 2007 christmas cards so..... No, we don't dress up our dogs but the hat was for the christmas cards and next year they'll both be wearing santa hats (the pup was too young this year) and we bought two large santa dog hats while up in San Mateo at the scrub a pup store so that they both have one next year.

Amazingly they both show great deal of restraint and sat ontop of that table in this shots for as long as we asked them to hamming it up for the camera. At one point Weston decided to jump off hat and all as seen below. And Penelope was howling I think because she wanted a hat to wear too.