The 7 seat Kodiaq doesn’t have the bars in the boot with sliding hooks for shopping. They are ideal to secure dog crates to the sides.

I mean the bog standard rectangular wire crates, not the special shaped crates.

How do people manage to secure dog crates in the boot of a Kodiaq without?

I'm struggling with this too. I have a Variocage in mine, with a tie down point at each corner. While there are tether points near the entrance to the boot, there are none at the back other than the ones on the back of the seats. I can't use these as in an emergency you would need to drop the seats to get access to the cage. Consequently it's moving around slightly during travel. At the moment it have it anchored to the U-shaped metal things that you see when you drop the seats down, but I don't think this is particularly safe or appropriate - and it's certainly not working very well.

 

Unless you get some helpful suggestions to this thread I'm thinking I'll have to screw some eyelets into the boot floor, which I really don't want to do....

 

 

Quote

While there are tether points near the entrance to the boot, there are none at the back other than the ones on the back of the seats

 

Assuming you retract or remove the luggage cover when you have the dog cage in the boot, use the tether points that you mention in another way.

Get yourselves two cam straps and thread them through those tether points, one on each side of the boot and over your cage and just pull them tight. The cage won't move then, I use them for canoes that I carry on my roof rack - they work a treat. If you get long enough ones, probably 5 metres ones would do it, you would just need to loosen them off, which is very easy and move them to the sides of the crate to facilitate removal of the crate.

If you position them so the cam buckles can be reached from your rear doors, it will be easy to loosen them in an emergency. Failing that, carry a small sharp knife or a seat belt cutter in your glove box and they can be cut off.

 

Like these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4PCS-Heavy-Duty-Ratchet-Straps-Tie-Down-Cargo-Luggage-Van-5m-Cam-Buckle-Belt/114065610347?hash=item1a8ed7166b:g:CbIAAOSwDnld

Edited 1 February, 20206 yr by olderman1
Additional info

13 minutes ago, olderman1 said:

 

Assuming you retract or remove the luggage cover when you have the dog cage in the boot, use the tether points that you mention in another way.

Get yourselves two cam straps and thread them through those tether points, one on each side of the boot and over your cage and just pull them tight. The cage won't move then, I use them for canoes that I carry on my roof rack - they work a treat. If you get long enough ones, probably 5 metres ones would do it, you would just need to loosen them off, which is very easy and move them to the sides of the crate to facilitate removal of the crate.

If you position them so the cam buckles can be reached from your rear doors, it will be easy to loosen them in an emergency. Failing that, carry a small sharp knife or a seat belt cutter in your glove box and they can be cut off.

 

Like these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4PCS-Heavy-Duty-Ratchet-Straps-Tie-Down-Cargo-Luggage-Van-5m-Cam-Buckle-Belt/114065610347?hash=item1a8ed7166b:g:CbIAAOSwDnld

That’s a good idea thanks.

58 minutes ago, TeeDeeEye said:

That’s a good idea thanks.

Having given this a bit more thought, you'll probably have to thread the cam straps through part of the crate because the tethering points aren't in line and your crate probably isn't as wide as the boot anyway.

This won't stop the idea working, but it means you'll have to partially or wholly unthread the straps if you want to remove the crate, which is no big thing.

If the two tether points near the boot entrance are difficult to access, get some para cord or similar, thread a longish piece through each tether point, tie a knot in it to make a loop that reaches up above the boot floor and leave them in place permanently, then just thread the cam straps through them.

Hope that makes sense 😁.

 

P.S. Or alternatively, cross the straps over i.e. corner to corner.

Edited 1 February, 20206 yr by olderman1

Depending on the size of the dog crate, is it possible to wedge something down the gap between the two rearmost seats to hold the create in place?

 

Again, depending on the size of the dog crate and how often you use those two seats, I'm looking at fitting something similar to the  set up on the attached picture on my next vehicle so that I can carry the dogs and luggage.

6 hours ago, olderman1 said:

Having given this a bit more thought, you'll probably have to thread the cam straps through part of the crate because the tethering points aren't in line and your crate probably isn't as wide as the boot anyway.

This won't stop the idea working, but it means you'll have to partially or wholly unthread the straps if you want to remove the crate, which is no big thing.

If the two tether points near the boot entrance are difficult to access, get some para cord or similar, thread a longish piece through each tether point, tie a knot in it to make a loop that reaches up above the boot floor and leave them in place permanently, then just thread the cam straps through them.

Hope that makes sense 😁.

 

P.S. Or alternatively, cross the straps over i.e. corner to corner.

 

4 hours ago, FirstAndLastSkoda said:

Depending on the size of the dog crate, is it possible to wedge something down the gap between the two rearmost seats to hold the create in place?

 

Again, depending on the size of the dog crate and how often you use those two seats, I'm looking at fitting something similar to the  set up on the attached picture on my next vehicle so that I can carry the dogs and luggage.

 

 

Great ideas here, and worth investigating - thanks. The variocage fills the entire boot area (but not quite enough to stop it moving slightly!) and has full width doors at the front, so straps right over the top probably won't work and allow the doors to open. However, a variation of the theme might be possible. Will grab a photo when I can, as there are clearly sharper minds than mine here.... 😁

A photo might be handy but I've had a look a Variocages online, so I've got the gist. There's no substitute for being on the ground though and I'm slightly hampered in this case by the fact I have a 5 seater.

I still think that cam straps will work for both types of cage, you'll just need to keep an open mind on how they should be threaded through.

In both cases before putting the cage in the boot, thread the straps through the tether points on the back of the middle row of seats and throw the loose ends over the seat backs whilst you load the cage. Then bring the straps over the top of the cage and at some stage when getting near the front of the cage (depending on cage design) thread the straps down through the top and then the sides of the cage, so instead of going completely over the top of the cage, the last part of their journey will be at the sides of the cage before attaching to the rearmost tether points. This way you won't impede the door opening. As I pointed out previously, if the rear tether points are hard to access because you have a dog cage on the boot floor, pre attach some paracord or nylon webbing loops that comes up above the boot floor so you can easily thread the straps through them.

Make sure the cam buckles are on top of the crate when you've tightened them for easy access from inside the car.

 

Another way that might work and may be better with the variocage, is to acquire some packing material, either reasonable hard foam or maybe polystyrene and pack some between the back and both sides of the cage and the just use two short cam straps between the two rear corners of the cage and the rear underfloor tether points. I see the Variocage has some tether points in those positions.

 

Don't know if this would work without seeing a 7 seater, but another way to assist securing might be raise your rearmost pair of seats backs, lay a cam strap flat across the squabs with the ends coming out onto the boot floor at both sides,then fold the seat backs down again on top of the strap and put your cage in the boot, after which you bring both ends of the cam strap over the top of the cage and tighten. This should help in stopping sideways movement. If you use this method, put something between the straps and the seat backs to prevent chafing the seats.

 

Alternatively, you could sell the dog(s) or swap the Kodiaq for a van 😉.

 

 

Can you not reach the 4 boot corner tie down loops?

 

Or do they not exist any more?

 

I'm not into dog cages, but did secure an engine on some boards using the 4 tie down loops with cross over straps..

 

Mind you, my seats were folded and the loops were accessible.