Does anyone have a VARIOCAGE dog crate in your Prius? This is the safest dog crate for use in a car, but I'm not sure it will fit in the back of a Prius. I can measure width and depth, but I think the angle of the trunk lid will be the deciding factor. The Variocage has a slanted front, but it may not be slanted enough. I hope someone has had experience with this.
Wow! Never heard of them. Impressive. We use a standard steel crate that is tied down. Our dog is small, so his crate fits easily.
The Website for Variocage gives the exact measurements possible, Min to Max. Depending on what size you need or are planning to buy, you should be able to figure out exactly what is possible, even if it means using a tape measure. If you can do as pictured above...fold down a seat or two seats and push the cage back...you can negate a lot of the disadvantage of The Prius's relatively shallow, horizontal hatch, which in my experience is actually deeper than it looks.
Maybe if you contact them, and tell them you have a Prius, they may already know which crates fit and how best to place it inside.
I have emailed or filled out online question forms to manufacturer and also to some online distributors, but so far I have received just one reply from a distributor who thought only the "mini" size would work - but they were not sure. The problem is that while the Variocage has a slant to its roof, I don't see any way in their measurements to tell if that slant is adequate to work with the slant of the Prius' trunk lid. The floor area of my Prius is quite large, but the lid really eats into the vertical distance. I was hoping that perhaps someone had tried it or perhaps a similarly designed crate in the back area.
Maybe they can give you the exact dimensions of the crate you want, then you can tape together a cardboard replica to try. At the very least you can cut out a silhouette of the side profile to see if that fits inside. I'd hope they're willing to work with a potential customer who's considering spending $800-$1800 on one of their crates.
I am looking for the exact same information. I'd like a double variocage for my medium sized dogs. Did you get any info on sizing? Did you get a cage?
Spoke to an expert at MightMiteDog Gear who assured me that the variocage would not work in a 2010 Prius as the variocage is meant to be positioned behind the 2nd row seats.
We are also hoping to fit a crash-tested kennel on our Prius V. We have a golden retriever puppy who, at 8 months, is 63 lbs, and still growing about a pound a week. His father is 85 lbs., so it needs to be a large crate. We tried the Click-It harness (also passed the crash test), but he chews through the seatbelt in minutes. Our new plan is to get a Gunner Kennel, which you can google. I can't post the link, as I just registered, but it's gunnerkennels and it's one word. They are relatively new. The mediums are out now, and the large ones will be out in January. Visibility is an issue. Our plan for Saturday is to take out the back seat and bolt a stuctural plywood platform where the seats go. That will drop the height several inches, and will also give us several more inches between the front seats and the cargo area. I spoke with the service folks about it at Toyota yesterday. They said absolutely do not take out the seats and put a kennel (or anything else) directly on the carpet, as that's where the battery is. The gap under the rear seats is there for safety. Neither the metal kennels nor the standard plastic kennels hold up in crash tests. Also, the cargo area is part of the "crumple zone" -- the area that is intended to crumple in a collision to protect the passenger areas. The safest place for a dog is in the center of the back seat, which is part of the protected passenger area but doesn't have airbags.
In case anyone is still considering a double xxl variocage, it fits in our 2015 Prius V perfectly. However, it does not fit in our 2015 Prius hatchback... due to the steep slope (the variocage is too tall by about 6").
I wanted to ask but which gunner kennel did you end up getting and how did it fit? I’m wondering if an intermediate would fit a Prius.
