Dog Crate or Back Seat Width?

[201er]

Anyone remember the dimensions of the back seat bench off the top of their head? How wide is it? Or rather what's the widest thing you can fit between them?

 

or

 

What's the biggest size dog crate you've been able to fit in a Moonney? I'm guessing the backseat is the best place to get the biggest size into? What about getting it through the door?

[Hank]

I carry a small crate in the backseat, with room to fully open it's door plus a couple of inches. The backseat in my C is wider than the baggage area. A larger crate may fit, too, taken down and assembled on the seat. Just another benefit of having a small dog.

[DrBill]

I typically use a medium crate top and bottom, but for a large dog I'll use the bottom half of a large crate and tether the dog to the crate.

Many use one of the soft crates with wire frame in the baggage area, but since I already have the hard crates I can't justify buying a new soft crate. 

The critical dimension is not lef/right but front/back.  You have to move the seats a bit forward to fit the large  base in there.

The large crate would fit in the back of my Sundowner with the top on.  I never used anything else.

 

BILL

[takair]

I have used large soft crates. They fit across, but they are larger than the depth of the seat, so you need to support them from the floor. I usually fold the seat down if using a large crate. I suspect a hard large crate would be hard to get in, even through the door.

[M016576]

I put my 75lb dog in the baggage compartment, with a harness carabiner-ed to the back seat on a tether, so he can't jump over the seat. Works well- he just sleeps most of the flight now

[Z W]

My 100 lb black lab sleeps in the back seat, no crate required.  I was a little nervous on the first flight, but he treats it just like riding in the jeep.  I tied his leash to the seatbelt in the back at first, but don't bother any more.

 

Your experience may vary  .

[201er]

I'm not trying to fly a dog. I need info about the largest dog crate/carrier that a Mooney could hold!

[Hank]

Mike,

Fold down the backseat and a pretty large wire mesh crate could be assembled inside. The limiting factor then becomes panel size vs.door, but the right front seat comes out fast to maneuver the panels around.

[takair]

I'm not trying to fly a dog. I need info about the largest dog crate/carrier that a Mooney could hold!

Would the soft crates work for your purpose? They are great, because they are easy to get in and out without ruining your interior.

[Hank]

I'm guessing he needs a traveling multi-parrot cage. Look at the collapsible dog crates with the backseat folded down.

[201er]

My backseats don't fold. Looking to take the biggest crate imaginable for an enormous bird. So yeah, no soft carriers or special ideas. I just need to know the biggest crate known to fit on stock seats.

[fantom]

I just need to know the biggest crate known to fit on stock seats.

 

Suggest the smartest way for you to determine this is to get a:

 

....and compare your measurements to the sizes of some common carriers:

 

[carusoam]

I suppose this is for a bird crate???

under the guise of a dog crate.

Best regrds,

-a-

[chrisk]

My backseats don't fold. Looking to take the biggest crate imaginable for an enormous bird. So yeah, no soft carriers or special ideas. I just need to know the biggest crate known to fit on stock seats.

 

 

Here is my daughter with two enormous birds.   I want to see you fit one of these into a dog crate!  --It might work if they were a few weeks old?

 

[fantom]

Here is my daughter with two enormous birds. I want to see you fit one of these into a dog crate! --It might work if they were a few weeks old?

Only a complete idiot would put one of them in a Mooney, crate or no crate.

[chrisk]

Only a complete idiot would put one of them in a Mooney, crate or no crate.

I just wanted to see what kind of enormous bird 201er was trying to transport.  I'm 99.9% sure it is not an ostrich.  But there is 0.1% of lingering doubt...

[BigTex]

I'm pretty sure that they are ostrich... Ribeye steaks on two legs.  Yum!

[JohnB]

I actually fly lots of dogs in my Mooney for pilots and paws all of the time so I actually know this one. I have fit up to 12 animals on one flight in my Bravo. The largest crate was a 600 series which I can put a 50 pound dog and her puppies in it and had room for another crate next to it. The trick is to clear out your baggage compartment, put half of the large crate in through the front door, put the dog in, then put the top on over the dog and assemble it in the plane. Reverse on the exit from the plane. 300 or 400 series fit fine almost anywhere and you don't need to assemble them inside. The question would be, how big are the dogs you want to carry, and if it's more than 80 pounds, a harness tends to work the best.

Using the same technique, I think 700 or 800 series crate would fit (barely) but yes, the bigger crates fit much better in the baggage compartment, but if you are really trying to transport an adult ostrich, that would not be possible or safe for the animal, as any crate needs to be large enough for an animal to stand and turn around in, otherwise it could be seriously injured.

[fantom]

I'm still wondering how safe, in the long run, it is for 'someone' to fly non-stop for 10+ hours in a Mooney with a couple of parrots crapping all over the cockpit. The physical and emotional ramifications defy description! Luckily, nobody would be so foolish

[201er]

For the record and anyone who's curious I have found the largest crate that still fits on the backseat and just makes it through the door and through the space behind the copilot seat. I can't figure any way of getting anything larger through without removing seats and even then it would only get you 2 more inches of width:

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006OOP88A/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

The Marchioro Clipper Ithaka 5 Pet Carrier is 32.25"L x 22.25"W x 23.5"H. And although I haven't flown with it yet, I have found it to fit the seat. I opted to drive to pick the animal up not so much because the weather was unflyable but because I did not want to have her be cold and wet on the pick up flight from the rescue. This is Santina, a 14 year old rescue green-winged macaw that I got.

 

 

 

[jetdriven]

Thats a fine looking bird, Mike.

[aviatoreb]

Cool Mike.  Did you adopt that bird, or is this like a "pilots-n'paws" mission (they do other animals besides dogs and cats I know, although less commonly).

[201er]

Cool Mike.  Did you adopt that bird, or is this like a "pilots-n'paws" mission (they do other animals besides dogs and cats I know, although less commonly).

I adopted that bird but I also let the rescue know that if they need help transporting birds across distances that I am available with the plane. I guess we're gonna have to call it pilots-n'wings

[neilpilot]

The rescues I usually fly are dogs for ARF and PnP.  In Jan 2006 I transported a Snowy Owl on a rescue flight from mid-Arkansas to KCPS.  The owl's final destination was a raptor recovery center in Wisconsin. Transport required a USFW permit.

 

IIRC the owl's height was around 24" and she had a 4.25' wingspan.  I though she was a big bird.