Tripawds Three Legged Dog & Cat Forum Archives

Hi all!  

I recently purchased a new car, as my old car was too small.  Not only was the back seat bucket-style, but its small size really became a problem when Dieter became a tripawd.  Also, I could not take both dogs and all my camping gear in the smaller car, and since camping is a priority, there you go.  

As part of my new car purchase, I made two other purchases with the dogs in mind.  One was a seat cover, which I will review in another post, and the other was this inflatable seat extender platform.  There are a lot of back seat car solutions for dogs, but each of my boys are 100lbs, so it needed to be sturdy.  Hammocks were out, as were the flat boards that hang from the back of the front seats.  Just looked too unstable.  I wanted to give the boys as much square footage of flat, supportive and comfortable space, so I bought this inflatable extender and tried it out.

Bottom line?  Highly recommended.  Since it's inflatable, it can be customized to the space in the back seat area.  I have a pretty big car (Ford Flex) and fully inflated it fits perfectly.  There are three air chambers, configured like a short pi symbol.  The two "legs" fit in the footwells of the back seat, and the top part extends all the way across the back of the car.  Inflated, this creates a huge back seat area for the dogs.  They've stretched out, curled up, laid side-by-side, and the platform does a great job supporting them both.  

It has the standard pvc-coated plastic sides and bottom, but the top surface is a textured material.  I still thought it was too slick, so I've put dog blankets (from LL Bean, these are awesome, too) across the platform to create a cushion that has a little more traction for them.  This also keeps the dogs' claws from possibly damaging the top, although it doesn't seem like that would be a problem, the top material is thick and sturdy.  It comes with it's own inflating pump that runs off a 12V outlet, so you can inflate / deflate on the go if you want.  It was $68 on amazon (you can use the Tripawds.com link to buy it!), but well worth it if you ask me.  The plastic is thick, so I feel pretty good about it not ripping, and it doesn't move once it's in.

The only downside, and this is *minor* is that the little plugs are hard to get in their holes once you're done inflating.  You gotta move quicker than with other things (like my air mattress) and you really have to push them in.  The good side to this is that they'll stay in and you won't have to worry about random deflation.  

If anyone has any questions about this, please feel free to ask me.  The dogs have been on a few 2+ hour trips with it now and it's been fantastic.   

Jennifer