Looking to temporarily mod my tube doors

[Johnny Mo]

As you can see in the image when my dog is riding shotgun, the seat height in relation to the door is not quite right - when he would ride in my Fusion, the door would come up to his front armpits and basically keep his CG below the window opening. Swap the regular doors for the tube doors and the top cross bar is even lower. I'm thinking of making a quickly removable attachment out of PVC - maybe using a saddle tee to snap on to the top rung and basically make a taller top rung. It would only be in place when he's riding with me. I was also thinking cargo net for his door. Any thoughts on other possible solutions are appreciated.

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[zuke]

A saddle tee arrangement on the top tube would concern me if the goal is for your pup to be able to use it as we see in the photo.. I think there is too much chance for rotation as the vibration of driving it could lead to the hardware loosening up.

I'd try and go with an arrangement that secured to both the top and middle tubes with a single piece on one of the attaching members on the inside, so that his weight pushing out was more countered.

 

[Johnny Mo]

A saddle tee arrangement on the top tube would concern me if the goal is for your pup to be able to use it as we see in the photo.. I think there is too much chance for rotation as the vibration of driving it could lead to the hardware loosening up.

I'd try and go with an arrangement that secured to both the top and middle tubes with a single piece on one of the attaching members on the inside, so that his weight pushing out was more countered.

Yeah I was afraid of that as well ..was leaning towards lower tube and then maybe heating and bending around upper tube to support so if he leans on it prevents rotation.

 

[zuke]

PVC would be relatively easy to bend with heat, so that's not a bad Idea...

I would probably look at building something with some Steel Tek products, https://www.steel-tek.com/products_1 that you can get at Lowes as a possibility too.

 

[DefNotBuddyLee]

I assume the goal is to reduce the risk of your dog jumping out or otherwise being too far out that he might get injured while driving?
Have you thought of a different harness setup as an option instead of fabricating a new door solution.
Otherwise, you might be able to use your cargo net idea and attach bottom to upper of tube door and then use grommets or other setup to attach the top of the cargo netting to the screws that you use for your aftermarket grab handle. That unfortunately would likely reduce the effective distance the trail door would open.
I am sure some good ideas will surface here.

 

[Johnny Mo]

I think I got it sorted out, pretty happy with the way it works...I think he needs to get used to seeing the road from his seat, seemed a little anxious at first.

I also had to lower it a bit as the first attempt was too high and he was not sure if he was supposed to keep his head above or between the bars.

I used 1.5" formufit black furniture grade PVC. It is 1.9"od so it's almost identical to tube door 2". I used a heat gun to form it around the existing tube door bars and get it squared up. I also picked up a race car door net to attach to the open portion of the door. Using 9" ball bungees to secure everything although I'm sure Velcro straps would work also.

 

[Brian_B]

That turned out nice!

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