Dog Restraints While Topless

Does anyone have experience with these? We've got two "excitable" dogs that go everywhere with us. We're new to the wrangler world and haven't had to think about it before. There seems to be a lot of options, just not sure what to look for. Thanks in advance!

Safari Straps!

I don't have this exact brand but something very close to it.
https://amzn.to/2QTBksP

I use a standard D-ring climbing carabiner to secure it to the shoulder strap of one of the latched seat belts. You need to make sure to pull the should strap all the way out and let it back in so that it locks in place.

I use a harness similar to mentioned above, along with a clip that buckles into the seat belt buckle. They are called "adjustable seat belt leads". Clip one end to the chest harness (like a leash to a collar) and the other end buckles into the seat belt buckle, provided you do not need those for children/other passengers and your dogs will be in the back seat and not in the rear cargo area. I have 2 large dogs, a Siberian husky and a pit bull mix, they can sit comfortably and are not able to jump into the front seats with me.

Thanks for the info, guys! I've looked at the Safari Straps but it seems like all their solutions require the doors to stay on. We're hoping to run without the doors for most of the summer. Did I miss something on their site? Mud Bug, do you have a picture? I'm pretty sure I know what you're talking about. We don't need to worry about kids/passengers when our dogs are in the car. Both dogs already have harnesses.


Luckily, and unfortunately, we probably won't see our Rubi until winter anyway. So we've got some time to figure out the best solution...

I will try to attach a picture of the harnesses, I have never attached a picture before

That's what I thought you were talking about. Thanks!

Mud Bug said:

I will try to attach a picture of the harnesses, I have never attached a picture before

View attachment 5580

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I have these exact straps that clip into the seatbelts. I use the Plushpaws dog seat cover which came with the harnesses, and has Velcro holes that the seatbelt buckles can poke through. I clip my two dogs in every time and it’s not a problem with the doors and roof off.


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I've used the above seat belt clips too. They work great, but if you want to run doorless, I'd probably go another route. When I have my dogs with me (one is Rottweiler) I keep the back seats folded down. I used paracord to braid a few clips that connect their harnesses to the trail rail system. Making your own, you can make it exactly the length you need/want to allow your dog some room to move, yet keeping it short enoungh that they can't get out the doors. When doing this ALWAYS use a harness. If you crash you don't want you best friend's momentum being stopped by a thin belt (aka a collar) around their neck. What's worse than crashing you brand new Jeep, is crashing your brand new Jeep and your dog being killed because it got choked out or it's neck broken.

Here's a photo of the harnesses we use. You can get the patches to say a lot of different things, such as nervous, pet me, do not pet, etc. On his nose is a gentle leader (a head collar, not a muzzle) which is what his lead hooks into. That hangs disconnected when riding, and the harness, which has a D-ring under the handle is clipped to the Jeep.

Didn't think of the seats down aspect... That would certainly take the seat belt lead out of play. Are the tie downs in the back strong enough if we were to get into an accident? I suppose they can always be reinforced, too. Thanks guys!

One thing I was thinking about doing is running a dog lead in the back from roll bar to roll bar at the rear wheel wells. Then attach a short enough strap that my dog can stick is head out but not stand on the wheel well or go over the side. I have three kids so they fill up my back seat! He’s also a bird dog so if we go out,I don’t want a wet, muddy dog on my back seat on the way back. [emoji51]


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HiCenterd said:

Didn't think of the seats down aspect... That would certainly take the seat belt lead out of play. Are the tie downs in the back strong enough if we were to get into an accident? I suppose they can always be reinforced, too. Thanks guys!

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They should be strong enough. I haven't applied a ton of force on them, but I've used them to strap cargo down, and you can get it pretty tight with no issues. Obviously a dynamic load, such as the momentum of a dog being restrained in the event of a crash is likely going to be higher than the force I applied to cargo, so it's hard to say for sure. I wonder if Jeep has specs on the load capabilities of the D-rings and/or Trail Rail hooks. The force exerted on them can be calculated easy enough if you know the dog's weight and the speed of the crash using Newton's second law of motion (F=ma). This is a rough calculation, not taking into account any friction applied by the dog's feet on the floor (thereby reducing the load on the tether), or the elasticity of the tether (which will slow the acceleration rate). What it will do though is give you an idea of how much force may be applied to the hook so you can determine if it is capable of holding the dog in a crash, or if you need to devise a different way, similar to the previous post mentions tying into the roll bar.


FWIW, using quick math, I come up with about 300 lbs of force to restrain my Rottweiler in a 55 mph crash.

Cripes, Shots! Way to go the extra mile on that one. Our pups are 50lbs each so there's no way we'd be putting 300lbs of force in the hooks. Regardless, I think it's a fantastic idea to see if I can dig up the specs on those cargo hooks. If they're anything like the ones in our Cherokee, there's no way I'm trusting them without reenforcement.

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