Cute puppy, right?





Only problem, this was taken May 18, 2015 in Brussels, and puppies grow. This picture was taken at the Laeken Castle, where the Laekenois variety of the Belgian shepherds originated in the early 1900's. The Laekenois is a separate breed in the AKC, whereas in the rest of the "dog world" he is just a Belgian variety. In the US, the largest Belgian breed in terms of numbers is the Malinois, which are used extensively as military and police dogs.

Obi Wan, one of our two Belgian Laekenois, is going with us on my 3000 miles round trip (home to Sturgis SD to Palm Springs CA to home) portion of MTTS 2016.

After doing a test 1000 mile trip with Obi last October (and finding out he has limits to how hard I can push the Mini in curves without seeing his lunch a second time -- I did see it, multiple times the last thirty minutes before reaching our destination -- though my wife said it was more the roller coaster hill I went over in combination with the whipping through the curves that did it), and seeing how much he has grown since then, I set about this weekends project.

Here are some before pictures:





Obi has obviously been riding back there (he sheds!), but the real problem I was looking to solve was the gap between the folded seats, and the large distance between the back of the seats (if not all the way back) and where the folded back seat ends:







So, let's get to work...

First, take some cardboard boxes, and make your pattern:





Then cut your 3/8" plywood (sorry did not take pictures before covering it), then using 3M 90 adhesive spray fasten "auto trunk carpet" / "speaker enclosure carpet" (surprisingly more difficult than the cutting and fine tuning of the plywood itself), and then here's the final result:





And a couple of close ups with some more detail:








And here's a couple pictures of the happier (and bigger) customer:








I was planning to wash the car today (it needs it bad), but I think I'm going to call it a weekend and drink my wine.

Hope to see many of you during MTTS 2016. Be sure to come by and say hi to Obi -- he's very outgoing and friendly.

 

Nicely done...my wife and I have two 60lb mutts and both of us will soon have hardtops (I still have my CMS but am awaiting a JCW...)

For xmas one year, my folks got us a 'pet shield' cover thing...one of those 'as seen on tv' items that I thought was a joke gift. Turns out, it's been a huge help in keeping our pups' dog hair from integrating itself into my interior. It's also helpful since they get carsick in the 4 mile trip to the vet! Do you ever put blankets down to soften the floor for him?

 

Yeah, we'll likely use some type of additional padding or blankets or something. Knock on wood, other than the one time (and he was looking pretty green the last half hour of that trip), he's never gotten car sick. Of course, my wife has me drive a whole lot differently if he's in the car -- I'm a bit worried about how driving too conservatively is going to play in terms of keeping up on MTTS ... but it will be what it will be

 

Nice job! Where are you going to put your luggage?

 

I'm guessing you don't have an F56 -- but there is still a small boot area shown here (not my car):



Note this picture shows the fold down "flat storage" floor that's shown in my before pictures -- so when you remove my new "flat floor" (which is in two pieces so you both can get it in the car as well as be able to remove it). Then there's a little bit of floor storage behind the driver and passenger seat.

But, the other factor is that we will a) be traveling light clothing wise, and b) will ship half the dog food and half the clothes to our friends house we will be visiting near Sturgis SD as needed, and then ship dirty clothes back home -- i.e. we really only need to take food and clothing in the Mini for four days (four days there, four days back).

 

I do have an F56. So I know how small that space is. I'm impressed but your thoughtful planning and self control in packing.

 

I will admit on the 1000 mile "test trip" last fall I think there was more dog stuff packed than people stuff. But given we've done two and three week trips to Italy, Belgium, and the UK with only carry-on luggage, we've got our system down pretty well.