We have two medium sized dogs (about 40 pounds each) that travel with us whenever we leave home; that’s one of the reasons I wanted an RV. I really didn’t like hotel hopping with dogs.
The storage space under the bed was more or less useless to us. This trailer has enough space for our week long trips; we’re not full timers. Since that space was wasted on a vast nothingness, I decided that would be the best place for a dog crate.
Both of our dogs are crate trained at home, they stay in the crate when we’re not home so that they don’t trash the house. From time to time they’ll go to the crate on their own as well.
I tried to hire a few local welders to do the work for me. Unfortunately every time I tried to go forward with the work, everyone I contacted would break contact. I guess everyone was too busy for this work.
I’ve always wanted to learn to weld, so I bought a welder and associated tools. Now, I’m not a professional and I have a LOT to learn still. This project isn’t complete yet, but we are leaving tomorrow for a week long trip and I wanted to use it in the meantime.
I still want to weld a pan into the bottom, put a sheet metal backing on, and replace the plywood top to match the entire length of the bed/crate. Turns out it’s trimmed about 3-4″ shorter than the bed when they built out the support. It’s not “perfect” right now, but it’s good enough in the meantime.
I built the crate to be as wide and as long as possible. Figured if I’m building it, I might as well give them all the room I can.
If you’ve never welded before, it’s not that hard, but it takes some time to learn proper technique. There’s a few things that’ll make life easier; I’ll link them below. I used all of these items and more for this project. I’ll cover each item in depth when we get back from our trip!