Keep the product, toss the hardware!
This is a 95% great product - it's the 5% that generates so many complaints from buyers. The problem is that while the wire mesh is well made and the clamp fittings are adequate, the hardware provided to assemble the barrier is "worst of the worst" Chinese garbage - bolts that are misshapen and don't fit the clamps, wingnuts too loosely made to ever stay tight, and no washers at all. If you need a solid dog barrier, this is the one to buy... but march down to your local hardware store and buy replacement carriage bolts and wingnuts and add a flat washer and a lock washer for each. Put the flat washer against each clamp, add the lock washer, and spin on the wingnut. You'll be able to assemble the barrier much more easily and tighten it completely and with no loosening. Unless you're going to change the assembly for more than one car, a dozen heavy wire ties cinched around strategic junctions of the panels will help a lot, too - use a pair of pliers to pull them as tight as possible...
Great dog barrier...with a little tweaking needed
I read all the reviews before purchasing this product. I'd like to give you my impression of the item....
We've got a Ford Escape and this fits perfectly in the back of the car to stop our black lab from climbing over the back seat and also keeps him from chewing on my seatbelts in the back (he ruined both the passenger side and driver side shoulder harnesses on the back seatbelts before we bought this).
However....when we first installed it, we put it perfectly vertical and that narrowed the space in the back cargo area due to the back seats being at an angle. When it was vertical, it also rattled like one of the other reviewers commented about. So, we changed it to be angled with the back seat and now our dog has more room to lie down and also it no longer rattles. :)
It did get loose once when we were driving down a dirt road and it fell on our dog. We realized even though we thought the barrier was in nice and tight, we had to tighten it even...
Useful and affordable, but not perfect
We use this divider in a 2007 Subaru Forester to keep our two dogs separated. (They are not the best of friends.) I have also been told that it is safer (if you get in an accident) to keep your dog in a smaller, more confined space such as this provides. The assembly was fairly straightforward and didn't take too long with two people working together. Some of the wing nuts can get cross threaded if you aren't careful. My biggest complaint is that the long threaded bolts that run from floor to ceiling can get loose very easily and the whole thing rattles very loudly. I am constantly having to readjust this piece (at least once on every long trip). Fortunately, all it takes is a twist of the large wing nuts, but it's still kind of a pain.
Click to Editorial Reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment