Yesterday, I installed and tested the towel curtains on the inside of the crate, just ziptied at the top and front edges, for the side pair. The front is a smaller towel that's draped over the door in front, on both sides of the door, and ziptied in the middle of the towel at teh top edge of the door, with a bungee over the top hooked on front and back of the door near it's bottom edge. THat keeps it from flopping around in the wind as we ride, and lets me roll it up for a view and better ventilation for YOgi (or Teddy if she ever rides in it) when we stop somewhere.
There's none on the back end of the trailer/crate, so it sucks air from the crate and thru the gaps between towel edges and top and each other, and cause evaporation that cools the air inside the crate, swirling hte air around in there to keep any heat from building up as long as we are moving at least a little.
I wet the towels down before our trip to work around midday, and it turns 95F in the shade to about 80F inside the crate without any air movement. In the direct sun it's more like 115F air temperature on top of the crate, and climbs to about 90F inside the crate without any air movement. But even a few MPH towed behind the trike and it drops back to 80F (or less), even with Yogi in there making his own heat. (tested by mounting the thermometer in there and stopping to check it periodically, and remounting it outside and stopping to check it periodically).
PReviously, for longterm cooling while Yogi (or Tiny) would be staying in the crate while I'm at work (cuz it's still pretty warm in the breakroom, with only indirect AC in there whenever the doors open as people go in and out, plus leakage around them), I'd put those little gel ice packs in a layer under the blankets and above the padding, keeping them in the deepfreezer overnight each night beforehand. They worked, but were probably pretty uncomfortable until they softened up as they thawed out. Like little flat rocks underneath.
Iv'e come up with a few ways to make these into a single flat pad, but so far haent' been able to implement any of them workably or reliably, as none of the containment materials were up to the pressure of these dogs walking on them (progably woulda been ok with just laying on them, but all that weight in one little spot and POP. Even the individual packs burst pretty often, leaking gel all around the isnide of the blankets).
So when these:
http://www.khmfg.com/cool-bed-iii.html
went on deep clearance at work, I bought two of the medium sized ones. Partly that was for cost, as they were less than a quarter the cost of the next size up which isn't even twice as big, but mostly for practicality.
They use water added to a foam pad inside, making them kinda like the gell pads for comfort, except they dont' slosh/squish around as much, so there is always some water and some padding everywhere inside the pads.
But even the middle size ones use over 3 gallons of water, so each one weighs 25lbs once filled. Two of them almost perfectly cover the crate bottom on teh trailer, and one of them nearly fills the bottom of the kennel-crate on the trike.
The next size up uses almsot 7 gallons of water, and would be more than 50lbs filled up. I *could* lift it still, but I couldn't walk anywhere with it, and getting it in and out of the confined space of either crate would be a big struggle.
So two smaller ones would be much easier to deal with, albeit still not easy, as I have to take them out of whichever crate is being used that day and put them in the refrigerator to pre-chill them overnight (the foam would be damaged by freezing).
Then I drop them into the deep freeze a couple hours before we leave, which further chills them but ahs no risk of freezing in that short time.
They're still cool by the end of a shift at work, total about 10-10.5 hours from the time we leave the house to go to work to the time we get back to the house afterwards.
Have survived a day with each dog so far (Yogi and Teddy), no ruptures even though the pads are only rated for about 60lbs, and Yogi is more than twice that, and I'd guess Teddy is about 100-110lbs (havent' tried to weigh her yet).
Since these are padding as well as cooling, they don't need the blankets in there, just towels across the top to keep claws from puncturing or scratching them, and to absorb droolies and stuff, and spills from their water bowls.
There's none on the back end of the trailer/crate, so it sucks air from the crate and thru the gaps between towel edges and top and each other, and cause evaporation that cools the air inside the crate, swirling hte air around in there to keep any heat from building up as long as we are moving at least a little.
I wet the towels down before our trip to work around midday, and it turns 95F in the shade to about 80F inside the crate without any air movement. In the direct sun it's more like 115F air temperature on top of the crate, and climbs to about 90F inside the crate without any air movement. But even a few MPH towed behind the trike and it drops back to 80F (or less), even with Yogi in there making his own heat. (tested by mounting the thermometer in there and stopping to check it periodically, and remounting it outside and stopping to check it periodically).
PReviously, for longterm cooling while Yogi (or Tiny) would be staying in the crate while I'm at work (cuz it's still pretty warm in the breakroom, with only indirect AC in there whenever the doors open as people go in and out, plus leakage around them), I'd put those little gel ice packs in a layer under the blankets and above the padding, keeping them in the deepfreezer overnight each night beforehand. They worked, but were probably pretty uncomfortable until they softened up as they thawed out. Like little flat rocks underneath.
Iv'e come up with a few ways to make these into a single flat pad, but so far haent' been able to implement any of them workably or reliably, as none of the containment materials were up to the pressure of these dogs walking on them (progably woulda been ok with just laying on them, but all that weight in one little spot and POP. Even the individual packs burst pretty often, leaking gel all around the isnide of the blankets).
So when these:
http://www.khmfg.com/cool-bed-iii.html
went on deep clearance at work, I bought two of the medium sized ones. Partly that was for cost, as they were less than a quarter the cost of the next size up which isn't even twice as big, but mostly for practicality.
They use water added to a foam pad inside, making them kinda like the gell pads for comfort, except they dont' slosh/squish around as much, so there is always some water and some padding everywhere inside the pads.
But even the middle size ones use over 3 gallons of water, so each one weighs 25lbs once filled. Two of them almost perfectly cover the crate bottom on teh trailer, and one of them nearly fills the bottom of the kennel-crate on the trike.
The next size up uses almsot 7 gallons of water, and would be more than 50lbs filled up. I *could* lift it still, but I couldn't walk anywhere with it, and getting it in and out of the confined space of either crate would be a big struggle.
So two smaller ones would be much easier to deal with, albeit still not easy, as I have to take them out of whichever crate is being used that day and put them in the refrigerator to pre-chill them overnight (the foam would be damaged by freezing).
Then I drop them into the deep freeze a couple hours before we leave, which further chills them but ahs no risk of freezing in that short time.
They're still cool by the end of a shift at work, total about 10-10.5 hours from the time we leave the house to go to work to the time we get back to the house afterwards.
Have survived a day with each dog so far (Yogi and Teddy), no ruptures even though the pads are only rated for about 60lbs, and Yogi is more than twice that, and I'd guess Teddy is about 100-110lbs (havent' tried to weigh her yet).
Since these are padding as well as cooling, they don't need the blankets in there, just towels across the top to keep claws from puncturing or scratching them, and to absorb droolies and stuff, and spills from their water bowls.
