4pets Boxometer: £25 refundable deposit

What is a Boxometer?

The 4pets Boxometer is designed to help you work out the biggest size of PRO cage that will fit in your vehicle.

It’s designed to measure the available space from the behind the rear seat to the inside face of the tailgate.

Basically, it’s one side of a PRO cage, made from the same aluminium profiles and with the same fibreglass-reinforced plastic corners. It’s adjustable for length, and can be fixed at the Small, Medium or Large settings. It’s 66.0cm high, the same height as all the PRO cages except the PRO 1.

How to use the Boxometer?

• Place it against the rear seat – it has a support leg so will stand upright – and then decide whether it’s worth trying to close the tailgate at the longest setting (emulates Large cages).
• If it is obviously too long, move it to the Medium setting, maybe even to the Small setting.
• It is usually the glass in the tailgate that hits the edge of the cage first, so close the tailgate manually, and gently; please DO NOT press any automatic tailgate closing buttons.

You may, for example, find that the tailgate closes at the Medium setting, but will not close at the Large setting.

Once you know what length of cage is suitable, you need to think about the width.

The chart attached to the Boxometer shows the widths of the 5 different PRO models. Breite (German) means Width; see also the A4 sized pdf on the “Which size is right?” tab, which shows width settings.

As a guide only:

• The PRO size 1 is 54.5cm wide. It’s suitable for small breeds, e.g. Cocker Spaniel, Dachshund, Terrier, Beagle
• The PRO size 2 is also 54.5cm wide, but is higher and deeper than size 1. It’s suitable for medium breeds, e.g. Spitz, Sheltie, Border Collie
• The PRO size 3 is 68.0cm wide. It’s suitable for medium to large breeds, e.g. Retriever, Labrador, German Shepherd
• The PRO size 4 is 81.5cm. It’s suitable for larger breeds, e.g. Bernese Mountain Dog, Rottweiler, Irish Setter
• The PRO size 22 is 96.5cm wide. It’s suitable for two medium sized dogs or, with the dividing panel removed, two medium to large dogs or one large dog

It’s important to check that the tailgate closes across the whole of your preferred width of cage – sometimes for example there is a bulge in the internal plastic moulding of the tailgate, to accommodate a rear wiper.

It’s also important to check the top of the boot opening, to be sure that there is nothing to stop a wider cage from sliding in. Sometimes there are bulges at left and right, which cover the tailgate support strut mechanism, as shown in the pictures.

It helps us enormously if you would work out what is the deepest / longest and widest cage that will fit; this is really the whole purpose of the Boxometer test!

Important note: Some vehicles have an adjustable-height boot floor, or a lip to the boot edge, that might prevent the cage door from being opened. There's an accessory to overcome this problem, a set of 7cm BoxLifter legs and a support for the centre of the cage, but when using the Boxometer we suggest that, as necessary, you raise the Boxometer, e.g. with a few paperbacks or whatever is to hand and about the right height. The last picture shows the position of the bottom of the door in relation to the fibreglass-reinforced corners.

We will send some measuring instructions with the Boxometer, and will add your vehicle to our database if we are confident about your measurements.

Deposit

We charge a £25 deposit, really to remind you that we would like to collect the Boxometer from you ASAP. We will pay all the freight costs, out and back, as long as you are on the UK mainland. Please also choose your car from the drop down list which appears when you click ‘Buy checked items’.

When the Boxometer is back here, we will refund the deposit.

FAQ – can 4pets PRO cages be used with one or more of the rear seats laid flat?

4pets PRO cages are designed to go behind the rear seat but, because of their energy-absorbing rear panel, they can safely be placed in the boot with one or both of the rear seat backs laid flat, as long as the red rear panel is pointing towards the front of the vehicle. If any part of the rear seat is laid flat, the cage must (must!) be particularly well strapped down, using the vehicle’s strapping points.

Note that they must never be turned so the dog enters and exits through a rear side door.

Which size PRO cage is right?

There are 5 different PRO models, each being a different Width. Apart from the smallest size, the Height is the same across the range. There are different options for Length (Small, Medium, Large), reflecting the Length (or depth) of the car boot from the bottom of the rear seat to the tailgate.

PRO 1Small

PRO 2Medium / Large

PRO 3Small / Medium / Large

PRO 4Small / Medium / Large

PRO 22Medium / Large

Delivery charges and arrangements:

Standard delivery information

We charge a contribution towards delivery costs, depending on what you order, where you live, and how quickly you want the goods.

These are our standard charges; there are usually surcharges for all offshore destinations and some remote postcodes - for details please see our delivery information page.

Delivery times

Delivery times are calculated in working days (Monday to Friday, excluding Bank holidays).

Cut-off times for Express Delivery orders
Express Delivery orders placed before before the cut-off times shown below will usually be desptached on the date of order. Express Delivery orders placed after these cut-off times will be despatched the next working day.

Delivery FAQs

When will my order arrive?
There are no deliveries on Saturdays, Sundays or Bank Holidays, except for postable items where Royal Mail has a Saturday delivery. Express Delivery orders placed on a Friday (before 1pm) should be delivered on the Monday or Tuesday, Express Delivery orders placed on a Saturday or Sunday should be delivered on the Tuesday or Wednesday. The arrangements for Very Heavy Items are different and are shown above.

What about Next Working Day delivery?
Most Express delivery orders will arrive on the next working day, if the order is placed before the cut-off time (see above). Some will arrive on the second working day if there has been a "split-delivery". So-called “split deliveries” happen when the couriers do not have enough trailer space for everything that should be moved around the UK, so they will load what they can and leave the rest for the next trailer.

Is my delivery day guaranteed?
No retailer or courier company can ever "guarantee" a Next Working Day delivery. As well as split deliveries, all courier companies occasionally have the same transport problems as can happen to everyone else, including snow blocked roads, closed roads, traffic jams, mechanical breakdown, an inability to find the delivery address, or to gain access to it if, for example, it's in a block of flats. We work with some of the best couriers in the business, and overall they provide an outstanding service.

Do I need to be at home?
We are very flexible with our deliveries and will aim to deliver to an address which suits you – this does not need to be your home address. Goods can usually be left without signature - we prefer this with roof boxes. There's a "Special Delivery Instructions" box in the checkout area where we'll ask you to choose a typical instruction and then amend it to suit your particular requirements.

Payment options:

We take the following cards, and also PayPal. Please note that the entry on your card statement will be from "The Roof Box Company".

Secure payments

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