The Thule Allax is a range of very well-designed, well-engineered and well-made crash-tested dog cages for use only in the car boot. Allax are available in 10 sizes so, depending of course on the size of your dog or dogs, and the type of car you tend to drive, Allax can be a product that you can take from vehicle to vehicle.

The product on this page is the Allax XXL Compact - 75cm wide by 79cm high by 95cm to 103cm long; it weighs 27.3kg as supplied and can take a maximum load of 55kg. It's the same width and height as the size XXL, but up to 8cm shorter.

Apart from its styling and quality, core to the Allax design is the ability to change its length - the word 'depth' is also suitable here - the measurement from the back of the cage, where it sits against the back of the rear seat, to the door of the cage. This flexibility allows the cage to fit into more vehicles, perhaps to provide space for a folded bumper protector - between the front edge of the cage and the inside edge of the tailgate - and can also act as an additional 'crumple zone' / deformation zone if the cage is extended and there's enough force to reduce its length. In reality the cage is telescopic, longer or shorter, and is unlikely to crumple.

All modern vehicles include front and rear 'crumple zones' which are designed to dissipate impact energy across these zones, reducing the energy transferred to the passenger compartment. But even so, the residual energy involved in even a 30mph crash is massive, and only a properly crash-tested and certified restraint can be relied upon to prevent a dog from being thrown forward at great speed and with surprisingly large force, potentially causing great harm to the human passengers. Even in a rear-end collision at only 30mph a dog can be thrown forward with a force that can be 25 times its bodyweight; for example, a large male Labrador can weigh the equivalent of almost 1 tonne, a weight which takes a lot of stopping.

It therefore makes sense to use a crash-tested cage, if you can, correctly positioned against the back of the rear seat. Note that all modern rear seats include an internal structure of steel or aluminium which will comply with the relevant vehicle safety legislation. Front-end collisions happen much more often than rear collisions and tend to generate even larger forces.

Summary of features and specifications:

• Materials: Made from steel and aluminium, with rounded corners for safety and to prevent damage to the vehicle. Vibration noise has been designed out of Allax cages so far as is reasonably possible.
• High-tech door: The door is burst-proof - from the inside, so as to contain a dog after a collision. It has a push down handle and a 'slam' closure - the gas strut has enough power to close the door when the vehicle is on level ground, so you can concentrate on e.g. holding the dog on its lead. The gas strut will also hold the door open - again to leave you with two hands to take control of the dog and attach the lead. And there's a built-in lock, for use when you need to increase ventilation by leaving the tailgate open but don't want to be anxious about theft.
• Adjustable length / depth: Telescopic side bars allow you to adjust the depth of the cage by 8cm; one bar on each side includes a friction 'lock' which has sufficient grip to hold the cage where it's set, but not so much that a lengthened cage will not shorten if the force is high enough.
• Escape hatch: The rear panel includes an escape hatch which can be opened, when the rear seat is lowered, to allow the dog to leave the cage. This option would only be used if the tailgate could not be opened.
• Ventilation and visibility: The gaps between the horizontal bars provide sufficient ventilation. The purpose of the Perspex window at the top of the door is to prevent the dog from harming itself by pushing its snout into this space. As a driver you'll also be able to see through any part of the cage that sticks up above the rear seat - there is a grille.
• Certification: Crash-tested at Thule's development and testing facility at Hillerstorp in Sweden, as well as by TÜV SÜD in Germany. Allax cages passed the front, rear and roll-over tests, following the requirements of crash-testing standards ECE R17 and ECE R129.
• Dimensions and weight: The size XXL Compact is 75cm wide, 78cm high and 95cm to 103cm long/deep; weight 27.3kg; maximum load 55kg.
• Accessories: There's a range of useful accessories, shown in the list below - a foldable bumper protector, a silicon base mat, a storage bag, and a pair of hooks, ideal for dog leads. The base of the Allax is just thin steel; no covering is supplied. It will be appropriate to have a non-slip base of some sort, but nothing so stiff that it might impede movement in the 'crumple zone'; it is likely that you will add a bed or blanket, something with which the dog is familiar. Thule refer to their non-slip mat as 'isolating', presumably because it will reduce vibration and road noise to an extent.

Suitability:

• A range of sizes is available. The size XXL Compact has been designed with very large breeds in mind, such as . It's suitable for dogs up to 62cm at the withers (the area above the shoulders), a measurement to be taken when the dog is standing.
• What sizes will fit my vehicle? Please refer to our database to find out which cages will fit your vehicle; unless stated, this uses data provided by Thule.
• You measure the length of the boot along the boot floor, from the base of the rear seat, but the angle of the tailgate can also limit which cages will fit. Any recess in the boot floor deeper than 3.5cm will prevent the door from opening, so the Thule Allax will be no good for you - so if you have a height-adjustable boot floor you'll need to set this in the upper position, and please check that the floor is then flat all the way from the outer edge of the door right back to the bottom of the rear seat back. Generally, please follow any vehicle-specific notes on our database and, if there are crash-tested cages listed for your vehicle, please don't order a size which isn't listed - it very probably won't fit, quite likely because the tailgate glass will hit the cage before the tailgate is fully closed.

Assembly:

• Thule Allax will arrive flat-packed, but we assure you that assembly is particularly straightforward. Only one size of Allen bolt is used for all fixings, and these bolts can be applied by hand, so the 5mm Allen key (supplied) is only needed for the final tensioning.
• Four tie-down straps are included to secure the cage in the boot.