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Here are a couple pictures of my dog box I am currently working on. 1" 16gage square steel. with a 1/2" OSB top. Probably going to paint the wood with latex paint and cover with outdoor carpet. Also probably going to spray the steel with truck bed liner from walmart. I am thinking of adding a flood light pointing in each direction except forward. It is 25" tall and 51" long and split down the middle with expanded metal. oh yeah, Going to add rigging rails on the top but make them removable.
Any suggestions or modifications from you experienced houndsmen would be appreciated.

Good looking box, just a suggestion but I would use oil based paint, I like barn/fence paint. It seems to hold up better with moisture. Just my .02 though good luck with it.

Personally, I would forgo the painting of the osb and replace it with treated plywood. In my experience, I don't care what you treat osb with, your lucky to get 3 yrs out of it with carpet on it. Maybe a drier climate out there helps, I don't know.

Nice looking box either way!

Have you had dogs in there yet? It appears that a smaller dog could crawl out the side holes, you may have to put another divider in to help. Just a suggestion..

I am probably going to go with industrial enamel instead of spray paint. It seems to be more tuff.

Treated Plywood sounds good. I might go with 3/4 so it can hold some weight.

The holes are only 5 inches wide which seem to be perfect. the dogs have to turn their heads to put them through. but I think the holes are too tall. I might have to shorten the opening to about 6 or 7 inches.

Here are some pics.

You will never regret putting on treated. Kind of what I was thinking, put in a horizontal bar to shorten up the holes.

An idea I had was to weld conduit or just more square steel on the inside with open ends so I can run wiring to the lights and the dogs can't get to it. Probably just put Napa flood lights on each corner since they are cheap.

Finished the Rigging rails and took the dogs out to see how they liked it. They did pretty good.

Good looking box. I like to build the rig rail taller, almost twice the height of yours. It keeps the dogs from falling off and gives them something to lean on for stability so its not quite so hard on them. Mine is just like yours but with another layer about twice as high that comes half way down the sides, so it does a step down to the back, if that makes any sense. Thats how me and a friend have always done it.

I was going to make mine taller, and I knew it would be better for the dogs that way, but I didnt like the way it looked sticking above the top of the cab. If I have any problems, I can always add extra height, But we will see this summer and fall. Thanks for the info.

I would say the same. Rigging rail should be chest high, at least in the front and I would shorten up the rig holes a bit, Just IMO. Definatley run your wiring in conduit or in the tubing. Turned out pretty good tho.

Your box is looking good but the one thing I would definitely do is put some cross bars across the top and then use some heavier aluminum sheeting for the top. I then covered mine with outdoor carpet also, it really helps in the winter and summer. I made mine strong enough on the very back that if I pick up someone and they need a sort ride to their truck it would not hurt if they even sat there but that is overkill I know. I wanted to do this one time and that is how I had it made and am recommending not going with wood on top. The aluminum could be found possibly as a "second" (mine was) and save you some money. Build it right once and you don't ever have to worry about doing it again was what I was thinking and I am glad I did. Just a suggestion and good luck with your project.

For the top on my rig box I had a local shop that does spray on bed liners for pick up trucks spray the top (plywood) with the spray on. They charged me $25 dollars. The dogs don't slip and "accidents" spray right off. Will outlast the rest of the box.

Gary

I picked up a spray can of spray on bed liner and sprayed the top of my box similar to what you did. I also sprayed the floors and around the doors for both traction and wear resistance. Cost $10 a spray can from the auto store.