Dog Hammock or Bench Cover: Which Rear Seat Cover Fits Your Trips

If Ella is riding along to a car show or a trailhead, the back seat of the red car needs a plan before we even pull out of the driveway. 4Knines, the seat cover maker out of Oklahoma City, builds its rear seat covers in two basic styles: a bench style cover that lies flat across the seat, and a hammock style that clips up and drapes down to the floor. Both come in a regular 54 inch width and an XL 60 inch width, and both are meant to fit a wide range of cars, trucks and SUVs. The right one for you comes down to how your dog rides and what your back seat looks like.

What the bench style cover is built for

The plain rear seat cover, the one without a hammock, lies over the seat back and seat bottom the way a slipcover would. It follows the shape of the bench seat instead of changing it, so a dog who likes to curl up, sit up and look out the window, or stretch out across the seat can still move around normally. This style also comes in a fold-down seat version, which is worth a look if your back seat splits and folds for cargo. We will get into that more below. For a dog who rides settled and mostly stays put, the bench style is usually the simpler choice, and it is easier to fold seats down when you need the extra room.

What the hammock version adds

The hammock version clips to the head rests of the front seats and stretches down at an angle to the floor behind the front seats, closing off the gap between the front and back of the car. That turns the back seat into more of a shallow pocket than a flat bench. It is worth considering if your dog tends to slide around on turns, tries to climb into the front seat, or if you would rather not have a dog underfoot near the pedals. 4Knines describes these covers as quilted, heavy duty and colorfast, with access to all three seat belts built into the design. The hammock clips on top of the same basic cover, so you are not choosing between two unrelated products so much as deciding whether you want that extra panel.

Fold-down seats and crew cab trucks

Regular sedans and SUVs usually just need a rear seat cover sized to the bench, in 54 or 60 inches, with or without the hammock. Trucks with a crew cab and a back seat that flips up rather than folds down are a different animal, and 4Knines makes a dedicated crew cab truck seat cover with a hammock built for that fold-up seat layout, split so it can handle either side. There are also floor hammocks made specifically for crew cab trucks, sold separately for the driver side or the passenger side, which run down the back of the front seats, across the floor and back up the folded seat bottoms. None of these cover the door panels, which is its own product covered elsewhere in the Gear aisle. Never leave a dog in a parked vehicle unsupervised. That holds no matter which cover is doing the work back there.

In the Gear aisle

Our dog car seat covers collection carries the regular and XL sizes in both the bench and hammock styles, along with the fold-down seat versions and the crew cab truck options. 4Knines ships these directly from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma through Shopify Collective, so the order comes straight from the maker rather than from our garage. The covers are not chew proof. Keep that in mind if your dog treats fabric as a chew toy.

Once the back seat is sorted, the only other thing worth packing is something for Ella to actually enjoy the ride for. Our freeze dried beef liver treats are made a few miles from here and travel well in a glove box.

Questions

Does the hammock version block the middle seat belt?

No. 4Knines designs both the bench and hammock styles with cutouts so all three seat belts stay reachable, including the middle one, so buckling everyone in is not a problem.

Will a regular size fit an SUV, or do I need the XL?

It depends on your back seat width more than the type of vehicle. Wider three across bench seats, common in larger SUVs and trucks, usually call for the 60 inch XL, while most sedans and smaller SUVs fit the 54 inch regular size. Measuring your seat before ordering saves a return trip.

Can I add the hammock later if I start with the plain cover?

The hammock is sold as part of a specific listing rather than as a separate clip on accessory, so if you think you might want it, it is easier to choose the hammock version up front instead of trying to add it after the fact.