For reference, wire dog crate dimensions:
* 36 Standard - 37L x 24-3/4W x 28H (This size is ideal for my dog, who is an 87-pound Alaskan Malamute.)
* 42 Standard - 43L x 28-1/2W x 31-1/2H (I use this size in the house, but it's huge for car use.)
* 36 Narrow - 37L x 21W x 26H (This is cramped in height - he can stand, but can't hold his head up while sitting - has to duck.)
* 42 Narrow - 42-1/2L x 21W x 30H (It's frustrating how MUCH taller these are...see below.)
Okay, it's definitely bigger than the Outback - it's just not quite *enough* bigger to be really useful to me. I currently have one dog, and in the Outback, I use one 36 Standard crate, which BARELY fits in the back with the seat up - like, it's touching the seat and ceiling and half an inch from the hatch glass. Seriously perfect fit. I occasionally carry friends' dogs, and am starting to look at getting more for myself. A second 36 Standard BARELY fits on top of the folded-down second row of the Outback - again, touching the ceiling on both sides and a couple inches from the backs of the front seats. Floor width in the Ascent runs about 45-1/2" between things, so plywood or drywall would have to be diagonal, and the special narrower 21" dog crates would fit two across, but the regular 24-3/4" wide crates will not. Since my dog can't sit upright comfortably in the 36 Narrow, the big question was whether I could get two of the 42 Narrows in. Verdict...not without significant bending, but *maybe* with that? The height of the hatch opening in the middle is 30-1/2", which is fine. The stupid corners are where it all falls apart. Like most cars, it's quite rounded there, and you lose a lot. At 30" high from the floor, I measured the width of the hatch opening as only 35" - not nearly enough for two 21" crates. However, at 28" off the floor, that's up to 41" high. So, at 26" up you certainly have 42" comfortably, so two of the 36 Narrow crates is no problem, but at the 30" height of the 42 Narrows, big problem.
If it were just the hatch opening itself it wouldn't be a big deal, since it's not like these are coming in and out a lot, but the associated pillar and ceiling bits continue that measurement for quite a ways in, so you can't just shove the crate a smidge forward to avoid the problem. In terms of just how far you'd have to go, that's a bit tricky to measure with just a tape, but it's probably between 6 and 12 inches. Which....you don't have. Looking at lengths, the length along the *floor* is what usually gets measured, but doesn't help for dog crates. Taking into account the slope of the hatch in the back and the slope of the seats in the front, with the seats all the way back it's only about 40" from seat backs to the hatch glass at the 30" height, so when you move the seats forward a setting or two you can just barely squeeze in the 42-1/2" length of the 42 Narrow crates - not enough leeway to move them far forward to avoid the roof curvature conflict. It might be possible to cram them in with lots of scratches and lots of bending, but I'm not sure. If you're considering it, I'd suggest bringing in something more rigid like a cardboard cutout to play with besides just a tape measure to see how bad it will be. This is a common problem across several car models in this market segment, so I e-mailed Midwest Homes for Pets (the company that makes my crates) to suggest that it'd be much appreciated to have an in-between crate model with a 28" height, and maybe 40" or so length. We'll see if anybody there agrees with me someday...
That said, another configuration DOES appear to be possible and useful in the Ascent that is not an option in the Outback. Forget about the Narrow crates for a moment (which have doors only on the two ends) and reconsider the 36 Standard crate I use today, which has a door on one end and one on a side (the side door being the one I use in the current configuration). Two of those should fit sideways with the second-row seats still up, I think. The 37" length (that now is along the width of the car) would fit just fine, with a few inches along each side for stashing other gear. For crate width / car length, two of them need 49-1/2". Putting the second row seat backs in a moderately upright position (more forward than they were set up when I got in the car, but not straight either - still comfortable) and moving them to the forwardmost locking position on the floor, I got exactly that measurement from the seat backs to the hatch at their 28" height off the floor. It's worth noting that the captain's chairs at least don't go very far forward... They slide all the way up to touch the front seats when you just want storage behind them, but they do not lock in position up there - the last position where they actually lock in place is quite a ways back. Set there I still had *plenty* of leg room. I would really like the ability to use them another ~4" forward to be sure the dog crates would fit that way, and I'd think adding some ratchet positions should be easy enough. It's possible the bench seat is better here - I didn't get a chance to see that configuration. The obvious downside with this setup is one dog would have to enter and exit through the hatch, and for the second dog you'd have to flip down the seat to let them in and out from the side door. So, possible, but fiddly.
*IF* you could cram two of the Narrow crates in, then there would still be room for either another Narrow one or a 36 Standard sideways in the front with the second row flipped down, so that would be your possible configuration for three dogs. (I measured about 68" in total length from the hatch to the front seats at top-of-crate height, compared to the 85" along the floor.) It'd be real tight, but it actually looks like you could even get a 36 Standard in just on one side (one captains' chair down or the 60 side of a 60/40 split bench) and still have room for a passenger on the other side, with the caveat that your passenger would be pretty uncomfortable - with the captain's chairs the armrest would need to be flipped up and there'd be dog crate right there. Of course, both of those arrangements some sort of rooftop cargo box becomes a necessity for all of your actual gear.
So, the basic summary for me is that I *could* get more dogs into the Ascent than I can in the Outback, but probably not nicely enough to make that worthwhile. I'm probably better off making do with the Outback by getting a semi-custom-fit dog transit carrier like a MIM Variocage or TransK9, since the sloped sides of those would make enough more efficient use of the space I have that I could get two dogs in the back while still retaining the seat, and then when I'm ready for a third just leap all the way up to something like an Expedition or Suburban (which can fit FOUR of the 36 Standard crates btw). Unless, you know, Subaru makes something even bigger for that market by then.
