Car Crates, one more time?

[Stacy]

I know, I've been procrastinating on this for over a year, but I just couldn't decide what to put in the back of the car for the girls. But I've been using a wire crate for the last few months and I'm ready to upgrade. The wire crate rattles when I drive (it's not that safe either) and it's about to drive me batty. I'm narrowing down on sizes though, so... help? 

Currently I have a 36" long X 22" wide X 24" tall wire crate. And Maggie curls up in it and is happy to ride. She loves to go. I look back and she's curled up in half the crate.

They say that dogs should have less space in the car crate because in an accident there's not as much room for them to bounce around. She also wouldn't be in there for excessively long periods at a time. 

Katie has a crate about the size of the Roughland intermediate, and I tried Maggie in it. She fits, but she was looking at me like, why are you stuffing me in this crate? But, if we were about to ride in the car, she would probably be happier about it. 

So my decision is between the RL large and intermediate crates. I think I can get 2 intermediates side by side in the back, and that would be nice because I think there will be times I want to take 2 at the same time. 

RL Large dimensions: 34"x22"x25"H

Intermediate: 30"x19.5"x22"H (those are all interior dimensions) 

Maggie is 24" at the shoulder, so she would pretty much have to lay down in the intermediate. But she can't really stand comfortably in the large either. And she does lay down when we ride. I'm not sure if I should worry about the height or not.

I'm just struggling with if it's cruel to stuff her in the intermediate or if we need to stick with the large. 

I already have significantly more crates than dogs. I would love to get this right on the first try.

Thanks!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I might buy that end table crate from you. 

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Maybe that's what we need on our main floor, a crate. Riley is tethered to the couch sometimes when she can't be directly supervised or we have visitors but it doesn't work super well.  We are building a deck next year there should be leftover wood maybe I can convince DH to make Riley a nice wooden crate.

[Stacy]

This is the final crate setup I came up with. It's in there pretty solidly. I feel like she's about as safe as I can make it. I hope I never need to test it. I am my father's daughter. A worrier through and through!