Thread: Canvas canopies - any good?

Hi Guys,

We do quite a bit of weekend camping with the longer trip when we can and after years of digging around in the back of the car are now looking for a better way. The 130 looks like a good option but a full metal canopy is probably out of our price range in the short term.

So my question is how do the canvas canopies go? Are they water and dust proof enough to throw all the camping gear in the back? I also imagine on rough tracks you would still need something solid (some rails or something) to keep everything from falling out - is that correct?

Thanks in advance...

On my last ute, a Nissan Patrol, i had a very solid steel frame with side and rear opening doors. This had 40mm reo mesh welded to it as well, and a heavy canvas over the top.
The canvas was 7 years old when i sold the vehicle and the fabric had not deteriorated yet, however there were some small holes from scrapes and bashes in the bush.
It was bloody heavy (70+kg) but never bent.
I have recently modified the canopy on my 110 crew cab, and will shortly be changing the standard horrible plastic canopy over to a decent cotton canvas one.