Canvas canopies - any good?

[jasonedu]

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...

[Shonky]

I can't imagine that they would be any less water/dust proof than the rest of the Defender!

[Tobacco Bush]

I have a alloy framed "cage" on the back of my 130 with a "canvas" cover.
Both sides lift up and are lockable.
Been on long dusty trips and am amazed at how little gets in back. Less than if it were a ute and less than sometimes in the cabin!
Same goes for rain.
It is great and keeps everything in place and clean.

[richard4u2]

one of the mates has a canvas covered ute for work and it dont last that long so i would not go down that road , i think you will find that .2mm sheet metal would be about the same price as canvas besides you can work the metal as for the canvas you would have to get someone to stitch it up

[BigJon]

Not a Defender but I had this for quite a few years. The snorkel heads were plumbed into the rollbar to pressurise the canopy = no dust.

When I did a big trip halfway around Australia I put mesh under the canvas for security, but mostly it was just the canvas.

These pics were taken on the way into Palm Valley.

[the_chisholm]

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.