D40 canopy

[Watto]

Gday all,

I’d like to swap my hard lid to a canopy, which brands fit/work the best. Any advice?

 

[Old.Tony]

There are several brands that I've seen for the D40. Not completely liking the look of the ARB or Fibreglass Industries jobs because they don't hide the tub lip. Alpha and Snugtop both do and the vehicle looks much better for it (plus no rain falls directly onto the gap - less chance of leaks).

I have the Snugtop canopy on mine - very expensive, it added $4.5K to the cost of my car. It came with no hooks or anything in the ceiling so you can't easily hang stuff. I don't recall what the Alpha was like in that regard.

 

[MANNING]

Hey Mate, I guess it comes down to a few things - budget, appearance and usability and personal choice

There's always cheaper, second hand ones getting around - but you won't always know what your getting or you could obviously go new.
Depending what style your after as to what your paying or how many options you have. Can get the aluminium style or theres fibreglass ones.

all sorts of colours - always nice to match the car colour in my opinion
shapes - squre, rounded, high roof, level roof or fast back to name a few
finishes - grainy or smoothe
window configurations - slide, popup, one of each, flyorsecurity screens
and i guess setups- internal support, roof rails roof racks

lots of options and if buying second hand i wouldn't rush into buying the first one you see. they come up fairly regularly. if your getting a fibreglass one, check for cracks in the glass cause it'd be shiity if it leaked everytime it rained and replace the rubber seal between tub and canopy.

 

[JLA]

Don’t know the brand of my aftermarket canopy fitted by Nissan before I had thought about a D40, but the locks do not hold the tail flap very well, even after careful adjustment. It’s barely adequate especially for a tradie with tools in the back.
Have a good look at the security of the locking system

 

[billy72]

Hi,
I've had a couple of utes with canopies for work and I find the best ones to be the Steeltop. In Aussie they are sold as the SAMMITR canopy.
These are a double skin steel canopy so expect them to be heavier than the classic plastic or fibreglass canopy. They are strong, bloody strong! Come in a couple of different options, my one is the SUV type (was new on my old 07 STX, now on my 13 ST).
Main advantages, central locking standard with all models, double skin steel making them strong and not flexing during cornering, padded interior to save damage, tail lift door hangs over the top of the tail gate so it locks this also.
The rear door locks are solid, mine has been opened and shut thousands of times and still works.
After 13 years the springs for the rear door are starting to get a little tired but they are available as a spare part.
All the parts are available including the glass windows (as I discovered a month ago when I broke one).
One last thing, lots of canopies are being broken into to steal tools etc. There is another couple of things that need mentioning.
The side and rear windows are tinted so very hard to see into at night time so harder for the crooks to see if there is anything worth stealing.
Secondly having a steel body means it's harder to get into. Some canopies have thin steel or ali frames around the windows that are easy to flex and gain access, others being either plastic or fibreglass and being cut open with a battery grinder with a saw blade attached. The door/doors and windows are very strong and the steel body means a lot of noise will be generated cutting into it. The lock could be better to guard against picking but most will never try that anyway. They have an internal light with a hidden switch in the door latch so an alarm can be hooked up to this circuit also.

My 2 cents worth.