Built in Africa
to take on the world.

Aluminium is around 30% lighter than stainless steel or mild steel and more flexible, so the canopy comes out lighter and stronger at the same time. It also resists corrosion better: a typical stainless steel canopy carries a high carbon content and rusts once its coating is damaged. A dual cab Bushtech canopy weighs 70 kg, and the weight you save goes back into payload.

Bushtech has built aluminium canopies at its own factory in Johannesburg since 2014, exports to 11 countries, and pioneered many of the designs you now see on competitor brands. Some copies match the look and give up the function: the bracing in the doors, the continuous hinges and the suspension base rubber are the parts that get left out. Check that the canopy is an original Bushtech before you buy.

Yes. Two roof rails come standard on every canopy and take most brands of roof rack, load bar and rooftop tent. The rail profile stops the bolts damaging the rail on bad roads, and it takes a standard M8 bolt, M8 eye nut or cargo loop, so you are not tied to one brand of rack.

The roof is tested to 2,500 kg under static load, which is a strength figure about the structure rather than a driving load. The strength matters because weight on the roof is multiplied on corrugations, so the frame is built to carry a rooftop tent and a fully loaded roof rack. Load within your vehicle's own roof and GVM ratings, which will always be the lower number.

Yes. Every canopy is built with four reinforced internal roof bars, slotted along their full length rather than drilled for rivet nuts, so a table, a solar panel, camping chairs or a cargo net hang wherever you want them and move when the trip changes. The bars take a standard M8 bolt.

Tread plate or smooth plate, chosen when you order and at no extra cost. Tread plate hides scuffs and suits a working ute; smooth plate takes a cleaner line against the paintwork. Both are laser cut and bent on the same machines, so the pattern changes the look and nothing else.

The factory builds the frame in black, white, dark grey or beige, and the panels in black, white, silver, medium grey, dark grey or beige, each in a smooth or textured finish. Our first Australian stock is one specification: a black frame with smooth black panels. Other colours follow in later stock.

Yes: a 5-year frame warranty that transfers to the next owner, so it is not void when the canopy changes hands as it is with some competitor brands, and the ute and the canopy hold their resale value together. It covers the structure and the welds. Seals, gas struts, locks and hinges are wear items covered for two years.

Every door is formed with triple bends and carries its own structural bracing, where the gas struts and locks mount, so it does not flex on a bad road and the seal stays closed. A pressure equalising vent neutralises the negative pressure inside the canopy that would otherwise pull dust past the seals. And the automotive door rubbers sit on the doors, not the frame, where loading and offloading cannot damage them.

Large black electroplated locks, keyed alike so one key opens every door. Each lock has an adjuster that sets how hard the door pulls onto the seal, and each closes onto Bushtech's own UV stabilised sealing rubber, so the seal is tightened as it beds in rather than replaced.

Yes. Gullwing side doors are standard on every Bushtech canopy, so both sides and the rear of the tub open at once and you reach the whole load from the kerb without climbing in. That is the biggest single advantage over a conventional fibreglass canopy, which opens at the back only.

Every door and panel is laser cut from CAD drawings, so each one comes out to the same dimensions as the last, and then bent on hydraulic bending machines. That precision is what lets a door carry triple bends and still close square onto its seal, canopy after canopy.

European-spec continuous hinges, running the full length of each door and tested to 50,000 cycles. A continuous hinge is sealed along its whole length, so water and dust cannot enter where a conventional pair of hinges leaves a gap, and the door still hangs straight after years of opening.

A front glass and a rear glass come standard on every canopy. A sliding front window, a shatterproof tinted rear glass and sliding windows in the side doors are optional extras, chosen when you order. The tinted rear glass is worth having if you tow: it cuts the heat inside and hides what is in the tub.

A vent that lets the air pressure inside the canopy match the air pressure outside. Driving on dirt creates negative pressure in the rear of the tub, which pulls dust in past the door seals; the vent neutralises it so the seals only have to keep dust out, not hold it back under suction. The vent carries an air filter so dust cannot come in through the vent itself.

Yes. Every door has laser cut holes for the wiring, so nothing is drilled when lights go in, and the bracing inside each door carries the cable, so it is not glued or lugged to the skin and does not chafe. The light kits in the range sit in the rear ceiling and in each side door.

Every door carries its own structural bracing, and the locks and gas struts mount to that bracing rather than to the door skin, so a door cannot be prised open by flexing the panel. The locks are keyed alike and each one is adjusted to pull the door hard onto its seal. Bushtech is the only canopy we know of built this way.

No. The canopy comes off with a standard 13 mm socket or spanner on some models, or a standard Allen key and a 10 mm tube socket on others, with no cutting and no drilling to undo. Allow two people and about half an hour: a dual cab canopy is 70 kg and it is awkward before it is heavy.

No, as long as you stay within your vehicle's roof rating. The canopy sits on a custom suspension base rubber made for heavy loads and chassis movement, with several ribs that seal on an uneven tub liner and keep their shape. Avoid any canopy that sits on sponge rubber: it collapses over time and the canopy then works against the tub itself.

Start with the trip you take most and build in three stages. Stage one is the foundation: a cab slider for air to the fridge, pets or passengers, thermal insulation to hold the inside temperature down for the fridge and a dual battery, and the vehicle specific dust kit for the tailgate and tub. Stage two is the accessories: the stainless steel table and bracket, the ammo box holder and clamps, and LED lights in the ceiling and the side doors. Stage three is storage: the large storage box and the carpeted aluminium cupboard. Because the canopy is modular, everything unclips when the trip is over and the canopy goes back to a working ute on Monday.