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Next up we had to weld the upright legs. You will note that I decided to make the canopy slightly lower than the cab. The reason for this is to minimize wind resistance.

If you make the canopy high enough to take two ammo cases on top of each other, it will stick out too much above the cab and wind resistance will be high. So I decided to make it slightly lower than the cab. The only downside will be that I can fit only one row of ammo cases on the slide at the front doors.

I have seen some canopies with only one door on each side. I decided to go for two doors on each side. Firstly it added another pillar in the middle which makes it stronger and secondly you do not always need everything inside the canopy. Sometimes you only need the kitchen and do not have to let the rest be open to the elements.

The picture below shows that the canopy is slightly lower than the cab.

On our canopies the upright legs were cut 465mm long with a 20 degree angle. 20 Degrees is more or less the same as the angle of the cab.

We first installed the base frame to the vehicle and then welded the upright legs onto it. We only welded it slightly in order to be able to move it afterwards. We then determined the size of the upper frame.

PLEASE NOTE: The longer your upright legs the narrower your upper frame will be.

In our case the upper frame is 1,210mm wide and 1,410mm long

Niel fitting the base frame to the vehicle

Adding the upper frame to the legs

Because the canopy is not high enough to take two ammo cases on top of each other I decided to make the front door slightly larger so that the ammo case can slide in side ways. This way I will be ale to use three ammo cases behind the cab. If you slide the ammo cases in over their length you will only be able to fit two of them.

The distance between the legs at the front side doors is 575mm and at the rear side doors it is 720mm.

The size of the back door is different on the two canopies. I wanted my door as large as possible without being sloped. Niel on the other hand wants to add his gas cylinder to the back, next to the door. In order to do that you need a larger rear side panel, thus a smaller door. My canopy's rear door os 990mm wide. The only difference between the two is that I moved the upright supports at my rear door as close as possible as the side upright supports. The picture below shows the back side of Niel's canopy. Note the gap between the rear and side supports.

In front we also welded two upright supports. The distance between these supports are just as wide as the width of the rear window of the vehicle. Niel will be fitting front and rear windows. I will not be fitting windows at this stage, but welded the supports in the same position in case I change my mind later on.

At the top we welded one support over the width of the canopy above the middle side leg. We then welded supports on both sides over the length of the canopy. These supports are the correct distance apart to be able to fit a roof top tent. The centres of these supports are about 870mm appart.

Below are the main dimensions mentioned so far. Please note that these dimensions are only an indication and will differ on each different type of vehicle.