Aluminium Canopy build up

I had a similar problem with my D-Max extra cab with a fibre glass canopy with a drop of about the same from the "door sill" to the floor of the tray, in the end I decided against having a drop down fridge slide that would need to be packed up to the sill height, and went for a lower profile fridge that I could leave inside the canopy and access it from the side easily. To be able to open the fridge and have the lid in or past a vertical position, the height when open needed to be no greater than 890 mm to avoid jamming my fingers against the roof of the canopy. The only two fridges that I could find of suitable size were a 61 ltr Everkool and a 50 ltr Trailblaza, for obvious reasons I bought the Trailblaza (another subject).
A piece of slotted angle attached to the floor across each end held with "Riv-nuts and Bolts" enables turn buckles from the fridge handles to the slotted angle to hold it solidly in position.

I went to an aluminium supplier/fabricator when I needed mine done we came up with this 3yrs ago. They welded each side of the 4 lengths of box alloy in place you can see that in the pics. They cut a 3mm plate for the top I fitted it and the fridge slide myself with flat head tec screws from Bunnings https://www.bunnings.com.au/zenith-10g-x-16mm-wafer-head-metal-screws-100-pack_p2408985

I had enough room up front to fit 2 batteries the base plates are held down with 4 x 8mm bolts also bought some cheap plastic CNC chain of the net form Hong Kong 1 mtr for $10 to run the fridge wire in. It's mounted on some angle only used 600mm but have added more since pic taken so it looks neater the good thing with it is you can take out or add links to suit.

Kingy,

Wouldn't be hard to fabricate a false floor for all, or part of your canopy. If so, you can have loose sections in the floor where you could store heavy and little used items. Rather than a heavy drop slide, a better option is an upright fridge. An 80L Engel upright is only 5kgs heavier than a 40L Engel chest fridge. And regardless what many people think, all the cold air doesn't fall out when you open the door, because it's full of food, drinks etc.

Just be careful of weight, setting up your canopy. Aluminium might be light, but if you add enough of it, it becomes heavy! Things like lithium batteries, exxy I know, plastic drawers, and as little metal as possible keep weight down. You'll need to allow for water, fuel, beer, tucker & maybe some tools and parts.

Some years ago, we got an alloy camper made, and added plenty of options. It's got a double bed, drawers underneath, slide out kitchen, shelves, roof rack, & extra storage. When eventually weighed it, ute was well over GVM. These days we travel with bare essentials.

Bob

Hi Kingrat,
Where are you located? There are companies like Drifta Camping Equipment (https://www.drifta.com.au) that specialise in canopy fit outs. Try looking at their photo galleries to get a better idea on how you can do it yourself, or just let them fit it out for you.

Macca.

Hi Kingrat

This is what we did with our canopy to get around a similar problem. We have mounted the HF Radio and Battery Management System in the space created. There are some other photos under my profile.



Good luck,

Baz - The Landy