Can you ship a canopy to me?
Yes we do, if you are buying a canopy or a canopy with accessories, and can not come down to pick it up, we can provide a freight cost to send them to your business address with a forklift or a depot close to you.
If you are buying accessories with the canopy at the same time, we will put them inside the canopy (if they are small enough to fit inside) and ship to you. The canopy will be protected by bubble wrap, cardboards and ropes to hold it on our custom-made pallet.
You can also arrange your own transport, we are happy to get it ready for shipping.
If you have any questions regarding shipping and receiving a canopy, please give us a call on 03 9357 8913
Can you ship accessories to me?
Yes we do, all the items that are not required to be put on a pallet can be shipped to your home address. The shipping options will be specified in every product description.
Can I get a custom designed canopy?
Unfortunately not anymore. We don’t want the prolonged turnaround time and increased costs trouble our customers anymore.
You can still get a quote for a standard canopy here: https://www.kylincampers.com.au/ute-canopy-quote/
What’s the difference between jack off and non-jack off canopies?
They fit different purposes and have different build features. The non-jack off canopies are permanently fixed to your tray and will not be easy to take off. It only has single sheet floor and moderate supports internally, we only consider the non-jack off canopies to be used on-road and as a work storage solution.
Our jack off canopy has full tube frame reinforcement inside, including the roof, corners and floor. It also has double layered floor with tube frame inbetween to support the weight when you lift it off. For example, a 1800mm dual cab jack off canopy can support 300kg on the roof and 1 ton of weight on the floor when jack off.
All of our canopies have single piece roof as standard where some other manufacturers has the roof seam welded in the middle. All of our jack off canopies offers sandwich floor (two pieces of sheet metal and tube frame), the bottom of the canopy is fully enclosed and sealed, where many other manufacturers only have one piece floor above the frame and an open bottom.
What are your standard sizes for canopies?
Our standard sizes in mm (L x W x H in mm): 800 x 1800 x 860; 1200 x 1800 x 860; 1500 x 1800 x 860; 1650 x 1800 x 860; 1800 x 1800 x 860;
Bend height: 360mm, Top width: 1500mm
What are the weights of your canopies?
The weight of our canopies varies from different sizes, please contact us for specific weight of a specific model.
What are the materials of your canopies?
Our standard canopies use a combination of heavy duty aluminium (1060) plates and aerospace grade aluminium SHS (6000 series) , they are both light and heavy duty.
Our mill finish flat plate is 2.5mm, we don’t offer 3mm because we can’t achieve single piece roof with 3mm. From many years of experimenting, we found 2.5mm is the optimal thickness for sheet metal folding and forming.
Our checker plate has 3.3mm overall thickness including checker, the thinnest point ranges from 2.2 to 2.4mm.
We use custom made checker plate to ensure it’s of the same weight between a flat canopy and a checker plate canopy in same size. We ensure they are of the same strength in this way.
Many other manufacturers only indicate their checker plate thickness by overall thickness which ultimately means less weight and less strength than a flat canopy of the same thickness.
5052 vs 1060 Alloy
As you may have noticed that some of our products are 5052 marine grade alloy and some of them are 1060 alloy.
We also offer full 5052 alloy for trays & custom canopies and we are exploring options to have a standard production line of 5052 alloy canopies.
Why is that? the answer is simple, 5052 alloy is stronger than 1000 series alloy.
For example, our mudguards, alloy under tray drawers are both 5052 alloy flat plate. Some of our competitors use 2.5mm, 3mm or 4 mm 1060 alloy for their mudguards or drawers.
But here is the data that anyone can find online: 5052 alloy is better in both fatigue Strength, shear strength, tensile strength & corrosion resistant than 1060 alloy. Let alone, tensile strength of 1060 aluminium alloy is 110-130, while that of 5052 series is 210-230, that is to say, the hardness of 5052 alloy is 100% higher than that of 1060 alloy. Which means a 3mm 5052 flat plate might be even stronger than a 4mm 1060 flat plate during tensile strength test. 5052 alloy will perform better than 1060 alloy under more extreme conditions.
That’s why we tend to use marine grade alloy for smaller products that require minimum tube reinforcement, because the sheet metal itself will be taking the stress at most occasions. For example, under tray drawers & mudguards. But our jack-off canopies are also reinforced with tube frames so it can handle more weight inside or on top.
How do I choose a canopy?
In our opinion, it all comes down to the balance of pricing and quality. Lucky for you, we do not sell anything too cheap to be true, nor something that costs an arm and a leg. But we also provide excellent build quality and good warranty on our canopies.
A few things to look at or compare before you purchase a canopy:
- How the weldings are like, it is TIG or MIG, were they done in a uniform way, is there any air bubble in the welds?
- How the structural frame is done, are the tubes loosely welded to the sheet metal or not? Are there any gusset supports for tubing. How do the tubes join each other?
- How good is the seals, will it leak? (Our canopies have full rubber seal around the door as well as seal covering piano hinge for maximum dust and water proof, many other manufacturers don not seal their hinges hence water will leak from the hinges.)
- How much does it weigh? Lighter does not always mean better, sometimes weight indicates how much material have been used. We find it interesting that some manufacturers claiming they are using 3mm alloy but have a lower weight than our 2.5mm canopies in the same size and spec. (which 3mm alloy plate is about 10-20% more heavier than 2.5mm) There is no magic in weight saving, each piece of material you use on a canopy will reflect on the weight.
Do you offer installations?
We do not offer any installation/fitting service due to short-stuff. All the listed prices on our website do not include any installations.
How do I fit accessories to the canopy?
You can easily fit our drawers in one of our jack off canopies with some tech screws or rivnuts.
Some of our drawers are made to suit jack off canopies, where the drawer has spacing underneath to pass the canopy floor lip.
Most back wall accessories including ladder, spare wheel carrier and jerry can holder will suit our canopy back wall frame layout. You can easily bolt them to the canopy.
All of our roof racks match with the roof tubings in our jack off canopies.
Can you powder coat or paint canopies to other colours?
Unfortunately not, we only offer satin black and gloss white as powder coating options. If you want to colour match or paint it to a different colour, we do recommend purchasing the checker plate or flat plate raw finish one from us and get it painted in a panel shop or a powder coating factory.
Powder Coating surface caring guide
- To maintain both the aesthetic and functional properties of your powder coat, please ensure you are cleaning your tray and canopy on a regular basis. Allowing a build-up of dirt and grime will require more intense cleaning and is not good for the powder coated surface.
- Carefully remove any loose surface deposits with a damp sponge or cloth by gently rubbing. Do not rub powder coated surface excessively or with any abrasive materials.
- Avoid pressure wash, abrasive cloth (e.g. Scouring pads, scrapers) and corrosive chemical product to wash the surface. We only recommend using soft cloth, warm mild diluted soap water to clean the surface.
- Keep your tray and canopy undercover where possible, being exposed to constant weather conditions (including rain, sun and hail) will shorten the life of the powder coated surface
- High levels of salt or pollutants from coastal or industrial areas may also shorten the life of the powder coated surface. Winds carrying air borne debris, such as salt, will have an abrasive and erosive effect. Cleaning should be done more frequently if your tray and canopy are exposed to these conditions.
- A powder coated tray can be damaged by heavy items or by an item rubbing against the surface. It is recommended that a rubber mat is used in on the tray floor and travel blankets/ padding etc are used when carrying a load
- Please note that our warranty does not cover any surface damages, deterioration, wear and tear that occur over time or caused by any events after the sale of any products. It is the customer’s sole responsibility to maintain the exterior finish of their products.
Are your canopies interchangeable from tray to tray?
Yes they are, as long as your tray have enough internal space to suit the canopy.
What should I do if my tray have narrower internal width than your standard width?
That’s a common problem with some genuine trays with coaming rails, you can purchase our 1770mm wide canopies. But if you want something with 1800mm wide, we recommend build a false floor on top of the tray under the canopy to raise the canopy up and sit on the tray.
Will your canopy support a roof top tent or a boat on the roof?
Yes, our jack off canopies can support up to 300kg of weight (standing weight) on the roof. So you will be ok to travel with a boat or a roof top tent.
We recommend buying our jack off canopies if you are thinking of putting weight more than 150kg on the roof consistently.
We do not recommend a non jack off canopy without extra tube frame reinforcement to take a roof top tent or a boat or anything over 150kg on the roof for both on road and off road uses.
I saw marks on some panels of your flat finish canopies, are they dents?
They are not dents and not warrantied. They are just welding marks from the reinforcement brackets welded at the internal side of the doors and front & back panels, and welding marks from reinforcement tubing welded to the canopy internal sheets.
This is a common appearance for any flat finish canopies, we try to be as careful as possible when we weld them but they are still unavoidable.
And note, upgrading the material to 3.0mm flat plate will not help. As long as the door frame is being welded properly or even being welded, the welds are gonna be visible from the outside.
And we would not recommend polish it out either, because that will ultimately end up with polishing the whole panel, and will lose the beauty of mill finish flat plate.
If you do not prefer it this way, we always recommend going with checker plate unpainted, powder coated flat canopy, vinyl wrap or sign writing will cover it up and have a better finish.
For our canopies with no back door, the internal back wall is extraly reinforced, so customers can fit spare wheel, jerry cans on the back if they wish to. If there is no need to fit anything on the back of the canopy, customers can reverse the canopy when install. Or to say, there is no need to differentiate the front wall from the back wall.
I have a particular fridge or other accessories I want to fit into your toolbox/ canopies, how do I know it’s gonna fit or not?
The best thing you can do is to contact us for further advice on any particular fridge slide or drawers, our team has access to dimensions of most fridge and fridge slides, we are able to help.
But it can be tricky when it comes to door openings and internal space. For example, our 700mm long toolboxes have a different door design compare to other canopies. The 700L toolboxes have a ‘set-on’ door design where the door hinged from the canopy roof and looks like a cover to the box, where the other canopies have a ”set-in” door design, the door hinged from the door frame and sits inside the door frame.
We make our 700mm long toolboxes this way to maximise the space and door opening width, which means you can basically fit any common fridge slides in. It can be tricky when you buy small toolbox but not big enough.
A lot of other retailers and manufacturers have set-in door design, which means you will lose 100 mm each side for the door fold. A 700mm long box will give you 500mm space left between rubber. And there are still gas struts to consider. You will eventually have about 450mm left between gas struts if you buy a 700mm long box that has a set-in door design. While our 700mm long box has a 600mm door opening width between rubber and 540mm between gas struts.
I don’t have a tray yet, will you be making trays?
Yes we are, have a look here:
https://www.kylincampers.com.au/product-category/ute-trays/dual-cab-tray/
Where are your canopies made?
Most of our canopies and accessories are made in China by our trusted list of suppliers and factories. Most of our canopies and accessories are designed by Australians in Australia. We re-design and improve our canopies and accessories all the time over the past few years, continue to monitor and control the build quality from our suppliers and factories. They are proved design to handle the some of the toughest Aussie conditions.
It is hard to keep a balance between pricing and build quality but we’ve always sticked to the principle that quality always comes first. If you are not a big fan of things made overseas just because of its origin country, we are afraid that we are not the best choice for you. But if you are willing to know more about how we’ve done our work here and looking forward to buy quality products within a reasonable price, we are the right people to talk with!
At Kylin Campers, we believe that product made overseas does not indicate it has poor quality and workmanship. We believe that if we keep up the standard at our end, continually control and monitor the production process, re-design our works based on innovations and customer feedbacks, we will be able to deliver excellent products at an affordable price. You are still supporting a local business where all the necessary hard works have been done by us.
We are also looking forward to work with some local suppliers to expand our production line locally and keep providing quality products to Aussie tradies and campers!
