A quarter of a century ago, Jeremy Bergh was a plumber with a problem. He needed a practical way to carry his tools as well as something that he could camp with his family on the weekend. So he built the first aluminium canopy. This solved his problem, as well people like him all across the world. This was the origin of the Alu-Cab Canopy you know today, as well as the birth of our business.
This is the story of how a single canopy, crafted in a garage at the bottom of Africa, grew into a platform that has redefined how thousands of people experience the world. It’s a story of grit, aluminium and an unwavering belief that the right gear can open the door to life-changing adventure.
It Started in the Garage
Amazon, Apple and Google all started in a garage. And so did Alu-Cab.
“Ever since I’ve known Jeremy he’s always been making things,” says Lynn Bergh, Jeremy’s much better half. “The double garage became his workshop, the single garage next to it became an office, and our cars parked outside…”
Tinkering in his garage whenever he wasn’t working as a plumber, Jeremy fashioned a canopy that could keep up with his life. Work during the week, off-grid exploration on the weekends. He needed something light enough not to eat into payload, strong enough to handle rough tracks and versatile enough to secure his tools while leaving room for the gear that makes adventure possible.
That first Alu-Cab canopy was welded for strength, designed for practicality and born from real-world experience. More than 25 years later and that’s remained the same.
Why a Canopy Is More Than a Box
A great canopy isn’t just a cover for your load bin. It’s an accessory that drastically improves your storage space, doubles the footprint across the roof platform and doubles the secure volume inside the tub. For a tradesman, that means secure, organised tool storage and a load platform for ladders. Tourers have a foundation for rooftop tents, awnings, solar panels, shower cubes, drawers, cupboards and fridge slides. And for the everyday driver? It’s simply the most sensible way to make your truck do more.
Yet for years, the market failed to deliver. Fibreglass canopies couldn’t cope with the ever-increasing weight demands of modern adventurers. Limited load capacity, no side access and a frustrating lack of accessory options. Steel was strong but heavy, devouring payload and fuel economy.
Which is why we’ve always built Alu-Cab canopies from aluminium. Fully welded. With integrated T-rails so that you don’t have to drill into your canopy. Simply bolt-on accessories instead. All hardware is stainless steel and designed to bolt onto factory mounting points. When it comes to choosing the right canopy for your vehicle, we offer a choice of styles, with different specs depending on your needs and available for all major makes and models.
Engineered from Experience
The garage-project has grown into a manufacturer with worldwide distribution and a support network that gives customers real confidence.
We’ve had a lot of experience testing and using aluminium. So we really understand the material. How to engineer it and what the makeup needs to be to carry the strength and practicality that we want from our canopies.
Aluminium offers the best strength-to-weight ratio. Low weight, high strength and endless configurability. By keeping the canopy’s weight down, more payload remains for the gear that matters. Roof tents, recovery equipment, camp kitchens and all the essentials that make work and expedition life better. With a dynamic roof load rating of 200kg and 400kg static load on all our canopies, you can load with confidence, knowing the canopy won’t buckle under the demands of a fully-kitted rig.
Look inside any of our canopies and you’ll see that the engineering speaks for itself. A fully hand-welded frame with pillar bracing and internal roof bars that take M8 bolts, allowing you to suspend the Alu-Table and holder, as well as other accessories from inside the canopy without drilling into it.
Regardless of which canopy you choose – Contour Canopy, Explorer Canopy or Guard Canopy – these aren’t a one-size fit all and all have been engineered to suit specific vehicles with their own vehicle specific mounting. What they all do have in common are two high-quality gas struts per door, six flush mounted locks all keyed alike, three full-size gullwing doors and a foundation to add our full range of accessories.
A Platform That Grows with You
One of our canopy’s greatest advantages is the ability to attach accessories at regular and irregular intervals. This unlocks a level of customisation that was previously unheard of. From bolt-on kitchen cupboards and recovery cupboards, to table slides and chair carriers, to drawer systems, ammo box slides and more, each canopy is a blank canvas. These modular add-ons mean no two setups are ever quite the same and every vehicle can be built according to your specific needs and vision.
And because every canopy comes complete with integrated roof rails you simply bolt in a set of load bars and there’s no drilling, and no permanent modification needed. From here it’s just as simple to add on a rooftop tent of your choice, an awning, roof boxes or whatever else you’d like to add immediately or at a later date. It’s future-proof by design. A canopy that fits your life as a tradie on Monday can evolve into an overlanding command centre by Friday. It’s a platform for your lifestyle.
A Door to the Wild
For Jeremy, the true reward isn’t in the metal or the manufacturing milestones. It’s in what having a canopy on his truck allows him to do.
“When someone is considering our product because they need to get more out of their vehicle, it’s brilliant,” he says, “because I know I’m opening a door for them to experience a similar adventure that I did.”
That’s the thread running through Alu-Cab. The business was born from a dream to connect more deeply with nature, and it has flourished because it helps others do the same. “The second is much more important to me today,” Jeremy says of that mission, “because I’ve grown to realise that nature is the most special place that anybody could ever experience, and should experience, as often as possible. When you put your feet on the ground you connect with the earth. To build a business on something that enables people to recharge their soul is the greatest honour.”
A Quarter Century of Fighting for the Dream
“This journey has been an incredible adventure,” says Jeremy. “Nothing’s been gifted to us. We made this work. We made this happen. And we’ll continue to fight to keep it going. What our team has built from a factory at the bottom of Africa is so special because, yes, it’s come from a lot of hard work, a lot of pressure and a lot of stress, but it also started with a dream.”
That dream all started with a canopy and remains with us today. It’s there in every design, every weld and every additional accessory added to our ever-growing list of gear that makes your vehicle better. And it all started with a canopy, which we now offer to customers all over the world.