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Best Pop Top Roof for Land Rover Defender 110? | Full Comparison + Why We Chose Safari-Equip

Rust to Road

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This week we take a deep dive into our brand new pop top roof on our 1989 Land Rover Defender 110 — explaining exactly how it works, what it’s like to live with, and why we chose it over other options available in the UK.

After our first adventure in the Yorkshire Dales, we now break down everything you need to know if you’re considering a pop top conversion for your Defender.
We walk through:

How the Safari Equip pop top works
Full setup and living experience
What we love (and what we don’t)
Key buying considerations
A comparison of the main UK pop top options

Before choosing, we researched multiple UK options including Safari Equip, AW4x4, Poppin Rovers, Alu-Cab Icarus, Dormobile, and Drivelodge. We compared cost, lead times, features, and real-world usability for overland travel.

For us, the Safari Equip Defender 110 pop top stood out as the best value, especially with full installation, a high-quality finish, and no need to reuse our damaged original roof.

If you’re planning a Land Rover Defender build, overland setup, or considering switching from a roof top tent to a pop top, this video will help you make the right decision.

Links to Land Rover Pop Top Suppliers in UK and Europe:

Existing roof not used:

https://www.alu-cab.com/product/icaru... South Africa 🇿🇦 but supplied/installed in the UK 🇬🇧 by Nene, Tuff Trek, and other suppliers.
https://www.safari-equip.co.uk/shop/r... UK 🇬🇧
https://www.psp-expeditioncampers.com... Netherlands 🇳🇱

Existing roof used - includes integrated bed system:

https://dormobile.co.uk/campervans-la... UK 🇬🇧
http://drivelodge.co.uk/portfolio-ite... UK 🇬🇧
https://aw4x4.co.uk/shop/ols/products... UK 🇬🇧 https://x-vision-x.com/en/products/hu... Germany 🇩🇪 (kit version also available)
https://shop.ex-tec.de/de/space-tec-h... Germany 🇩🇪 - Options for 110 and 90, hard and soft materials
https://www.4land.pl/EN/kampery - Poland 🇵🇱
http://4x4camp.eu/layout.htm - Germany 🇩🇪 - 3 different models
Facebook: - France 🇫🇷

Lifting roof kits - DIY:

https://www.poppinrovers.co.uk/ - UK 🇬🇧
https://theoverlandies.com/en/poptop-... - Germany 🇩🇪
https://faaq.fr/azteque/ - France 🇫🇷
https://x-vision-x.com/en/products/hu... Germany 🇩🇪 (fitted option also available)

Pop top bed systems:

https://fanello.swiss/produkt-kategor... more bed systems - Switzerland 🇨🇭

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#LandRoverDefender #PopTopRoof #OverlandingUK #Defender110 #VanLifeUK #4x4Build #OverlandSetup #SafariEquip #RoofTopTent #AdventureVehicle #rusttoroad

13 Comments

@RusttoRoad-4x4 Creator 4 months ago Pinned

What pop top would you choose for your Defender — and why?

@brianhoskins1979 1 month ago

Nice - you have a new subscriber.
A couple of things about your solution that would be negatives for me personally: first the looks. I like Poppin Rovers for this reason - using the existing roof keeps it as close to stock looking as possible. Second, it looks as if your windows only open to fly screens without the ability to unzip the screens. I quite like unzipping my fly screens on the roof tent sometimes, if I want a better view out for a bit.

And I'd like to ask you a crucial question: how is it in the wind? Because for me, this is the one thing that can totally ruin a camp in my Roof tent. I have discovered that any forecast showing >10MPH winds is a downer. Because 10MPH forecast can typically mean gusts in excess of 20MPH, and that can make things pretty miserable especially at night. Winds forecast >20MPH I find the rood tent is basically unusable.
And these days we seem to be getting more frequent bouts of high wind than we used to.
Obviously with your setup you can close the pop top and be inside the vehicle in those conditions. Which is nice. That's unfortunately not an option with mine: it's roof tent or nothing.
But was wondering if you perceive any difference in wind vulnerability with the pop top compared to the tent? I guess at the least you could park angled into the wind to reduce the effects? The wind would then mostly go over the hard shell of the roof?

@DavidMSA 4 months ago

Thank you for this honest real-life review!

@davidandrewmitchell5590 4 months ago

Great information.. thanks for sharing this. Your smile says it all😊

@kDM7824 4 months ago

Brilliant. Liked and hyped.

@frank-lr 4 months ago

You wont regret it. We've had an x-vision-x fitted to our then-new Defender straight away for 6.500€ 10 years ago exactly. Best investment ever :) Main reasons were that we could retain the original roof and that it comes with a proper bed you can push up as well complete with mattress and bedding. It also has a thinner lower frame making the Landy look a little less bulky.

@runesteinsnnkristoffersen5641 4 months ago

Goodigoodi , and thx. for the `deep dive` , why you chose Safari-Equip 🙂

@NigelHicklin 4 months ago

Great video and great value for the money to including fitting is very good🙌🏼 come on want some adventures lol 👍🏼

@BrianAllison-k5k 4 months ago

Nice breakdown on pros/cons of pop-tops. Probably, the only pop-top l'd consider (which l'm not), would be the Drivelodge...because it would allow me to park or make repairs in the garage. It takes me 20 minutes to remove my roof-rack/hard-shell tent/upper-rack/storage boxes all at once/as one unit, with outside overhead winch system. And, it's just me 90% of the time...so, my cozy little compartment is fine.

@maccaandelliswheelschannel8626 4 months ago

Hi its me again nice to see your pop top,, I did 2 up grades to mine first as your our mattress folded over like ours when put away we found that quite often during the day it would unfold its self ,so I cut my mattress in two making one larger than the second one so that our hips were not on the join also stitching velcro on the to hold them together, this was a game changer we had it like this for years .Then I saw the alu-cab ones that the whole bed lifts up ,so looking at mine I decided to lift just the rear one it was very easy to do and cost next to nothing, which now means that we don't have to make the bed up every day/night .if you can send me email address or some sort of contact details I could send you some photos, honestly it's a game changer

@1979mcq 4 months ago

Hi great video. The only thing that puts me off that one is the velcro windows which are on the inside. What stops rain going through mesh and running down the window panels to the bottom and water running off into camper at the bottom? Can we have some more details about them? Also how strong is the roof? Can it be walked on? If it is strong I can see it being a massive weight saving over a normal roof and rack.