The last decade has seen a rapid rise in the different brands of pop-top elevating roofs available in the UK for fitting to VW Transporters or Ford Transit Custom campervans. What are the differences in features between our Jerba Campervans’ own brand pop-top roof and the other branded roofs, and more importantly what makes one feature better or worse than another!
In this blog we aim to explain our thinking on why we have chosen particular features in the design of our own elevating roof – driven by high quality and through listening to customers we are confident that our pop-top ticks plenty of important boxes.
In 2015, frustrated by poor experience in supply and quality from other elevating roof brands, we launched our own Jerba Campervans’ pop-top roof for the VW T6 and T6.1 – the roof is now seen on hundreds of vans across the UK. In early 2025, with the launch of the new VW T7 and Ford Transit Custom, we began developing an entirely new design pop-top roof specifically developed to fit this new era of campervans.
Launched to the public in October 2025 at the Birmingham NEC National Motorhome & Caravan Show, the roof won immediate attention being the main focus of our long wheel base Cromarty conversion which was awarded the Best Pop-Top Campervan for the “Out and About Live Campervan Awards 2026”.
Multiple Elevations – our new VW T7 and new Ford Transit Custom pop-top roof is available for both the long and short wheel base vehicles and in front and rear elevating designs.
What makes our Jerba Campervans’ pop top roof different to so many other UK manufacturers and brands?
- Streamlined – reducing wind noise and complimenting the lines of the original vehicle, our roof is certainly one of, if not the quietest pop top roof and through careful design it blends almost seamlessly into the factory van. A separate nose cone with a specially designed seal to the elevating roof ensures both rain and air noise are kept to the outside. Inside the vehicle we use an easy rotating metal latch for added security alongside the commonly used simple webbing straps.
- Fully Removable Unzipping Canvas – many pop-top roof manufactures now offer a “safari” canvas with a large unzippable front section allowing both fresh air and all around views, but virtually no other canvas can be unzipped and entirely removed in a matter of minutes. In the event of accidental damage, removing our roof canvas can be done simply by customers at home and then sent to us for repair, saving you expensive trips in visiting a specialist converter.
- Ventile Watertight & Breathable Cotton Canvas – pop-top roofs frequently promote 100% waterproof canvases but this is often only achieved through the use of non-breathable acrylic fabrics, which unfortunately almost guarantee internal condensation. We have chosen 100% cotton Ventile, a fully breathable and watertight fabric that is woven in Switzerland and creates no mould-inducing condensation. We also apply seam sealing tape to our stitching lines and use the world leading manufacturer YKK for all of our zips, just like your Gortex jacket!
- Midge Proof Windows & Vents – little can ruin your trip away more than small biting insects, such as the Highland Midge, finding their way into your van through the canvas windows and vents. We’ve specially chosen our mesh to keep out these tiny biters, whereas we see so many other pop-tops where this simply isn’t the case, even the VW California!
- 100kg Roof Rack Capacity – with two kayaks in mind, our UK manufactured fibreglass elevating roof is designed to maximise your roof carrying load. Many other pop-top roofs set a limit at 60kg, so the extra capacity we provide aims to give customers a more flexible solution.
- Type Approved by the VCA – our pop-top roof has passed a detailed inspection by Vehicle Certification Agency engineers and is a key part of our UK Small Series Type Approval.
