The canopy frame is fully attached to the posts. However the crossbars are not as their merely there to provide support for the canopy. The straps floe provides for their factory canopy work well and hold the canopy perfectly down. I bought an aftermarket canopy for my lift with bungees and honestly I need a lot more of those to keep the canopy in place even being in a cove which is mostly wind protected. The reason I know the difference is because I had first a 5000VSD with the original canopy and then upgraded to a used 8000VSD which came without so bought original frame and aftermarket canopy.

Whatever you buy - follow the maintenance instructions - had to replace the ball screw as I didn’t grease it properly (which isn’t entirely my fault as it wasn’t properly assembled so I couldn’t grease it where I was supposed to. Floe paid for the part but had to pay for labor ... luckily I noticed it before it jammed up so was able to use boat before it got fixed.

I do agree that some lift manufacturers have come up with canopies you can open up in the back so you don’t need to lower tower etc. My preference is to have the boat tugged under the canopy so I’m getting little to no dust or debris in which requires the tower to come down anyway but that’s my preference so to each its own. As I said before I do need to raise and lower boat lift due to water level fluctuations so having the ability to do that without being in the water is convenient but I assume other lifts have caught on to this.