News

Dec 22, 2023

Oru pop

We've seen many pop-up pickup campers and toppers over the years, but the Hiatus Camper has long been the only simple topper we've come across with folding hard walls in place of fabric. Oru Designs'

We've seen many pop-up pickup campers and toppers over the years, but the Hiatus Camper has long been the only simple topper we've come across with folding hard walls in place of fabric. Oru Designs' Bruin becomes the second, using a hybrid hard/soft pop-up wall construction to create a warm, weatherproof space that sets up easily and offers plenty of ventilation. The Bruin is meant to handle the entire calendar year's worth of weather, building up into a comfy, lightweight micro-home through a full options ecosystem.

Its pop-up area features aluminum-composite walls on all four sides, held in place by thick fabric corners. The corners improve ventilation while also enabling the folding motion necessary for the pop-up expansion.

Oru describes its general build strategy as, "strong enough to battle the toughest off-road conditions, lightweight enough to cruise around town without impacting your truck’s performance or going over it’s payload capacity." Bruin weight starts around 300 lb (136 kg), rising up to around 400 lb (181 kg) based on truck bed size and options.

The company keeps the weight down by supporting the walls with an aluminum frame and topping the camper off with an insulated polymer-honeycomb roof. Steel latches secure the roof for the ride, popping open to allow users to lift it up manually in as few as 15 seconds.

Inside, the Bruin comes outfitted with a proper queen sleeper platform up high, offering 60 x 80 in (152 x 203 cm) of sleeping space. It sits directly inside the two-piece folding upper walls, benefiting from stouter wind and weather protection than the usual fabric soft shell would deliver. The full-length pop top, meanwhile, provides loads of living space and headroom.

The basic Bruin comes with a rear access hatch; side hatches and windows are available as upgrades. Oru describes the camper as a four-season design, noting the weatherproofing advantages of the hard walls, but those soft fixed corners and the company's inclusion of an optional quilted interior insulation kit leads us to believe the stock Bruin will work better as a 3+ season design unless you live somewhere that sees very mild winters.

No harm there, as three seasons is about all we'd expect from virtually any stock camping topper without additional insulation and/or some type of add-on heating system.

To help buyers stay within budget (or at least have budget money left over to blow on other camping and truck upgrades), Oru splits the Bruin line out into multiple price points. The US$8,499 base-level Weekender is pretty basic, with the pop-up roof, sleeper platform and rear hatch.

The $11,499 Adventurer looks to hit a comfortable sweet spot, adding in several windows, a driver-side access hatch and a 4-in memory foam mattress. The $13,499 Pro package swaps out the single rear hatch for a pair of barn-style doors, adds in an extra window and passenger-side access hatch, and finishes off with a Maxxair fan.

Oru says that it can build the Bruin to fit any truck bed, from the extra-small 4.5-foot (1.4-m) bed on the Rivian R1T to the available 8-foot (2.4-m) bed on a full-size truck. It also offers a full options list, which includes a roof rack, interior shades, telescoping bed ladder and interior gear storage.

The pickup floor-mounted left and right storage compartments pictured in the photos are not an option from Oru but are offered by fellow Californian company Viato Equipment, which sells topper interior components for midsize and full-size trucks.

Sources: Oru Designs, Viato Equipment