Washington's Scout Campers took social distancing to new heights when it released three of the lightest, most versatile truck campers on the market, one after the other, during the start and heart of Pandemic 2020. Now it's back to enjoy stabler times, blowing the lid off its lineup to create pop-up campers that ride lower and live taller. The first model to arrive, the new Yoho Pop Up, is fit for popular mid-size platforms like the Toyota Tacoma, Ford Ranger and Jeep Gladiator and rides even lighter than its hard-walled older brother.
Scout parent company Adventure Manufacturing started off its pandemic-era camper blitz with the larger Olympic camper designed for full-size trucks. That seemed the right approach at the time because hard-walled alcove pickup campers have traditionally been too large and heavy for anything but a full-size truck platform, often demanding higher-payload HD power.
When it followed up with the Yoho a few months later, Scout really began solidifying its brand around a unique grade of compact, ultralight camper construction. Not only was Scout able to offer one of the market's only hard-walled fixed-roof campers weighing in under 1,000 lb (454 kg) with the Yoho – billed the lightest hard-sided pickup camper in the industry when it launched – it outdid itself a year ago by shedding over 300 lb (136 kg) on the Ford Maverick-sized TukTut camper. Impressive stuff.
With that market-leading position in compact, ultralight pickup camper design in mind, it's not surprising that Scout's first take on a pop-up camper is built exclusively for midsize truck drivers. The new Pop Up camper expands the Yoho family, giving midsize truck owners two different but equally intriguing composite camper options to mull over.
There are definitely some advantages to being fully sheltered behind a set of insulated hard walls like those on the original Yoho, especially out in places like Alaska where variable, extreme weather and apex predators combine to make tent fabric feel like no protection at all. But most campers aren't sleeping out in backcountry Alaska, and driving around with a towering hardshell camper comes with its fair share of disadvantages, too – think navigating the type of tight, vegetated trails at which the Tacoma excels with a 6.5-ft-tall (198-cm), branch-grappling RV sticking out the top of your bed.
The all-new Yoho Pop Up strikes a balance by packaging the Yoho floor plan below a full-length pop-up roof that allows the camper to duck down well lower during the ride while still offering an extra 5.5 inches (14 cm) of interior standing height at camp. At just over 6.7 ft (204 cm) tall inside, the pop-up version has enough height to accommodate all but the tallest folks on Earth, no crouching necessary.
The Pop Up model introduces several new innovations at Scout, including a monocoque composite roof made using a vacuum infusion process. The company explains that the design allows the new camper to maintain rounded aesthetics similar to those of the hard-walled models while helping it to better shed precipitation.
The new "Early Rise" lift system, meanwhile, allows campers to pop the roof up from a single location, without the need to run around the perimeter unlocking multiple latches and without the added bulk and expense of an electrically actuated lift system.
The Yoho Pop Up should hit the street slightly lighter than the original hard-walled Yoho, weighing in at an estimated 976 lb (443 kg) versus the hard-sider's 991 lb (450 kg). That's not a huge loss and may end up even closer, as the 976-lb mark is just a preliminary estimate ahead of actual construction. More importantly, both Yoho variants are extremely lightweight for fully enclosed pickup campers, a few of the only campers on the market below that 1,000-lb mark.
Scout keeps weight down with its tried-and-true wood-free composite construction. The gelcoat fiberglass shell is insulated with high-density polyurethane foam and reinforced by an aluminum exoskeleton. The pop-top fabric comes complete with a 360-degree array of triple-layer windows.
Scout brings the original Yoho four-sleeper floor plan to the Pop Up model, sprucing it up a bit with bamboo counter and tabletops and upholstery that appears to have a red-rock-desert color scheme. The dinette with wraparound sofa converts into a second bed, and the upper bed stretches as large as 75 x 72 inches (191 x 183-cm) when equipped with an optional 24-in (61-cm) slide-out extension.
Scout maintains its light, flexible design ethic with a standard features package that includes an 18.5-L Lifesaver Jerrycan filtration-ready water canister with sprayer, portable 3,000-W Goal Zero power station, and Lagun multi-position table. Also standard is a stainless steel sink, dual 100-W solar panels, interior and exterior lighting, and a 5-lb (2.3-kg) propane tanking inside its own vented compartment.
Options include a 45-L Dometic CFX3 fridge, Kammok Crosswing awning, portable indoor/outdoor gas cooktop, diesel heater, portable toilet, and 7.5-L RotoPax canister for added fresh water capacity.
We initially expected the pop-up version to price lower than the hard-walled model, but it's actually a few thousand more at a base price of US$27,900 (versus the original Yoho's current base price of $23,490). If it were priced lower, it'd seem like a no-brainer over the standard Yoho, but the higher price might have us leaning back toward the weather-/creature-proofing advantages of hard walls. The Pop Up's low drive profile does look enticing, though ...
Eager buyers can reserve their Yoho Pop Up now at Scout's website with a non-refundable $500 deposit. Lead time currently lists at three to four months.
Scout plans to introduce two additional pop-up models, which we have to assume will be pop-up versions of two of its three remaining pickup camper models.
Source: Scout Campers