I Bought an Alibaba Hardwall Pop-Up Camper - Hiper Lion

Background

For close to ten years now I’ve been on the verge of buying various different pop up campers but never had the guts to pull the trigger. In Canada, nearly all of the options we have access to use a wedge tent pop up, and the very limited hardwalled options are very expensive (albeit very high quality).

Having something with hardwalls was a must for me, and buying a camper option that might cost 75% as much as I paid for the truck itself never met my budget.

I was stumbling around Alibaba last winter when I noticed that a few direct chinese manufacturers were offering a folding hard walled option at a price that was coming in well below any of the other options I had seen.

Never having ordered anything from Alibaba before, I did a bit of research and felt comfortable enough to start chatting with a few different manufacturers who were offering this design. Ultimately placing an order with Hiper Lion.

Price and Payment
The total price for the camper, delivered to Canada (Vancouver) inclusive of all add-on options, shipment, and duties was about $5,900 CAD.

The value seemed very appealing, comparable to the cost of a nicely optioned new fiberglass canopy/topper.

A 25% deposit payment was made to place the order in January. The remaining balance was due in May when the unit was packed for shipment. Delivery happened 50 days after that final payment.

Shipping and import fees were an additional $437 USD which is not included in the displayed Alibaba product list price. The total was about $4300 USD which converted to $5900 CAD at the time.

I chose to complete the order through Alibaba because I liked the sound of their Trade Assurance program. As I understood, the payments seem to be held by Alibaba and paid to the manufacturer only after you confirm the final delivery and quality. It’s worth reading up on this program.

Manufacturer Direct
In January 2025, the company’s Alibaba presence was mostly focused on gym equipment, and this one lone camper, which made me a little nervous. They’ve since evolved that presence greatly and launched an outdoor specific brand, several models of camper products, and a website.

Alibaba Manufacturer Page
Hiper Lion Outdoor Website

In Canada, we see a few providers who seem to import similar units and resell them at prices close to that of North American built brands. The direct price here is near half of those other import offerings.

Fabrication Phase
During the fabrication phase I was assisted by a sales rep (Rita) who was great to work with. I was given regular updates on status, photos during production, and options to customize my product and select add-ons (windows, kitchen attachments, awnings, mattress upgrades, water tanks etc).

I added an awning and window coverings. The accessories were priced very reasonably.

Some of the provided language around delivery timeline was a little hard to understand. I had initially expected the order to take about 50 days (I thought this would be from first deposit payment, to delivery of product, though this seemed too good to be true). I think the estimate was intended to mean 50 days after the final payment (when the unit is ready to ship).

Ultimately, my order took 155 days from initial deposit to delivery. I’ve gathered they are currently upscaling and improving on these timelines.

Delivery
Being located in Interior BC, the manufacturer asked if I could accept pickup in Vancouver as delivery inland was much more expensive (a price to deliver inland was not quoted). This seemed alright to me at the time, so I went with it. This ended up being a bit of a challenge.

The unit was delivered in two wooden crates; one for the bottom canopy, and one for the top tent and the awning. The bottom crate was about 7’L x 3’W x 4’H and about 250lbs. The top crate was very large and very heavy. Probably above 400lbs and 10’L x 2’W x 7’T. This was way too large to move without equipment.

The delivery happened at a warehouse near Vancouver Airport. I went to the delivery alone with a large open u-haul trailer. The warehouse had an elevated dock, which could only load cube vans with a certain dock height. The forklifts on the elevated dock could not load a truck at ground level. Ultimately I had to hire a crane truck to lift the unit down from the warehouse dock into the truck.

If I could do this again, I would opt to pay extra for a delivery to my home. The self pickup with gas, trailer, and crane rental cost about $700.

Install/Assembly
The assembly was relatively straightforward. The bottom four walls bolt together and are firmed up with bolted corner braces. There are dual-bulb weather seals in all corners and at the top/bottom interface.

YouTube Assembly Video

Placing the assembled bottom portion on the truck bed was easy to do with two people and fastened down with regular canopy clamps. The provided clamps didn’t happen to fit my Tacoma rail system, so I grabbed some

$49 API Clamps (6 Pack) Silver Compatible with Toyota Tacoma - 2005 & Newer - Mounting Channel Track Truck Topper Cap, Camper Shell

clamps from Amazon.

The tricky part was getting the top unit placed onto the bottom unit. We lifted this with 4 people, which was quite a challenge. Looking back, I would have rigged up a rope hoist in the garage, or made sure I had access to an overhead lift or forklift for this step. The top unit alone was a challenging lift with 4 people.

These

$14 PATIKIL Lifting Eye Bolts M8 X15mm / 5/16" x 9/16", 4 Pcs 304 Stainless Steel Shoulder Ring Threaded Screw Machinery Shoulder Eyebolt for Lifting Hanging, Black

lifting lugs from Amazon fit the T-Tracks on the top unit and 6 of them could probably be used to rig it up.

The challenge lifting it by hand, was that the anchor bolts slot into the top unit's T-Track and hang downwards (loose in the T-tracks). 12 of these bolts need to land directly in the bottom units mount holes without missing, otherwise the sheet metal lip/mount surface can be bent by the bolts.

I rigged up a jack that I could place in the bed of the truck so that we could gently lower the unit down rather than holding the full weight. This worked just okay, and was still quite a challenge.

Fit
The campers are made to customer-provided dimensions. The final dimensions ended up matching exactly to what I had provided for my 3rd gen long box. The fit is spot on and I wouldn’t change anything. Perhaps I could have reduced the clearance over the roof/shark fin a bit, but having some space here is nice for bed movement and it provides more height in the canopy.

I was unclear if the bottom portion would arrive with vertical or angled walls (photos weren’t available at the time). I’m happy that the walls are vertical, this provides a lot more interior space.

I think the fuel economy impact is only in the ballpark of 0.5-1.0 L/100km (better than I expected).

My stock leaf springs weren’t happy about the extra weight. I’ll be installing new Icon leaf springs. Other options would be add-a-leafs or air bags.

Finish and Quality
At the price point, the quality impresses me.

The bottom canopy portion is quite nice. The doors and latches work and feel great. Most of the fasteners are a nice stainless M8 allen bolt. The six latches all came keyed alike. In comparing this to my previous high end ARE MX canopy, this new bottom section feels nicer.

The top unit opens and closes super easily. The provided gas struts for the top camper lift, and the doors are all powerful. I’m impressed with the aluminum sandwich panels that are used for both the folding walls and the moving bed platforms, they seem quite strong given the light weight. The sandwich panels are all finished on the interior with a kind of soft rubber matting which seems to dampen sound and stop the mattresses from slipping around.

The mattress is a simple 2” foam which comes with provided zip covers. It is cut into sections to match the movable panels. If you wanted to replace this with a higher end memory foam it would be easy to cut that to shape and put it in the provided covers. So far though it seems totally fine. All six windows have sliders, the top four have zipped blackout blinds and bug nets.

The side and back doors have molle panels inside and M6 rivnut fasteners pre-installed.

When uncrating everything, a few small dings and scratches were present on some unimportant locations, which seemed fair for something that took a long boat ride in a wood crate.

I ended up putting some

$17 Winunite 32.8Ft(10M) Car Door Edge Guards Black, Fits Most Vehicles, No Glue Required, Fade-Resistant, U-Shaped Automotive Trim Car Door Edge Protector for Trucks SUV Sedans

automotive edge trim onto the exposed sheet metal edges to soften up the door edges a bit.

I’ve done some garden hose testing and I am optimistic about how it will do in the rain. I’ve been sleeping in a regular ARE MX canopy for years, and I suspect this is more waterproof than the canopy.

After Sales Support
I had not anticipated something like this would come with a warranty or any real after sales support. However, a 2-year warranty is mentioned on their new website.

On unboxing the unit, two strips of weather stripping (seals on the underside of the folding panels) fell off. I contacted them about this and they immediately air shipped replacement seal material which I received within a week. The new material was a better bulb seal style design, which I think shows they are currently improving these as more are produced.

More Info
I'm currently trying to help the brand grow their presence. If you're interested in one of these, I have a bunch more photos and video content hosted on a google drive. Shoot me an email address via PM and I can add you to that folder.

 

Thanks for the writeup! I ordered mine a couple weeks ago, also from Hiperlionoutdoor on Alibaba. I noticed that qiancamper.com also on Alibaba, has the exact same camper. https://www.qiancamper.com/product/TP07B-Truck-Topper.html I also have a 3rd gen longbed, do you happen to have the measurements you sent them?

 

Good for you but you lost me at Alibaba I have learned though over 50 years of life buy once cry once. Hope it works out for you brother.

 

Looks like we came up with very similar measurements:

I gave them 1570mm outside width (10mm more), 1970mm length (same), and 570mm height (10mm less)

 

What it held at customs ? I ordered mine in April. It has been held at customs for 6 weeks so far.

 

I think mine was about 11 days from the boat arriving at the port, to being called for pickup.