my parents pickup camper had a pop top that was pretty slick. There was 2 u-shaped bars. Inside of the camper, each leg attached at the outside with the u part sticking into the inside of the camper, one u on the top and one on the bottom. The two "u"s were attached to each other. All you did was push the bars toward the outside to raise the top.
It's pretty hard to explain a simple concept! Here is a camper on Craiglist that shows the idea.
http://stcloud.craigslist.org/for/431818344.html