Best Camp Chairs

[Rosita]

"What is great for one person, may not work for you."

---

Right! I have a 20-year-old+ fold-up chair made by Lallemand; well-constructed, light, folds to a "flat" package, but there are limits to the number of times one can patch the thing, and Lallemand is no longer in business. The Lafuma Cham' Elips is a comfortable chair, but the high back is an awkward nuisance and the chair doesn't fold well. On others' recommendations, I bought a Strongback chair when they first came out; returned it because it was uncomfortable, cheaply constructed, and heavy! Then I got a GCI "Pico" chair; it was lightweight and folded up small, but sat too low and was a pain to take down. I alos bought an Alps Mountaineering chair; sturdy and comfortable, but heavy. I've had a wide array of camp chairs over the years; some I sold, a couple are still on the patio of the stick house. Now, I have an aluminum Faulkner folding director's chair with a side table; so far, so good. I hope this one works out; pretty tired of "buy to try" camp chairs! ;-)

[Cypress07]

The Strongback is the most comfortable lawn chair that we have had, but shortly after getting them I had to rebuild them due to the rivets holding them together broke. Now I'm no light weight, but never had a chair do that before, we are still using them and they are holding up.......

[Jimalberta]

If you are to the point where your chair is no longer comfortable it's time to get up and do some exercise. We'd all probably do well by having less comfortable chairs.

 

Well said .....couldn't agree more

[sandsys]

The arms on chairs are also something to consider. For us short people the arms are sometimes too high to be comfortable. Another reason you need to try before you buy--or be ready to return it when it makes your elbows hurt.

 

Linda Sand

[rynosback]

The major criteria for a portable chair is that it must be small enough to haul around, comfortable to fit your back side, easy to fold and unfold and finally affordable.

 

To see how they work, you will need to sit in them and try to fold and unfold.

 

What is great for one person, may not work for you. You do not need to have matching chairs, although they look nice,

 

For extra chairs, we have a couple of the bag chairs....comfortable enough to sit in for a short time, but not so comfortable enough that the guest out stay their welcome.

 

Ken

 

What Ken???? Are you saying that every seat has an arse made for it? Well said.

[larryj41]

Lots of good info, thanks.

[TXiceman]

 

What Ken???? Are you saying that every seat has an arse made for it? Well said.

Just saying every bucket is different and you need a chair that makes your bucket comfortable.

 

Ken

[lappir]

Has anyone found a place where you can try out a "Strongback Chair"? They seem to be mail order only?

 

Thanks,

Rod

[Kirk W]

Has anyone found a place where you can try out a "Strongback Chair"? They seem to be mail order only?

What we did was to ask around in campgrounds and someone let us try out theirs for a while. I think there are enough of them around that you can probably find some that way. One of our neighbors in our home-base community loaned us two of them for a couple of evenings while they were gone and that convinced us.

[lappir]

What we did was to ask around in campgrounds and someone let us try out theirs for a while. I think there are enough of them around that you can probably find some that way. One of our neighbors in our home-base community loaned us two of them for a couple of evenings while they were gone and that convinced us.

Thanks Kirk,

 

Haven't stayed in a campground since getting my new trailer except for a couple overnights. Will be moving the first of the month to a campground but it will be "off season" so not as many neighbors as there are during the winter months. Will do some evening walks and look for the green and black color. Are there any other colors that have been previously available?

 

Thanks again,

 

Rod

[Kirk W]

Our are black with a gray center section.

[wa_desert_rat]

The larger sporting goods stores will have chairs on display. Big 5 has chairs, too. They are cheap but give you something to sit on while you look. If I spend more than about $30 on a camp chair I'm going to take my time choosing it. Less than $30... not so much.

 

WDR

[Jim Corey]

We bought strongback chairs from either LLBean or Cabellas. They had a return privilege. Got them, tried them, they weren't for us. Returned them. Probably free freight to me, I paid for the return. Small price to get what I wanted (or find out I didn't want!)

[budeneighe]

If you are to the point where your chair is no longer comfortable it's time to get up and do some exercise. We'd all probably do well by having less comfortable chairs.

Aw C'mon. Be serious. It's called comfort for a reason. i am already up enough to value my comfort. If a chair cannot deliver, replace the chair, not the idea.

[dzwiss]

 

Aw C'mon. Be serious. It's called comfort for a reason. i am already up enough to value my comfort. If a chair cannot deliver, replace the chair, not the idea.

 

 

I am serious.

[Smitty77_7]

Timely post! We have the first edition of the Strongback Chairs, from back when they first became known on the Escapees. They came in any color you wanted, as long as it was sort of a greenish color:)! We like ours well enough, as we both are tall and they fit us well. Some sides of fraying, but overall the fabric is holding up well. On the trip we're currently on, we've had to of the rivets pop. One from each chair. A trip to Ace, and some small SS bolts with locking nuts, and the first chair is repaired, have not got around the 2nd yet. We bough enough bolts and nuts and washers to repair every rivet if needed. A small additional $6 investment. Like the picture of Kirk's color chair, and I believe I recall that though they still look the same as the first generation chair, they have improved on some of the components (more of a question then a statement).

 

We also carry two LL Bean rocking chairs. They are all built, and comfortable enough. though the DW uses a pillow for longer periods around the campfire as additional arch support. They're tall enough backs for us too, which is good. They fold pretty flat, and allow us stack two on the bottom, with some other gear stored between the open parts of their legs. We place the two Strongback's on top of them. We have a basement slide out, and the overall height is low enough for the chairs to slide in under out chassis's rail bulkhead.

 

We keep looking at the Zip Dee chairs, those of you that know Nina's Wheeling It blog, may have seen that she and Paul just invested in a pair while visiting the San Diego area. They look well built, and should be as Zip Dee is very proud of their price, for what looks like standard 'Beach Chairs' design. And, I suppose if I drove a bit North I could probably sit in one for a bit to see how it fits. Looking forward to a review from Nina as she and Paul get some 'seat time' experience!

 

We would like a pair of Zero Gravity pairs, but all of them we've seen, take up as much space as both of our LL Bean rocking chairs - for just one Zero Gravity... So, the size when stored is worth considering.

 

Will check out some of the chairs posted. Oh, and we did run into a chair that I'm still reading up on, that REI and a few others, carry. It's like a director chair, but has a couple of shocks that allow you to rock. No idea how they'd hold up, but at the Farmers Market in Santa Fe (By the train depot, pretty nice one.) - two or three vendors had these as their chairs of choice. One joked that he'd have been able to sell a hundred of them a month, if he offered them, as he is asked about them all of the time:)!

 

http://www.rei.com/product/853186/gci-outdoor-freestyle-rocker-chair?cm_mmc=cse_PLA-_-pla_multichannel-_-8531860001&mr:trackingCode=D35521F3-A291-E211-BA78-001B21631C34&mr:referralID=NA&mr:device=c&mr:adType=pla_multichannelonline&mr:ad=52774015120&mr:keyword=&mr:match=&mr:filter=126976853320&msid=6h1YfLxB_dc%7Cpcrid%7C52774015120%7C&lsft=cm_mmc:cse_PLA

 

Best to all, have a good seat, and enjoy!

Smitty

[wa_desert_rat]

The DW and I spent some time yesterday at a large sports warehouse store checking out various chairs. The nicest captain's chair I've ever bought was from this store about 5 years ago. It was caught up in a fire and is somewhat singed but I still use it for my chair in the shop. The latest version of this chair was on the floor and is still pretty comfortable at $59.

 

The most comfortable chair was, unfortunately, a "real" Zero Gravity chair at about $90. Major downside, as Smitty says, is that they are huge even when folded. As long as we're just part-timers we can carry almost anything but once we set out for a 5-month trip that luxury goes away. And we keep finding things that just *have* to go with us.

 

Okay... *I* keep finding things that have to go with us.

 

But one reason we bought a motor home was to have comfortable seating when we're "camping" and none of the campers, tents, travel trailers or 5ers ever came up to the standard our motor home offers. But I don't think moving the recliner outside is the solutions.

 

So we keep looking....

 

WDR