The Ozark Trail XXL Director chair is a good, if somewhat basic, director’s style camp chair offered by a company with a solid reputation in the market. While it does have a few shortcomings, these are generally easy to fix and easy to overlook. We like almost everything about this sturdy little chair.
This chair costs slightly more than the Coleman Cooler Quad Chair, but it’s still a budget-friendly option. It delivers a solid baseline of build quality, comfort, and reliability that we didn’t find in other, similarly priced chairs. If you’re unsure which camping chair to buy, you can’t go wrong with the classic Coleman Cooler Quad Chair. Stumps, stools, boulders, and picnic tables are fine for sitting briefly outdoors. But if you want to kick back and stay comfy, the right camping chair can make all the difference. This Coleman steel-belted cooler is supposed to be able to keep ice cold for more than four days.
The Chair One has a 600-denier polyester and mesh seat and aluminum legs, which are linked with shock cord (like what you’d find inside high-end tent poles). If you’re looking for highly specialized or ultra-lightweight chairs for backpacking, our recommendations are probably not for you. We also don’t have suggestions for couch-style or loveseat chairs (we’d like to look at those someday, though).
Several Wirecutter staffers have owned the Coleman chair for years, using it on camping trips, in backyards, and at sporting events. For the most part, it’s held up well, but one common quibble is that the seat bottom begins to sag after several years of use. Senior editor Kalee Thompson, who wrote a previous version of this guide, has been regularly using the Coleman chair she originally tested in 2016. Aside from the color fading and the cooler pouch deteriorating, her chair has held up to years of backyard hangs and camping trips.
Owing to its extra-wide seat, the first thing you’ll notice about this oversized director’s chair is that it looks rugged and robust. The Ozark Trail XXL Director chair’s metal frame also has an all-business look about it too, ozark trail canopy which clearly sends the message that this is a go-anywhere chair. Testers with knee and hip issues reported that when they were getting in and out of this chair, its armrests felt more stable than those of any other model.
The King Kong chair has two cupholders and intuitively placed storage pouches under each armrest; unlike the Coleman chair, though, this one doesn’t have a cooler pouch. There’s also a mesh pocket behind the backrest, to hold things you don’t need to access quickly. This chair comes with a sturdy carrying case, with an over-the-shoulder strap, and it’s simple to expand and fold up accordion-style. Testers preferred the Coleman chair’s thoughtfully placed mesh storage pouch over those of its competitors. This pouch is big enough to stow gear like a phone, book, or tablet.
The Coleman steel-belted cooler is sleek, stylish, and effective, and the company claims this model can keep ice cold for more than four days. Normally, we’d caution against buying a chair with a seat that’s significantly wider than you need. In the case of a recliner or lounge chair, it matters because if the seat is too wide, you won’t be able to make effective use of more than one of the armrests.