Sunyear Lightweight Compact Folding Camping Chairs Review

Sunyear Lightweight Compact Folding Camping Chairs For the 5th Gen 4Runner

No matter how you spend time outdoors, whether you’re car camping, overlanding, backpacking, or bike-packing; everyone needs a decent camping chair to relax in after the day is done. Once the day on the trail is done, your camp has been set and dinner is hot…it’s time to kick back around the fire in a nice camping chair!

Now we all know choosing camping gear can be fun but it’s also sometimes a frustrating process. With so many great brands, options and products buyer confusion can take a toll.

Some subscribe to the buy-it-all/try-it-all approach, some labor for hours researching the pros/cons on various review websites, while others are ounce counters looking for just the right weight (or lack there-of). Others look for the most luxurious option to perfect their full glamping set up!

Ok, I digress…let’s make this easy. This is a quick-hit review on a low-cost, no-frills, lightweight camping chair I recently bought on Amazon.

Find It Online

Sunyear Lightweight Camping Chairs: Discontinued
Helinox Chair One Original Lightweight, Compact, Collapsible Chair: Check Price

Spoiler alert… I really like it.

Not all camping chairs are made equal…

As with most camping gear, you will find many options, styles and price points. The same is true for camping chairs. But wait… isn’t a chair just a chair? Ahem, I guess not.

It seems like most camp chair features can vary quite a bit, but they can be broken down into the following basic feature sets:

Style / Size
Weight
Frame Style
Fold-ability
Price
Weight Capacity

Style & Size

After a thorough inspection, you will find some camping chairs that are frameless and ultra simple. However, on the other side of the spectrum, you can find double seaters and even rocking-chairs! I found some chairs with attached footrests for full glamp lounging as well. Some come with attached cup holders and side tables. I saw one model that resembled something like a shea’s lounge.

Weight

You will find camping chairs as light as 16 ounces on up to 20lbs. If weight is an issue, you will certainly want to look for aluminum pole style chairs to keep those ounces down.

Frame Style

For the most part, really just two frame styles exist. There are aluminum pole style frames that require assembly/de-assembly each time the chair is used, while other models use a permanently mounted cross-frame folding assembly (think classic beach or soccer mom chair).

Fold-ability

Pretty much every camp chair is designed to be foldable and storable for your travels. Some of the ultralight models fold up into something about the size of a men’s size 10 shoe while other, more complex chairs may take up quite a bit more space.

Price

As with anything, the price spectrum is wide. You can spend as little as $20ish on an overseas made, no-frills chair, and on upwards of $300 on a luxury camp chair. Most options seem to fall in the $75-$125 price range.

Weight Capacity

If it can’t hold up to 200-250 lbs, you probably shouldn’t even give it a look.

Let’s take a look at the Sunyear lightweight camp chair!

Why I Choose the Sunyear Chair

All the specs matter, but I really had two main priorities in mind when choosing a camping chair. Price and size were at the top of my list.

A family of five requires five camping chairs, and I did not want to spend $500-$700 on a set of five camping chairs for the full family. I view a camping chair as a consumable that I expect will need to be replaced after a few years. Items that get used, abused, beaten up, rained on, dropped and often tossed around will likely need to be replaced sooner than later.

I understand the adage “buy-once-cry-once,” however, we’re not talking about a set AT tires for a 4,000-mile expedition or off-road suspension upgrade made to last a decade… We’re talking about a piece of nylon mesh and a metal aluminum frame that you sit your a** in after a good day on the off-road or hiking trails. A lower price open was a priority for me.

Some say size doesn’t matter. In this case, size matters and it was was my second priority. Again, when off-roading and car camping with a family of five, space is at a premium. I wanted something small and packable to maximize our precious cargo space for other important items.

The Sunyear satisfied both my priorities and I gave it a chance. Sunyear seems to me to clearly be an overseas brand targeted at feeding Amazon hungry buyers. Nothing’s wrong with that, so long as you know what you’re buying.

It’s a Shock-Cord Aluminum Pole Style Chair

The thing I love most about it is that they PERFECTLY fit in a Frontrunner Wolf Pack box when packed down.

I can fit 6 of these chairs in a Wolf Pack box if needed. When traveling on family trips, we travel with 5 of these chairs in Wolf Pack box. That becomes part of our 6-box roof-rack system up top on the vehicle. The Sunyear is a shock-cord aluminum pole style chair that weighs in at 2.1 pounds each and packs down into a pouch measuring just 13.8” x 4.3” x 5.1”. The carry pouch is simple and has a strap on it to throw it on your shoulder or attached to a backpack.

These are lightweight and easy to assemble and de-assemble at camp.

The Nylon mesh seat and back is one piece that stretches over the poles and slips into reinforced corner pockets to create the seat. I’ve never had a problem putting them together. At this point, my 10-year-old and 12-year-old kids can assemble them too.