The 4 Best Double Camping Chairs

Take note: you can’t sprawl out across any of them

Every double camp chair I’ve looked at has a rigid bar running down the middle of the seat, right where the two seats meet. It’s what holds the middle of the chair up.

• What it means: two of you can sit side by side comfortably, but one of you can’t lie across it like a couch. The bar ends up right under your back.
• It isn’t a Kelty thing. I checked all four loveseats and they all have one, so this is worth knowing before you buy any of them rather than a mark against a particular chair.
• What to do about it: buy a double chair for sitting together. If you want to stretch out full length, that’s a camp cot or a lounger, not a loveseat.

What Kelty markets against what I measured

Here’s every figure Kelty publishes, beside what I got.

Kelty’s published figures on the left, my own tape measure on the right.

• The seat height is the figure to watch. Kelty’s 13.5in is measured at the front of the seat with nobody in it. The seat sinks once you sit down, and I end up at 8.5in, which is 5.0in lower.

• The backrest is better than marketed: Kelty says 18.0in and I measured 21.8in from where the seat ends to the top of the chair. I’m 5’3, so that covers my whole back.

• There are steel bars in the seat width. The seat measures 41.4in across, and the two bars on the sides take about 2in each. That leaves 37.5in you can actually sit on.

• The weight and the packed size were accurate: 15.4lbs against a marketed 15 lbs. 6 oz., and 35.0in packed against a marketed 34.5in.

Halve the seat width before you judge it

37.5in is a two-person number, so the figure that matters to you is half of it.

The Kelty Lowdown is the single-seat version of the same chair, so it’s the fairest thing to measure a loveseat against.

• Half of 37.5in is 18.8in, and that’s what each of you actually gets.

• That’s still more than the single-seat version. My Kelty Lowdown gives one person 17.1in, so each of you gets 1.7in more here, not less.
• And it’s deeper. The seat runs 18.5in from the back to the front against the Lowdown’s 15.5in.

And it doesn’t double the weight limit either

A double chair splits its rating between the two seats, so the number to check is the one per person.

Both figures are Kelty’s own, and the Lowdown is the single-seat version of the same chair.

• 400lbs. sounds generous until you split it. Kelty rates the Loveseat at 200lbs. a seat, which is 150lbs. less per person than the single Lowdown.
• What to look at before you buy: the per-seat figure, not the total.

Here are all the differences between the four loveseats on the market

Steel poles, 600D polyester and the same X-frame on all four, so this is everything that actually separates them.

✓ = the better spec of the four. Seat height and padding carry no tick because they are preferences, not wins. These are all marketed specs and may differ from my tested results. I don’t have every single one of these, so I took the marketed specs of all to be fair.

• The frames are the same. All four use steel poles and 600D polyester, with the same X-pole structure on every side.
• None of the four has a pocket. You get two cupholders and nothing else.
• Only one of the four skips the padding: the Mountain Summit Gear Loveseat. Padding is what makes these chairs comfortable, and it’s also what makes them warm. My Kelty has 0% mesh, so it’s the one I’d leave at home in a hot summer.
• Both Kelty chairs have adjustable armrests. This matters a lot for comfort.

• Kelty’s carry bag is the real separator. Both Kelty bags wrap around the chair and buckle shut, and they lay flat as a foot mat or a pet mat. Mountain Summit’s are plain stuff sacks.
• They all pack long: 34.5 to 41.0in. Mine measured 35.0in, which is about 30% longer than my 2-person tent in its bag.

So is a double camping chair worth it?

It comes down to whether you’d rather sit next to someone or have your own chair. After 5 months of using the Kelty, here’s my answer both ways.

• Worth it if: you camp as a couple, because one frame keeps you next to each other and it weighs about what two single chairs do. Mine is 15.4lbs, and two of my Kelty Lowdowns come to 15.2lbs.
• Not for you if: either of you is near the weight limit, because the Kelty is 200lbs a seat and the Mountain Summit is 250lbs.
• Not for you if: you want to lie across it like a couch, because of the bar down the middle.