Various camping magazines rave about the Oztent King Goanna Chair but, quite frankly, I find the chair uncomfortable. For its premium price, I expect quality and comfort.

According to the Oztent web site, the King Goanna chair is their most popular and the most comfortable chair on the market. The high back chair has a fully padded seat and adjustable lumbar support. The bag is also able to be rolled up and inserted in the head rest for some extra padding. The chair has a stubbie holder and key pouch on each side of the seat.

I purchased my Oztent King Goanna chair for around $80 from Down Under Camping and have taken it on several camping trips in recent months.

Comfort of the Oztent King Goanna chair

The Oztent King Goanna Chair is a quad fold chair. The chair suffers the same problem as most other quad fold chairs — that is, the seat base sags in between the corners supported by the legs, and the back rest is simply too upright for relaxing around a camp site. The back rest is probably at a suitable angle for sitting at a table (although the seat base is too low for most people), or someone with perfect posture who sits bolt upright.

The King Goanna chair is rated to 150 kg. The only person that I know who comes close to this weight (120 kg) refuses to sit in the chair because it is too difficult to get out of. The sag in the seat base, typical of quad fold chairs, combined with the material arm rests make it virtually impossible for him to get out of the chair unassisted!

Oztent King Goanna chair features

Quad fold chairs are great for camping trips because they fold up to a compact shape. With the additional padding in the seat and backrest, the Oztent King Goanna chair is not as compact as other quad fold chairs when stored in its bag. At 115 cm long by approximately 24 cm x 24 cm (at the widest point) and 5.2 kg, the chair does not pack down as small as some other quad fold chairs.

The chair is made of quality heavy duty fabric and is padded, so the additional size and weight is to be expected. Unfortunately, the padded material seems to retain water for a long time after an overnight shower or heavy dew.

The King Goanna chair has a number of unique features, including:

• adjustable lumbar support
• head rest using the carry bag as an insert
• height adjustable arm rests
• stubbie holder and key pocket on both sides of the seat base

As with other Oztent products, the quality of the King Goanna chair is excellent. It is well made and should last many years of hard use.

 

 

 

Summary

If you sit in the Oztent King Goanna chair and find it comfortable, great, go ahead and buy it because it is excellent quality and will last for years. If you are like people I have seen sit in the chair at our camp site, you will be disappointed that it is not a more comfortable chair for its premium price. This is not a chair that people gravitate to.

I must admit, whenever we leave the camp site, I am always wary of leaving the King Goanna chair out. With the reputation publicised by the camping magazines, this will probably be the first item stolen from our camp site. I hope it never happens, but if it does, I will not be buying another one.

So what is my favourite chair for lounging around the camp site? A Coleman comfort sling chair. Read my review here.