Kelty Rad-Arondack Chair and Table

Review by Erin Trail

The Kelty Rad-Arondack Chair and Table provides a bit of sophistication and comfort to your outdoor seating, featuring comfortable, stylish, durable and packable options to bring with you wherever you go.

Detailed Review

We like to car camp and have had a variety of camp chairs, ranging from cheapie collapsible chairs to sturdier fold up chairs.  All of our camp chairs are showing wear and tear – and to be honest, they weren’t that comfortable to begin with.  When Kelty launched their Rad-Arondack Chair and Table, I knew this could be what I was looking for to make our vanlife camping complete.

Seat Specifications:

• Width: 23 in / 58.4 cm
• Height: 26.25 in / 66.7 cm
• Depth: 26.25 in / 66.7 cm
• Seat/Cot Height: 14 in / 35.6 cm
• Packed Size: 32 X 6 X 10.75 in
• Weight Capacity: 325lb / 147 kg
• Weight: 9ibs / 4.3 kg

Table Specifications:

• Width: 16.5 in / 42 cm
• Height: 15 in / 38 cm
• Depth: 22.5 in / 57.2 cm
• Packed Size: 23 x 4.5 x 6 in
• Weight: 5.25lb / 2.3 kg
• Weight Capacity: 100lb / 45.35 kg

The frame of both the Kelty Rad-Arondack Chair and Table are made from painted aluminum and 600D polyester.

When packed, both the table and chair come apart (arms, legs and fabric) and are easily stored in the included carrying case which also doubles as a protective mat for your feet or four legged camping buddies.  Both items, when packed, are easy to carry around, thanks to handy straps (shoulder for the chair, handles for the table).  While in “pack mode” we found that both items easily fit into our overhead loft area above the driving area of our van.  They also fit easily into the backseat or trunk of a car.

If you don’t want to fully break down the chair, you can disconnect the armrest joint and a leg pin, which enables the chair to flatten out.  The chair has handy velcro strips to secure the metal arms and legs safely into place.  The flat storage option was handy overnight, when we don’t need the chairs but also don’t want to risk them getting wet from rain.  We found that the flat chair easily fit into the front passenger foot area of our van for easy storage.

Assembling and disassembling the chair is pretty easy. Those who are well practiced with legos should have no problem with assembly.  On my first try, I would say that it took me around 3 minutes to put it together (while ignoring any instructions). The majority of the chair connection points are locked together with metal push buttons and the leg cross bar is held to the chair legs with a retractable pin. The front corners of each arm slides into a fitted plastic corner piece.  All connections are on the underside of the aluminum pieces, which gives the topside of the chair a sleek look. The pins and insertion points are very secure and lock well.  The push buttons are a bit stiff and took a bit of work to depress; I imagine that these get easier to push down as the chair gets more use.

Kelty met with us back in July and demonstrated the build up and take down of the Kelty Rad-Arondack Chair.  This video is posted on our YouTube Channel

Using the chair is really simple.  I’m 5’4″ and I found the height and depth of the Kelty Rad-Arondack Chair to fit me well. My husband (5’11”) found the chair to be a bit low to the ground for his preference but otherwise sturdy and comfortable.  The table is sized just right – making grabbing snacks or even playing games easy. I don’t have a four legged camping partner, but I could see that the packing roll could be used as a “clean” mat when placed just outside the door of a car or tent.

My only complaint – and this is a slight one – is that the paint on the aluminum does scratch.  We were camping in an area with mixed dirt and rocks and needed to use the ground as a base when building the chairs.  The paint did scratch a little bit from one weekend’s building and taking apart activities.  In the future, we’ll be using the packing cover as a ground mat or building the chair from inside our van.

The Kelty Rad-Arondack Chair and Table are available in two colorways.

Erin Trail

Trail Boss of Stoke