ALPS Mountaineering King Kong review: the 800-pound chair, read line by line

The verdict

A note on method before any of the numbers. We have not bought, sat in or used a King Kong. This review reads ALPS's own product page, its warranty page and its furniture parts catalog, and adds two named hands-on reviews, OutdoorGearLab and CleverHiker, for the figures ALPS does not publish and for how the chair behaves after months of use. Every value links to its source, and the score follows our published scoring rubric. Where the sources disagree, we say so rather than picking the flattering number.

What ALPS publishes

ALPS is unusually forthcoming for a chair maker. It prints the capacity, the frame material, the fabric denier, the seat width, the seat depth, the seat height, the backrest height, the chair weight and the packed size. Most brands in this category publish two or three of those. That matters for a durability buyer, because you cannot compare what a maker will not put in writing.

The one figure ALPS leaves out is the overall height of the chair standing up. It gives a 22-inch backrest height, measured from the seat, and no floor-to-top figure. OutdoorGearLab, which measured a King Kong itself, reports 38.0 inches overall (24.0 inches deep by 37.0 inches wide). We keep that out of the scored spec table because it is not the maker's number, but it is a useful sanity check if you are working out whether the chair clears a truck bed or a pop-up canopy.

The 800 lb rating, and how to read it

ALPS rates the King Kong to 800 lb. That is the highest published figure of any steel quad chair in our registry, 200 lb above the Coleman Big & Tall Quad and 300 lb above both the Guide Gear Oversized Camp Chair and the YETI Trailhead. Only the LivingXL 1000-lb. Capacity chair publishes a bigger number, and LivingXL marks its figure as a stationary rating and publishes no warranty at all.

A rating is the load the maker is willing to stand behind, not a measured failure point, and ALPS does not say whether its 800 lb figure is a static load (weight resting in the seat) or allows for the force of dropping into the chair. Nobody in this category says. The practical reading is headroom: at 250 lb you are using less than a third of the rating, which is exactly the margin that keeps a frame from slowly bending over several seasons. Our guide to camping chair weight limits explains how makers arrive at these numbers and how much margin to leave.

One outside data point on the rating: OutdoorGearLab reports loading five adults onto the frame, past the 800 lb limit, without stability problems. That is one team, one chair and not a test protocol we can verify, so treat it as a story rather than evidence. It does not change the score.

Frame and fabric: where the score actually comes from

Frame. Powder-coated steel, in ALPS's own words. Powder coating is the finish that decides whether a chair that lives in a damp truck bed rusts at the joints, and steel is why the chair weighs what it weighs. This is the trade the King Kong makes on every line: steel buys capacity and costs portability.

Fabric. Quilted 600D polyester. The denier number is the single most useful fabric spec a chair maker can publish, and roughly half the chairs we score do not publish one at all. YETI does not give a denier for its FlexGrid mesh; Coleman does not give one for the Big & Tall. In our rubric, a published 600D or heavier fabric earns a bonus point on build durability, which is why the King Kong reaches a 10 on that line where the Coleman, with the same class of steel frame and a 600 lb rating, sits at 9.

Quilted also means padded, which is comfort on a cold morning and a liability in the rain. Both hands-on reviews flag it: the padding takes on water and dries slowly, and the fabric is not breathable in heat. See what hands-on reviewers report below.

Features. ALPS lists two mesh beverage holders, a stash pocket on each armrest, a mesh organizational pocket on the back, and a carry bag with adjustable backpack straps. Backpack straps on a 13 lb chair are a real convenience, and they are the reason the King Kong turns up at tailgates and youth sports fields as often as at campsites. If sidelines are most of your seat time, our sideline chair picks weigh portability more heavily than this page does.

The warranty, read past the headline

Lifetime coverage is the top band in our rubric, and only two brands we score reach it: ALPS, and Guide Gear through Sportsman's Guide's Lifetime Guarantee. Coleman gives camp seating one year. YETI gives the Trailhead five. For every maker's terms side by side, see our camping chair warranty comparison.

Now the part buyers skip. The exclusions describe almost everything that actually kills a camp chair. Sun-faded and brittle fabric is UV damage. An ember hole from sitting too close to the fire ring is a burn. A chair that blew across the campsite and bent a leg is storm and wind damage. What the lifetime term really covers is a bad weld, a failed seam, a rivet that was wrong from the factory. That is worth having, and it is not the same as a chair that gets replaced when it wears out. The same logic applies to every lifetime term in this category, which is why how long camping chairs last is a separate question from what the warranty says.

One more clause with teeth: proof of purchase from an authorized dealer. Buy from a third-party reseller and you may be outside the terms. Keep the receipt.

What you can actually replace

Repairability is 15 percent of our chair score, and it is where the King Kong gives back some of its lead. ALPS's furniture parts catalog lists seven items: a stool replacement bag, chair replacement bags, a table and cot replacement bag, table replacement legs, a Fireside/Leisure chair foot, an Escape chair kickstand elbow, and a table replacement top. Of those, exactly one fits the King Kong: the chair carry bag, which ALPS lists as fitting the King Kong along with the Adventure, Axis, Escape, Kodiak, Rendezvous and a dozen other models.

There is no replacement seat, no replacement fabric panel and no replacement leg for this chair on the ALPS site. The warranty page does say damaged gear may qualify for replacement parts and gives a phone number to check availability and pricing, and it notes that replacement part orders are final sale. So the repair path is: call and ask. That is better than the Coleman answer, which is no chair parts at all, and worse than Helinox, which sells replacement seats outright for its compact chairs. The King Kong scores 5 of 10 on repairability, and that is the main thing holding it under 8 overall.

ALPS does sell one accessory worth knowing about: an Insulated Seat Cover, which ALPS says pairs best with the King Kong. It measures 42.5 by 22 inches, weighs 13.6 oz and uses 600D fabric with a fleece face over insulated padding. It is not a repair part, but it is a way to put a replaceable layer between you and the seat fabric, which is the panel you cannot buy. If the seat does tear, our walkthrough on how to fix a torn camping chair covers the repair most owners end up doing themselves.

Fit: seat height, width and that 22-inch back

ALPS publishes a 24-inch seat width, a 20-inch seat depth, a 19-inch seat height and a 22-inch backrest height. The width and the seat height are the two figures a big or tall camper should care about most, and both are good: 24 inches across is as wide as anything short of the LivingXL, and a 19-inch seat is high enough to stand up from without pushing off your knees. In our fit rubric the King Kong earns points for both, which is how it gets to 6 out of 10.

It does not earn the high-back point, because ALPS publishes no floor-to-top height and a 22-inch backrest is not a headrest. If you want to put your head back, the Guide Gear Oversized Camp Chair publishes a 39-inch overall height and the Guide Gear Tall Director's chair a 22-inch seat, the highest published seat we score. Both are in our high-seat camping chair picks.

What hands-on reviewers report

We do not test gear, so the long-term picture here comes from two named reviews that do, and both rank the King Kong first in their camp chair guides.

• It holds up. CleverHiker's reviewer reports more than nine months of use, including desert camping, concerts and yard duty, with no signs of degradation, and credits the stitching and reinforced joints. OutdoorGearLab rates it 9 of 10 for quality and puts it first of 22 chairs tested.
• It is hot. Both reviews say the same thing: the quilted fabric is not breathable, and CleverHiker describes feeling warm and clammy in it. This is a cold-morning chair, not a July-in-Texas chair. If shade and airflow matter more than capacity, look at mesh-backed chairs instead.
• It drinks water. The padding soaks up rain, and CleverHiker reports three to four hours of drying. OutdoorGearLab makes the same complaint. Store it dry, and do not leave it out overnight in the wet.
• It is heavy, and you will notice. ALPS says 13 lb; OutdoorGearLab measured 14.1 lb. Either way it is the weight that costs the chair its portability score, and the reason the backpack-strap carry bag exists.
• Small annoyances. Both reviews note the cup holders are sized for slim cans and bottles. CleverHiker calls the carry bag's top entrance awkward. OutdoorGearLab notes the chair is oversized for shorter sitters, which is worth taking seriously if you are under about 5 foot 4.

None of this changes the score, which is built from published specs, warranty terms and listed parts. It changes who should buy the chair, which is the more useful question.

Where the 7.6 comes from

The alternatives it is measured against

Guide Gear Oversized Camp Chair: lighter, same lifetime terms, half the rating

Guide Gear rates it to 500 lb with 600-denier polyester, a 23-inch seat width, a 20-inch seat height, a published 39-inch overall height and padding on the neck and shoulders, at 11.5 lb. Sportsman's Guide covers Guide Gear merchandise with a Lifetime Guarantee against defects in material and workmanship. It scores 7.1, and it beats the King Kong on fit and portability. What it gives up: 300 lb of rating, and any listed parts at all. The guarantee is also published on Sportsman's Guide's own site and does not say whether Amazon purchases qualify, so buy where the terms are clear.

Coleman Big & Tall Quad: the budget version of the same idea

Coleman rates its steel frame to 600 lb, publishes the same 24-inch seat width and 19-inch seat height as the King Kong, and weighs 11.25 lb with a seat that drains rainwater. On the two lines that matter for buying once, it falls away: one-year limited warranty, and no replacement parts listed for Coleman camp chairs at all. It scores 5.3. It is the right chair if you want a big seat cheaply and accept replacing it; it is the wrong chair if the whole point is not replacing it.

If you came here from the YETI side of the aisle, the direct comparison is on ALPS King Kong vs YETI Trailhead, and the rest of the field built for bigger loads is in our heavy-duty camping chair picks.

Who should buy the King Kong, and who should skip it

Buy it if

• You want the highest published rating you can get with a real warranty behind it, and 800 lb with lifetime terms is exactly that.
• You are big, tall, or both: a 24-inch seat 19 inches off the ground is the roomiest combination ALPS publishes.
• Your chair lives in a truck, a garage or a trailer and walks less than a few hundred feet to where it is used.
• You camp in shoulder season. The quilted, insulated seat is an asset on a 40-degree morning.
• You will buy from an authorized dealer and keep the receipt, because the warranty depends on both.

Skip it if

• You carry your chair any distance. It is 13 lb and folds to 40 inches; a compact chair weighs a tenth of that.
• You camp in heat. Two named reviews independently call the fabric unbreathable.
• You need a headrest. ALPS publishes a 22-inch backrest and no overall height.
• You want a documented repair path for the seat. ALPS lists a carry bag for this model and nothing else.
• You are shorter than average, or you struggle to get out of a low seat. A sling seat sits lower loaded than its spec sheet suggests.

More chairs, scored on the same five lines, are in our camping chairs category, starting with the best camping chairs overall.