Compared to the ubiquitous Chinese-made folding camp chairs of today those things were amazingly durable.
The typical big-box camp chair might last a season or two. The first thing to go is always that too flimsy pop rivet that holds the front X frame together, right where all the weight and stress are focused. Especially if you are a big guy and sometime lever yourself out of the chair using the armrests.
Even replacing that pop rivet with a 3/16 or ¼ bolt, the stitching will soon fray and the cheesy plastic grommets in the fabric fall to pieces. Perhaps there is a reason they can build those in China, ship them to Long Beach, truck them to Maryland and still sell them for $7.99 with stuff bag.
I don’t remember any part of those old-school chairs failing catastrophically, even when one or two webbing straps aged out.
Well, I do. On one particular gentleman’s trip many moons ago. Friend Dave was in his usual late night sit & sip campfire state of insobriety. Lurching around behind the campfire circle he discovered a new trick. If he grabbed the backrest of one of those chairs and twisted it sideways just right the entire aluminum frame would pretzel into a twisted heap. He perfected his new trick on several chairs.
It was kinda funny at the time; we were all younger and not as chair dependant.
Dave felt bad about his destructive shenanigans and made amends by preparing a plate of ham & cheese sandwiches, which he wobbled around and served to each of us. Dave was a fine camp cook, and that sandwich prep took him a while.
He served each of us, grabbed another beer and a plate for himself and proceeded to sit down in his chair.
While he was busy with food prep we had Erector-set propped up a broken chair where he was sitting. He plopped into that seat and never paused for a second on his way to the ground. The impressive thing was that he didn’t spill a drop of beer, and still had his sandwich on his plate.
Maybe less impressive if you knew Dave. He could not only pass out in his chair while holding a beer in his hand, but you could take it from him and give it back, and his fingers would close around it. I don’t think that was a badge he earned on his way to becoming an Eagle Scout.
