Therm-a-rest Treo Chair VS Joey Chair!!!!

I have spent most of this summer in the outdoors. I have camped, kayaked, hiked, cottaged, biked, backcountried, and done everything and anything to enjoy the outdoors that I possibly could.  Every minute I have had free, I have been on an adventure and it is has been simply amazing!

I have had the good fortune to be given and loaned some different items from my friend Jamie at Outdoors Oriented which is my go to outdoors store in Niagara.  Everyone there is super friendly, outdoors knowledgable and the prices are very competitive.

Upon heading out on my Solo Backcountry Trip I sent Jamie an email asking if he might be able to help me find a chair to take with me? I had a bad knee and being in the backcountry without a chair sucks.  Usually I canoe in and take my fold up chairs but for this trip, I was bringing my kayak and that called for something very very small, which I did not currently own.

When I arrived at Outdoors Oriented, Jamie showed me the chairs he had and asked me to sit in one.  It was the Therm-a-rest Treo Chair and I found it very comfortable considering it only had 3 legs. I think why I liked most is that it had a real seat, not the the Tripod Stools I’ve seen and a back as well, which was nice.  He told me if I wanted to try it out, he had a tester that he could give me to use for my trip.  I was elated and accepted of course, I mean who turns down free gear?  lol

I took the chair home and opened it up to see how to put it together.

It was a very smart design. The chairs frame was like tent poles, in that they were attached by elasticized rope and you basically just put the poles ends inside one another.

Each frame piece then  fit into a corresponding hole on the base and only the right poles fit in the right holes. Perfect! I could do this while intoxicated and probably in the dark as well, it was that easy.

Finally, the material part of the chair went over the ends of each of the poles.  Easy peasy!

And it was done!

The chair sat on 3 legs and i sat on it again at home and it was great. Comfy cozy and you could kind of rock on it a bit which made it more comfortable. I really liked it!  Plus it folded up to a very small size which made it perfect for my kayak! You can check out all the specifics here.

I got the chair out into the backcountry on my solo trip and was excited I had a chair and would get to sit in it.  My site on Conger Lake was amazing. It was on a point and a hill overlooking the lake and the fire pit was at the front of that hill.  I set up my chair by the fire pit but had the hardest time actually sitting in it.  It was great at home on the flat ground, but here on that hill, it did not stay up when I sat on it. I actually fell over quite a few times, making me laugh at myself! When you are alone in the backcountry, you are sometimes your only source of entertainment!

Beside the fire pit, there was a huge log that people had put there to use as a seat to sit on.  I rigged the chair to stay up by putting it right agains the log so that the edge of where i was sitting, was actually resting on the log. That seemed to work great and so it stayed like that and I didn’t fall over again.

The next day it was rainy and I moved my tarp to the other fire pit (there were 2 on this site). The ground there was fairly level and there I could sit on the chair without issue. Well, mostly. I find if you lean in any direction without support you are likely to tip over.  I believe that unless you are a person with great balance, or leg strength, this chair may not be for you.

The following weekend I had a trip planned to go to Bon Echo, backccountry camping again, this time on Joe Perry Lake with my friend Stephanie.  The day before leaving for Bon Echo, I had to go by Outdoors to get a few things and Steph asked to meet me there so she could also start investing in some backcountry gear.  During her shopping excursion, she decided to get a chair, the Travel Joey Chair!

Now I was excited. She said she would let me do a comparison on it and the Therm-a-rest Treo Chair when we were in Bon Echo, so I did just that.

Upon arriving at our site in Bon Echo, I noticed immediately that even though we were still on a hill, the ground was definitely more level than my site in The Massasauga.  I opened up stephs chair bag and took out the chair. At this point, they were quite equal. The weights on both chairs were about the same and the size was also the same, but, the Treo chair was more expensive by approximately twenty dollars.

Upon opening up the chair, once out of it’s case, I noticed quite a few differences.

Firstly the chair had the same type of system with the poles as the Treo chair but it was so much easier.  The legs were  like tent poles as well, but they were all already attached. I basically lifted the chair out of the bag and shook it a little and the legs more or less connected themselves just with that slight jiggling motion. Once that is done, you just have to get the material corners onto the frame. This I found a bit tricky but I think that is just because the chair is new and not stretched out yet.  Overall, I was amazed at how easy the set up was!

Once I sat in the chair, I felt an immediate difference.  The Joey Chair was far more stable that the Treo Chair, as the Joey Chair had 4 legs.  It was inevitable that it would be more sturdy, and it truly was.

I used both chairs throughout the weekend in Bon Echo, favouring the Joey Chair every time.  Even though the ground was more level at this site than the last one, the Treo chair was still somewhat unstable and I felt most times that if I wasn’t careful, I would still fall off it it.

I did not ever have this feeling or issue with the Joey Chair.  It was stable, comfortable, had a nice seat and a back and I could actually relax in it, and did I mention it was less expensive!!!!

Hands down, if I had a choice on which of these chairs I would purchase, it would definitely be the Joey Chair!

I hope you enjoyed reading my post and it helps you in some way if you are looking at purchasing a backcountry or small chair.

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me as I love to hear from people and am happy to help any way I can! If you have either one of these chairs, I would also love to hear your feedback and opinion on them!!

Big thanks to Outdoors Oriented for all of their awesomeness and for providing a chair to add to my gear collection!  I appreciate it more than I can say!

Thanks for reading!

Happy Sitting?  lol

Camper Christina