YETI Trailhead® "Camp Chair" Camping Chair 1 piece

Twelve hours in the paddock and your back doesn't notice

The YETI Trailhead Camp Chair is the camping chair with armrests that stays put next to the open tailgate and holds up to 225 kilos. It's no lightweight for the rucksack, it's not for the campfire, and it doesn't recline.

The YETI Trailhead Camp Chair is YETI's camping chair for people who spend the weekend sitting wherever their car is parked. Cars and Coffee at seven, folding table at the tailgate, downtime in the paddock. Six kilos, two colours, Navy and Charcoal, and you get up out of it like a dining chair instead of heaving yourself out of a hollow.

You don't notice the difference when you sit down, you notice it in the fourth hour. If you've ever sat on a DIY-store chair until the race was over, you know the moment you stand up and have to sort your back out first. That moment doesn't come here.

• Seat height like at the kitchen table, about 43 centimetres off the ground. You stand up without hauling yourself up on the tailgate. Sounds like nothing until the day lasts twelve hours and you get up twenty times because someone you want to see is pulling in.
• Up to 225 kilos, and the feet don't sink in. In tests the chair took two adults at once without a creak. On a gravel car park the wide feet sit on top instead of digging in, and on grass it doesn't tip over when you lean to one side.
• Five-year warranty on a fabric that keeps its colour. The FlexGrid fabric has UV-resistant additives and the steel frame is powder-coated. After six years of weekend use, testers report chairs that don't look their age, despite dog claws and fish hooks.

Detailing1's tip from the shop: The most common mistake happens in the first twenty seconds. Most people pull the corners apart, push the armrests down until they click and sit down. The tensioner behind the backrest gets ignored, the fabric sags and your back gets no support.

Engage the tensioner until the fabric is fully taut. Only then does the frame carry you the way it's meant to, and the chair feels like what you paid for it. Once you've done that, you'll never do it any other way.

Twenty seconds between boot and coffee

The Trailhead Camp Chair is up in about twenty seconds. Pull the corners apart, push both armrests down until they click, engage the tensioner behind the backrest, done.

The ritual looks the same at every meet. Tailgate up, bag off the hook, unzip, chair out. By the time your neighbour has sorted his boot, you're already sitting down. The instructions, by the way, are printed on a sticker on the armrests, which you need the first time and never look at again.

The cup holder is included and hangs left or right under the armrest, depending on which hand holds your cup. It takes the 20 oz and 30 oz tumblers as well as the 26 oz bottle, plus any standard can. On the drive there, the insulated tumbler stays in the car's cup holder and simply moves to the chair on site.

What makes the seat you'll notice after the first half hour. The fabric is tensioned, not padded, and it gives just enough to wrap round your back instead of forming a hollow. You sit upright like at a table, not half lying like in a director's chair. That's also why you can eat in it.

On road trips in the weekend car, it's the reason you actually stop at a viewpoint. Two chairs out, tailgate up, and a comfort break turns into an hour. At a meet it stands next to the car all day and becomes the spot where the chat circle forms, while your neighbour balances on his folding stool.

At the end of the day it packs away just as quickly, in about half a minute. The carry bag has padded straps you sling over one shoulder or wear as a rucksack. That's plenty for the two hundred metres from your spot to the pit lane, and you've got both hands free for the table and the cool bag.

It's the wrong chair for the campfire and the rucksack

The FlexGrid fabric is UV-resistant, but neither flame-retardant nor puncture-proof. Sparks from the barbecue or the fire leave holes, and they don't come out again.

YETI deliberately leaves out flame retardants, citing health concerns. Fair enough, but it's still a limit. The chair belongs at the tailgate, at the folding table and in the second row round the fire, not the first. Put it right next to the embers regularly and after two seasons you'll be hunting for a replacement fabric that doesn't exist.

The second limit is the packed size. Folded, it's 109 centimetres long, which is longer than most boots are wide. The chair rides lengthways, not crossways, and if you're on the shorter side it'll bang against your calves as you carry it. Six kilos you'll happily carry two hundred metres, not so happily two kilometres.

That also settles the choice within the range. If the chair gets carried often and far, the lighter camping chair in the range, at about four kilos and without armrests, is the more honest pick. If it goes from the boot to your spot and stays there until evening, this one. There's nothing in between that does both equally well.

And there are three things it simply can't do. The backrest has exactly one position; there's no recline, so if you want to lean back, you're in the wrong chair. There's no mesh pocket and no side pouch; your phone sits on the armrest or in the grass.

And exactly one cup holder comes in the box, not two. It's also made of fabric rather than a rigid cup, so a big bottle sits a bit wobbly in it and can tip if someone knocks the armrest. That's the most repeated criticism across all the tests, and it's fair. If there are two of you and you both want your drinks on the chair, buy the second holder separately.

Six kilos you buy once and then keep

The Trailhead Camp Chair pays off for people who bring the same chair along for years and recognise it in the paddock. For one summer evening a year, it's too much chair.

You see it at the same meets as the year before, in the same colour, with the same scuffs on the frame. It doesn't buckle, it doesn't split at the seams, and it doesn't crack in the spot where cheap plastic gives up after two seasons. The fabric doesn't warp, because it works under tension rather than being stitched.

Choosing a colour is more practical than it sounds. Charcoal swallows gravel dust and coffee splashes and still looks like new after three seasons. Navy is easy to spot from a hundred metres on a packed car park and sits next to just about any paint without stealing the show.

People who look after their car instead of wearing it out rarely buy the loudest thing and almost never the cheapest. They buy what will still be around in five years. The same attitude runs through the whole YETI range, and in the paddock you spot it on a chair faster than on the paint next to it.

In front of our showroom in Nordhorn, two kinds of chairs turn up on meet weekends. One kind goes in the bin in the evening because the seam on the seat has split. The other goes back in its bag. That's the real difference, and it doesn't show on day one.

The trick no manufacturer writes down comes after the meet. Rinse the four joints of the crossed frame once with clean water and shake them dry before the chair goes back in the bag. Grit and salt settle exactly where the frame slides past itself when you fold it, and they work there like grinding paste. You only notice in the third season, when setting it up starts to catch. Twenty seconds at the tap and it never happens.

How to use the YETI Trailhead Camp Chair

From the boot and back into the bag

Take the chair out of the carry bag and stand it upright on the ground. Pull the four corners apart until the crossed frame is fully open. Gravel or grass underneath is fine; the wide feet won't sink in.

Then push both armrests down until they audibly click into place. Only once both sides have clicked is the frame locked. The instructions are on a sticker on the armrests.

The most important step comes last: engage the tensioner behind the backrest until the FlexGrid fabric is fully taut. Skip it and the seat sags and your back gets no support. The included cup holder hangs left or right under the armrest, depending on your drinking hand. It takes the 20 oz and 30 oz tumblers as well as the 26 oz bottle, for example the insulated tumbler from the drive there.

After use, clean water is enough for normal dirt. Stubborn dirt on the frame or fabric comes off with mild soap and a soft brush. After a day at the beach, make a point of rinsing off salt and sand, including the four joints of the crossed frame, because that's where the grit collects.

Notes: The FlexGrid fabric has UV-resistant additives but is neither flame-retardant nor puncture-proof. Sparks from the barbecue or campfire leave holes that can't be repaired, so the chair belongs in the second row round the fire. The backrest has exactly one position; there's no recline. It's rated up to 225 kg. Let it air-dry set up, not folded in the bag. Then store it in the carry bag it comes with, which protects the colour from fading. YETI gives a five-year warranty.