What made them worth keeping
Our earlier folding chairs were bulky and uncomfortable. We bought two Expanders at the Front Runner store in Ventura during the holidays. We have not recorded the purchase year or exact production version.
The smaller folded package mattered because there was not much spare cargo space. We found the chairs very comfortable, and they had cup holders. Those are observations about our pair, not measurements or a comparison with every chair sold today.
Friends tried them and bought the same chairs. Soon it was difficult to tell whose was whose at camp. We added patches to identify ours, including a Two Harbors patch connected to our fishing trips to Catalina. The patches also matched the Catalina design on our drawer kitchen.
The patches were for identification. They were not the rivet repair.
The repair belongs in the verdict
A few years after purchase, loose rivets needed attention. We think only one chair needed the repair. We bought a riveting set and did the work ourselves; in the September account, that repair was still holding. The set also found uses on other projects.
We have not recorded the rivet size, repair procedure or elapsed time since the repair. This is an ownership note, not a repair tutorial. One repair that held does not establish a failure rate for the model or tell you which fix is appropriate for another damaged chair.
Keep the chair that still does the job
Both chairs moved into the cab-over camper. A change of camping vehicle did not make them unnecessary.
That is the useful starting point for a replacement decision: does the chair you already own remain comfortable for you, fit your packed space and work with your camp table? Our pair was still in use in the September account. It does not give us a universal replacement interval or a promise about a current retail version.
If you are comparing a new chair, confirm the actual folded dimensions, seat height, intended user and load guidance for the exact version. We have not measured our older pair. Ask the maker about the appropriate repair route if yours needs work, rather than copying an unspecified repair from this story.
Compare the Expander and the untested Campster II alternative. The comparison separates our Expander experience from published information about chairs we have not used. Buying links in that comparison carry their own disclosures.