Spalding Platinum Series 54" In Ground System

Very good but ground sleeve is poor – Purchased this from sportsmart and they were great with cheap and quick delivery-$650 total which I think is great value. The instructions ask for a 600 mm deep footing with no reinforcing. I upped that to 1.2m and bent some mesh into a cage for extra strength as I have soft clay- 600 might be ok in rock. I followed the directions with the cast in ground sleeve but regret this as it goes nowhere near providing a fixed support at the base and in my opinion should be a longer embedment to reduce the force at the base. If I had my time over I would have made my own sleeve and embedded 500mm rather than the 400 the supplied sleeve offers. This would have meant I would not get to 10 ft but that would be ok with me as it would have been stiffer at the base. As it was I had to wedge some 10 mm thick packers at the base to prevent it wobbling! This was very poor in my opinion.

The rest of the instructions were ok. I had no trouble assembling the pole with my wife despite the other review I read. Filling the pole with concrete is tricky. I used a witches hat as a funnel and needed a ladder as I wanted to keep the pole at least at a 45 degree angle...near vertical would be best. I used a slightly wetter 55MPa concrete from bunnings (2.5 bags) and made sure it was well compacted at the base(where the most force is). I used a cordless makita vibrator for this which worked well. If I had my time over I would have sealed the sections of the pole with silicon as these leaked alot when vibrated and meant extra cleaning. They supply more bolts than needed which sounds nice but does leave you wondering if you did something wrong. Also the bolts I got for the hoop were different to the ones noted in the instruction manual which was a head scratching moment for me. And my acrylic backboard did not have the foam pad supplied(that is listed as "important") I suspect it is only needed for the glass backboard model but I used some ableflex ( bunnings again) regardless. Overall the assembly was actually fun except for the hole digging part which is not fun....just ask cool hand luke:-).

Overall I'm happy with my purchase. Hoop is strong and stiff with good rebound. I don't think hard core pole driver dunking and hanging onto it is possible but normal dunks with slight rim grabs is fine. It also looks great but I will be taking the NBA sticker off as it looks a bit "try hard". Hope this helps your decision.

Unacceptable – The amount of force required to assemble the three piece pole is absolutely ridiculous. It virtually cannot be done (by following the instructions or otherwise). A friend had one, didn't get it quite right but proceeded with assembly anyway. The system broke, injuring someone. I could not get mine together and the distributor immediately sent me another pole (no questions asked). I couldn't get the second pole together either. I will now have to follow my friend's lead and get a 'proper' pole custom made. Essentially this product should not be sold. Decent backboard and hoop. Affordable pricepoint. Cannot be assembled, thus all but useless...