Customer Reviews

Lifetime 71929 World Class XL Base Height-Adjustable Portable Basketball System with Clear 50-Inch Shatter Guard Backboard

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like many of you, I've taken the plunge and purchased a portable hoop for my child. And like many of you, I generally have no qualms about do-it-yourself type projects. 'Been there, done that'. That said, I have to say that Lifetime could clearly benefit from the addition of a technical writer or two. Directions are mediocre at best (why are so many products besot with poor instructions??). But for those who love 'connect AO to QZ and PN with AR', you'll have a blast. And break out your tool chest as you'll use most of your arsenal (Rubber MALLET is critical).

Poor instructions aside, once together the unit is superb. Adjusting the height is about as easy as it gets. Grab a handle, squeeze, and move up or down. That's it.

Materials are solid. Base is very large. Well balanced for those times it must be moved. I'd prefer slightly larger wheels, but that is a small niggle.

All in all, I'd do it again (putting a second one together could be done in under an hour now that I know where the instructions fall short).

The best part? Well, the best part was the huge hug I got from by six year old daughter once the unit was up. How you gonna' top that? This decision was a slam dunk (pun intended... go ahead and groan, I won't mind).

All-in-all, the goal itself is okay, but the instructions were vague in many areas and not nearly as comprehensive as I feel they should have been. What really drove me up the wall was the fact that I had to go out an buy a set of titanium drill bits to mount the bottom & corner protective borders of the backboard. The steel around the backboard could just have easily been pre-drilled by the manufacturer. The same holds true for the support pole, which also required the drilling of two holes.
The threads on the large U-shaped bolt that holds the top of the hoop face place got strip-threaded with very little tightening, so I had to re-order the entire parts bag to get that one part that I needed. This was an extra $9, plus change that I had to spend. They said I'd get it in 3-4 days, but it took 5. In the meantime, my granddaugther was upset because she couldn't shoot baskets on the goal, which was her ONLY birthday present. (It cost $399.00). Last but not least, after being as careful as possible, the base leaked water, so I had to go to Lowe's and buy $20.00 worth of sand to fill it.
P.S.-I am a college graduate with a higher than average IQ. Putting this thing together was not a fun experience by any means...

I assembled this over 4 hours one weekend. Actually, you could do this in less than half the time if they had provided a decent parts checklist. To verify a part, you had to go to the page in the assembly instructions to find out what the part looks like -it would have been nice to have a diagram of all the parts separate from the assembly instructions. Other than that, it assembled well, is a real quality product and we've had hours of fun.

This may be a good portable basketball system worthy of the 4 star reviews, but I don't know yet because after two days of assembly with three different people, I still can't get it put together!! Horrible assembly manual!!The instructions don't just need work, they need to be thrown out and re-written. The illustrations are of little if any help, most of the time they are more confusing than helpful. Seriously, if you have any second thoughts about having the skill and patience to assemble this -- and some serious tools, including a strong power drill -- do yourself a favor and go to a sporting goods store and have them assemble it for you. My kids been waiting for days for daddy to get his basketball hoop working, and it's still lying in pieces in the garage. Ugh, this has been a horrible experience.

The backboard is nice and stable and is easy for my kids to change the height by themselves. The only issue was that some of the illustrations in the directions were unclear and unless you had looked ahead or pre-read all the instructions it could be very easy to make a mistake.

My husband and I put it together in a few hours. I thought the instructions were fine. It's not as sturdy as I would like, but maybe it would be better if we used sand instead of water.

Installation was fairly easy, I did most of it myself, but there were a couple of times when it required a helper. All and all it took about 3 hours. It seems to be very stable, yet I can move it around on the drive way when I need to. The height adjustablilty is easy enough that my 9 year old son can do it with no problem. Great investment and lots of fun for all....

This is a well built, reasonably stable system for a portable. We have had two other portable hoops (both cheaper models) prior to this one, but this seems the most solid. You do need to take your time during assembly as you can make mistakes, but overall it was not too difficult to put together. It took me most of a Saturday from start to finish (about 6 hours) before my 15 year old son was using it. The system looks great and the height adjustment is smooth and easy to use. We're happy with the purchase and I would recommend it.