Customer Reviews

Lifetime Complete Portable Basketball System, 48" Shatter Guard Backboard

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

We have an older version of this basketball hoop. In fact it is 4 years and 10 months old. This is important because the warranty was five years. At 4 years and 10 months the backboard cracked when the kids were using it. A large hole developed after a few more shots. I emailed the company, sent in some photos (as requested) and the Amazon receipt (another nice thing about Amazon, they keep track of when you bought stuff for you) of the backboard. They shipped me a new backboard free of charge in a few days. It is nice to see a company that stands by its products. They were cheerful about replacing it.

Other than that it has served us well, never fallen over even in 45 MPH winds and the base and pole were still in fine shape after 4 plus years.

This was the cheapest 48" goal I could find anywhere on the web and in town. For the money the goal is good but does have some issues. It took me about 2 hours to assemble it. Assembly is pretty clean but some additional close up pictures of some of the steps would be helpful. If you decide to use water for the base make sure to put water in after you have placed the goal in its final resting spot. The plastic base is not built with a very strong thick grade of plastic. As a result of trying to move the goal with the water in the base we sprung a leak and I had to patch the plastic base with glue. Moving it on flat surface even with water also will prevent this type of damage from occurring. It rolls fine with water in the base but going over driveway curb ends, etc. can create a problem for the base.

Not included and which I feel is very important is a top pole cap. They talk in the manual about making sure there are no rust spots on the pole and if there are any that develop over the years how to patch them. The outside of the pole is painted black. However, that is only 50% of the pole surface. The other 50% is on the inside of the pole. The inside has no paint to protect it from rust. Thus with no pole cap any rain water will enter the pole from the top and make it rust from the inside. This is even more dangerous since you can't even see this potential degradation. I ended up solving this problem myself by using a plastic peanut butter jar as a cap. It fitted perfectly inside the pole (use the smaller jars of peanut butter). I painted it black so it would match. I do not have the years of age on it so time will tell how it holds up. The bolts are zinc and not stainless so they are not really made to stand up to water over a long period of time. I guess maybe paying more for a goal might get more bells and whistles like stainless parts among other refinements. Other than that for the price ($156 total delivered) you can't beat it.

Couldn't have asked for a better hoop in this price range.

I'm only pointing out a few things that I thought was useful but couldn't figure out when I was deciding on which to buy:

-I filled with water, and it is just fine no chance of it falling over
-Yes you do bend a piece of plastic for the mounting/adjusting mechanism of the backboard->pole, but it is mainly a sliding guide, and doesn't seem like it will break over time
-Easy adjusting with a broom stick. Push the rim itself to raise, push the metal behind the backboard to lower
-Backboard does wobble a bit when you hit the backboard, but not to the point where it gets annoying (you can still shoot bank shots). More motivation to shoot swishes anyway
-Backboard does not "deaden" the ball that badly
-Wheels on the front so you can tilt and move the hoop after you fill it, though it is pretty heavy even with just water
-Installation took me awhile, but is not hard. Read the instructions, on my manual there was a picture with an extra screw which does not exist and does not show up in the item list. Don't let that confuse you.

Hope that helps

Read many reviews and looked at many systems before buying this one. Other reviews were accurate and helpful. Easy to assemble and my kids helped. Took a couple of hours. Good value for the price. Not the easiest thing for the kids to move, but we are able to roll it in the garage after use.

Shopping on line can be difficult at times. I had so many questions about this basket ball 'system'. I was looking for an adjustable hight hoop for my grandson who is 8. It had to be sturdy, yet protable. It was impossible for me to determine all this by a few photo's on the screen, so I went to a very large sporting goods store in the area and found the exact unit for $100.00 more, plus delivery. I could see it was just what I was looking for, so I ordered it on line and it took only 3 days to arrive. Needless to say, my grandson is outside from morning to night shooting and enjoying this awesome very sturdy basketball 'system'.

We ordered this for our son's 7th birthday after he just finished his first season playing basketball. He LOVES it. It has been a great investment so far (only 3 weeks into ownership) - the boys are outside everyday 'shooting hoops'. Hubby was able to assemble it in only a couple of hours with only one area being unclear in the instructions. There is an image of a bracket being placed on the back of the board - the image appears to have the bracket turned in the opposite direction that it should actually go. So, you may want to be aware of that during assembly. Other than that, we're very pleased with the product AND getting it $50 chaper than our local stores, as well as NO tax.

The kids will survive, but what a disappointment! This item was missing the 30-inch ALH pole, so it could not be assembled. In the process of going through the materials in the box, we realized that this very same set had also been returned last December for missing the same ALH pole! How do we know this? The return authorization that is required to be included with a returned item was still in the box - dated 12/22/10. (Someone was undoubtedly disappointed at Christmas.) The fact that the prior return authorization was still in the box suggests that (1) the seller never opened the box upon return (inept; poor quality controls); or, (2) they did open the box, didn't replace the missing pole, didn't care, and thought they could put this over on yet another buyer (dishonest). Absolutely would never recommend buying from this seller. The up side: the return process was very easy. And now the seller can have TWO return authorization slips in the box the next time they send this item back out to the next unsuspecting buyer. Maybe this box should have stickers on it for all of the different states it will inevitably go to in its sad little journey in search of a home...and an ALH pole.

We got this hoop for our 10 year old son. It is a good product for the price. There are plenty more expensive ones out there but this is was a good quality hoop. Relatively easy to put together.

I assembled this product about a week ago. Assembly wasn't difficult but it did take a couple hours of time. I was able to assemble it by myself with the help of some saw horses to hold the backboard/rim during its assembly and during attachment to the pole.

I was disappointed that parts were missing. The inner guard and outer guard were not in the packaging. I called the manufacturer and they sent me the missing pieces. This delayed the assembly by about a week.

The hoops works well once assembled, but putting it together was harder than I thought it would be. It took about 2.5 hrs to figure it out. We tried with 2 people at first, but you really need 3. The instructions aren't the most easy to understand either. But once we got it together, we've enjoyed using it. Overall, it was worth the money.