One of our favorite activities is shooting some hoops and playing a hard fought game of horse! We have had a small, portable style hoop for a couple years and it’s on its last leg, so the time to replace is now. After A LOT of research between Goalrilla, Produnk and Mega slam we settled on the Mega slam for a few main reasons!
Why we chose the Mega slam 60 for our driveway. First we chose the 60 model as it gives us a 60″ (5 foot) tempered glass backboard. 60″ is the middle size as there are smaller (54″) and larger (72″ regulation size) backboards. We feel the 60″ size gives a realistic feel that will suit our family for the next 20 years as it’s not too big nor to large. A second consideration was the ability to purchase and ship. Mega slam sells direct to consumer, with no added shipping costs, which is a good thing as our pallet weight was pushing 700 lbs! The basketball goal is designed to be out in the elements utilizing galvanizing and powder-coating to protect the steel from the wear and tear of continual, nasty Midwest weather. One of the biggest reasons in choosing the Mega slam is its generous lifetime warranty, that will allow for replacement parts if anything should ever fail, but after putting this thing together I’m not sure that’ll ever happen!
I’ll post a link to the full instructions on how to install per the Mega slam website (also provided to you in the box!), but here is a brief overview of the steps.
- Dig a 4′ deep, 20″ x 20″ hole where you want your Mega slam to be installed
- Prepare, mix and pour approximately 20, 60lb bags of quickcrete, being sure to install the provided rebar
- install the Mega slam base in your wet concrete. A tip here is to put the base and its associated J Bolts in the concrete after you have poured 6-12 bags in the hole, this will allow you to make sure the base is level and square to the playing surface. If you want til the end to install your J Bolts & mounting base you run the risk of already hardening concrete, making it hard to get it seated correctly.
- You then need to wait a couple days before you start to assemble the giant 5 gauge, 6 x 6 pole!
- To install the pole, grab a friend and put it on the previously installed anchor bolts, be sure to follow the Megaslam instructions to get it level and tight to ensure years of trouble free gameplay.
- After putting up the pole you and a friend should follow the Megaslam installation instructions carefully ensuring that you get everything bolted up in a proper manner. A word to the wise, there are a lot of plastic washer/spacers so be mindful of trying to keep them in place as you bolt everything together.
- A last piece of advice when it comes to bolt up the backboard grab a couple more friends (we used 3 adult males) as it is very heavy and bulky, don’t forget to lower the hoop to it’s lowest position before attempting to bolt it up.
Link to Megaslam 60 Installation instructions.
Again the installation of our Megaslam 60 was extremely straightforward and if you can dig a hole (call for utility cable locating first!) and use basic hand tools you and a couple friends can accomplish this project easily. For reference it took us about 2-3 hours to dig the hole and pour the concrete and less than an hour to put up the pole, the rest of goal and be shooting hoops!
