Spalding assembly
Sand or water. Both answers are wrong, and you find out about a year later.
A Spalding portable needs no concrete, which is the whole appeal. What it needs instead is a decision that almost nobody makes with the right information.
The base, and the trap in it
Fill it with WATER and it is easy, it is free, and in a Kentucky winter it freezes, expands, and cracks the base along a seam. Owners say it plainly: do not put water in the base, it will crack it in the winter. Search for a replacement base afterwards and you will find a forum full of people who could not buy one either.
Fill it with SAND and it will never crack. It will also never move again. Three hundred pounds of sand in a base with a narrow fill hole is a one-way decision, and the word portable quietly stops applying. As one owner put it: do not put sand in the base, you will never be able to move it again.
The answer most people who have been through a winter land on is water plus RV antifreeze, mixed to the ratio in the manual, and owners in Wisconsin and Ohio report no problems with it. And then they anchor the base to the ground anyway, with ground anchors and straps, because a portable hoop in wind is a sail on a wheeled trolley.
How long a Spalding actually takes
Owner-reported, against Spalding’s own claims.
| Model | Time | People |
|---|---|---|
| Momentous "EZ Assembly"Spalding’s claim. | advertised: 30 minutes | 1 |
| Momentous, in realityOne owner: "this is NOT a 30 minute set-up." | ~2 hours | 1 to 2 |
| Filling the base with sandSix 50lb bags through a narrow hole. Messy, and slow. | +90 minutes | 1 to 2 |
| 54in Acrylic PortableThe number that comes up most often. | ~3 hours | 2 adults |
| The HybridThree to five steps where a second person is not optional. | 3+ hours | 2 |
The thirty minute claim is for the assembly, on a good day, if nothing surprises you. It is not for the base, and the base is most of the afternoon.
What goes wrong, specifically
The three pole sections. You get one attempt.
The support pole comes in three pieces that are hammered together, and once they are together they are together. An experienced owner’s warning: you only have one shot to get these right. Another owner’s trick, which is the kind of thing that only comes from having done it: spray WD-40 on the poles before you pound them together. Get the orientation wrong and you do not get to undo it.
The rim hangs on the breakaway spring, and the manual does not show it
One reviewer lost a long stretch of his afternoon trying to work out how the rim attaches to the backboard, before his wife pointed out that it is held up by the breakaway spring. That is not clearly drawn in the directions. It is obvious once you know, which is a sentence that describes most of this job.
The instructions contradict themselves
Owners report one page showing an assembly one way and a later diagram showing it differently, and having to undo work as a result. Others report units arriving with no directions at all. There is a QR code to a video on the newer boxes, and it is better than the paper.
The base cracks, and Spalding will not readily sell you a new one
It is a known failure. A frozen base splits along a horizontal seam, and owners hunting for a replacement find they cannot buy one, and end up patching it with flex tape or filling it with concrete. The Hybrid base exists partly because of this: it lets you add sand later if a leak develops.
Before you start
Decide sand, water, or water and antifreeze, and decide it before anything is assembled. It is the only decision on this hoop that you cannot cheaply reverse.
Have a wrench set and a hammer. Not a screwdriver and optimism.
Buy ground anchors and straps at the same time as the hoop. A filled portable base does not blow over often, but a portable hoop is on wheels by design, and a storm will find that out for you.
Your model number is the two-digit number on the base, near the fill hole, followed by the three-digit number on the front of the backboard next to the rim. You will want it when you call for a part.
Portable does not mean simple
A Goalrilla is honest about being a construction project. A Spalding looks like something you carry home from the store and use the same afternoon, and that expectation is what catches people out.
Three hours, three hundred pounds of sand, a pole you get one attempt at, and a decision about freezing that will either be fine or will crack your base in February.
It is a very good hoop. It just is not a thirty-minute one.
What an installer does
- Talks through the sand-versus-water decision before anything is opened, because it is the one that matters.
- Assembles and joins the pole sections correctly, first time, because there is no second time.
- Fits the backboard and rim, including the breakaway spring the manual does not show clearly.
- Fills and seals the base, which is most of the labor and all of the mess.
- Anchors it to the ground so a storm does not take it.
- Sets the height mechanism, checks it, and takes the box away.
Get it built by someone who has built one before.
Tell us your ZIP and what you bought. Installers near you will quote you directly, and you deal with them, not with us.
Questions people ask
Should I fill a Spalding base with sand or water?
Water alone freezes and cracks the base in a cold winter. Sand never cracks but weighs around 300 pounds and means the hoop will never move again. Most owners in cold states use water with RV antifreeze at the ratio in the manual, and report no problems. Then they anchor the base to the ground regardless.
How long does a Spalding portable hoop take to assemble?
The 54 inch portables take about three hours with two adults. The Momentous is advertised as a 30 minute assembly, and owners say that is not the experience, especially once you add the roughly 90 minutes it takes to pour six bags of sand through a narrow fill hole.
What is the part people get wrong?
The pole. It comes in three sections that hammer together and cannot be taken back apart. You get one attempt at the orientation. Owners recommend spraying the poles with WD-40 before joining them.
My Spalding base has cracked. Can I replace it?
It is difficult. Owners report not being able to buy replacement bases and resorting to patching or filling with concrete. This is exactly why the sand-versus-water decision matters, and why it should be made before the first winter rather than after it.
Do I need to anchor a portable hoop?
It is a very good idea. It sits on wheels by design, and a filled base plus a storm is still a large sail on a trolley. Ground anchors and straps are inexpensive and are what experienced owners recommend.
Installers.org is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Spalding or Russell Brands, LLC. Spalding is a trademark of its owner, referred to here only to describe the assembly services that independent installers on this directory provide.