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Portable Basketball Hoop (Fixings? , How to keep it upright?) - ANY HELP IS MASSIVELY APPRECIATED 3

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yaredY

yaredY

Student
Nov 4, 2021
6
Hey engineers!
For a school project, we were given freedom to build anything we would like and I have chosen to try to design and create a portable basketball hoop (the whole thing: rim, net, backboard, post). It would be placed against a wall. Ideally, I would like it to be lightweight and collapsible so it is easy to carry in a bag perhaps. However, it would also need to be stable, sturdy and strong enough to withstand someone throwing a basketball on it (its probably not possible for it to withstand someone dunking and hanging off the rim without a permanent fixing, so scrap that!). If you have any advice for, perhaps, what type of fixings/materials I should use and how I can keep the hoop stable when it is upright, anything at all would be massively appreciated. I was thinking that I have the rim fold against the backboard before being put away to save space using a hinge. I was also think of adding rubber to any parts that touch the ground or wall For reference, a standard basketball is 10ft in height. Again, thank you so much for your willingness to read through this post and any help at all is greatly appreciated! A second opinion will be extremely helpful
Thank you in advance,
Yared
 
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Sky-hook, super glue, suction cups, ramset nails.

So what ideas have you investigated and dismissed as impractical?

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)
 
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yaredY,

I have seen basketball hoops mounted to the top of a blow-moulded plastic housing which was filled with water.

--
JHG
 
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I have seen basketball hoops mounted to the top of a blow-moulded plastic housing which was filled with water.
Click to expand...
Sand, if it freezes where you are. Otherwise that stand would last a single season.

Dan - Owner
Footwell%20Animation%20Tiny.gif
 
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MacGyverS2000,

Winter is street hockey season where I live. Drain the tank and store the basketball net in your garage. Sand is hard to remove conveniently.

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JHG
 
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The net I put up for my step-daughter has wheels on the back of the tank... it's not the most convenient, but I can move it elsewhere should the need arise. Tip it back, wheel into place, tip forward.

Dan - Owner
Footwell%20Animation%20Tiny.gif
 
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drawoh & MacGyverS2000
I want this basketball hoop to be fully portable so it can be taken to your local park, so I don't want to be using water/sand. MacGyver, I love the suggestion of using wheels, I had completely neglected this idea and would give me more freedom for the weight problem I was having.
Artisi
I will heavily be considering using suction cups now to support the hoop, that idea is great. I wouldn't be able to use ramset nails as this is a permanent fixing and I want you to be able to take this hoop with you to a park if there's no space or an area where you can play. I have considered having the rim fold against the backboard and having an extension mechanism for the pole holding the net and rim up. I am unsure of what kind of extension mechanism I should use so any suggestions would be appreciated
Overall, I mainly came here to say thanks to you all for your responses and taking the time to think about my product idea. I really appreciate your suggestions and will actively be using and considering them. Thanks again!
 
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Also, I forgot to add ,Artisi, I don't know what you meant when you mentioned a sky-hook. Are you referring to the basketball move haha?
 
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A portable hoop will not be as solid as a permanently affixed hoop, short of mounting it on the back of an RV or other vehicle like a forklift or bobcat. Conservation of momentum suggests that you need the equivalent of at least 1 ton of of equivalent counterweight/structure to mimic a "real" hoop that can handle a 200-lb person slam dunking and swinging from the hoop. Even a vehicle might have issues with any sideways momentum, since their CG is relatively high compared to their width. You might need to have separate stabilization "feet" that come out from the sides of the vehicle, like those on fire department ladder trucks.

Any attempt to mimic something like that without the actual physical infrastructure is likely to cause someone injury, since they will be lulled into thinking that the structure can support such moves.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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I don't intend to have the user be able to dunk and I will make that very clear to them. The structure only needs to be able to support the force of a basketball. Thanks for suggesting the stabilisation "feet", I can try incorporate that. Do you think this will be possible with this newfound information? Thanks again for helping!
 
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There are several of these in my neighborhood, quite similar to the ones below.

Capture_ttjmlt.png


BA
 
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BAretired
I want to be able to make the hoop portable so it can be taken to a park or something. These ones are not made to be portable or carried, but are made to be used in a driveway.
 
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These ones are not made to be portable or carried,
Click to expand...

If you check, you'll find that every one of those can either be carried or has wheels. I've never seen one that didn't come with wheels, and can be rolled around like a hand dolly

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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IRstuff
I know they have wheels or can be carried but I want you to be able to take this product to the park and back. Going to the park lugging the traditional tall, giant hoop down the road for 15-20 mins every time you want to play would be annoying and look weird to bystanders. I want to create a product that can be collapsed, taken to the POI to play and setup and then packed up to be taken home.
 
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If it must be carryable, that means the entire system must be light... which also means the system must be mounted to something for stability during play. That requirement knocks out a lot of options, particularly if you can't drill into anything. Clamps of some form are really the only option at that point. Kind of limits the design, possibly to the point of being either onerous to set up, or not much more than a dollar-store curiosity (or a Brookstone toy).

Dan - Owner
Footwell%20Animation%20Tiny.gif
 
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Just because you can imagine it does not mean it's either good, feasible, or even worthwhile.

If this were something worthwhile, someone else would have thought of it before, so where are all the competing products?

It's trivial to come up with competing requirements that make a design impossible to implement. You've basically done so here. On order to be a plausible system, you need a something sufficiently sturdy, so metal, ala This product probably weighs about 200 pounds without ballast, roughly 200 pounds also, which you would also need to carry with you.


It would likely be easier to ask the city to install a hoop in the park, and you can volunteer to do the fundraising, etc. to make it happen. THAT would be easier, and cheaper, than designing and building something that won't do the job.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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