Move a basketball goal...simple, right?

[Dargo]

My wife's parents just passed away and she wanted me to get the basketball goal from their house and put it up for our kids. It's the goal she used as a kid and she wanted our kids to use the same goal. Being that my wife puts up with me, no problem. That's an easy task compared with her task of putting up with me. Right?

I loaded up a couple of drop point spades and headed over in my pickup truck to dig out the goal and bring it home. After an hour or so of digging and the goal post wouldn't even slightly rock, I began to wonder what I'd gotten myself into. At that point it became a challenge. Time to bring in the big hardware! I loaded up my track loader on the trailer and headed over with plans to just pull the thing out of the ground and be done with it.

Once I unloaded my track loader, a 10,000 pound model, and couldn't pull it out of the ground I really began to wonder what I'd gotten myself into. I couldn't help but thinking my deceased father in law was somewhere above me having a good laugh. I could have pushed it over and broken the post off with the track loader, but that would be a failure at this point. I needed to bring the thing home intact. So, I took off with my trailer and went to get my compact excavator. Shoulda done that to start with, right?

After I'd dug down 40" and was still hitting concrete under the goal post I was really scratching my head! Anyway, I finally got it dug loose and plucked out of the ground with the track loader and got it home. Using a borrowed crane scale I discovered that the 'little' goal post I planned on digging out by hand and putting into the back of my pickup weighed just a hair under 4100 pounds!

I got it back to the house and got it buried, leveled, and set to 9' 11" (sorry, that was close enough!) I added 4 more bags of concrete to it and propped it up with 2X4's to set for a couple of days. Ha! More weight. When I'm dead and gone someone else will have to go through what I did when they go to move it for one of my grandkids. LOL! Anyway, here's a quick picture I took of it after we got all the dirt cleared off of it and was getting ready to plant it again.

And I'm sitting here at my desk at work wondering why I'm so sore today... But, hey, I did get it moved and I didn't bend it or break it!

 

[ToadHill]

People will curse you just like I did the guy who owned my place before me. He put up a pole for a cloths line and you might know that it was right where I needed to put a post for a fence I was putting up.

I cut the pole off about 3' from the ground and tried to dig and rock it out. No go! Finally started to dig I found a cement block poured around the pole that was 2' square by 3.5' deep. I guess he didn't want it to move.

Went and rented a jackhammer and broke off the corner to get my post in and left the rest. Just getting off the corner took me, my son and 2 grandsons 4 hours.

 

[theboman]

That's sounds like what my dad would have done.

Years ago my brother was towing a small mobile home with his wrecker. It caught a mailbox along the way and bent the pipe post. He told the owner he'd be back on Saturday to fix the post, and when there's less traffic.

Saturday arrived and he started to push, pull, pry, kick and occasional cuss that pole. It wouldn't move at all! The owner happened home and asked how it was going with a smirk.
This post had been bent, and bent, and bent.... Maybe it was a bit too close to the road to begin with... So, the post was a pipe, and inside that was another pipe, and another, and another.... So, it nearly a solid pipe!! I'm not sure how he did it, but he got it straight in the ground again. Then again my brother can fix anything....usually.

 

[LBrown59]

.
Being that my wife puts up with me, no problem. That's an easy task compared with her task of putting up with me. Right?

But, hey, I did get it moved and I didn't bend it or break it!

You said it.

 

[radioman]

WOW ! 4k worth of concrete. This reminds me of the basketball pole still sitting in the bushes on my property. Its roughly half the size you dug up, and I have ANOTHER pole in concrete on edge of my driveway when I bought the place. SO I am wondering why the pole was replaced in the first place when the first pole lying int he bushes looks ok? Just reading your thread just makes me shudder to think what I might be in for in the future. Anyway- congrats on getting job done with no broken, bent stuff . Your wife must be happy to have it, but does she know about your mess in your inlaw yards?

 

[Builder]

Beautiful estate you have there. Looks like you have all the toys!

Maybe Shaq was the former owner and he wanted an outdoor pole for man size slam dunks. lol

 

[Dargo]

Beautiful estate you have there. Looks like you have all the toys!

Maybe Shaq was the former owner and he wanted an outdoor pole for man size slam dunks. lol

LOL! Thanks for the comments. I'll have to admit that even with the rim being an inch low, there's no chance this old man will ever dunk. I don't know how tall you are, but at my best I could 'dunk' a tennis ball. I said dunk, but with only a tennis ball I clearly was about 6" shy of really being able to dunk. I suck at basketball; period. I no nothing about you but I'm confident you could mop up the basketball court with me quite easily. I played football, baseball, wrestled and, oddly enough, played the #1 singles position on our varsity tennis team for all 4 years. Of course it helped when I was the only person on the tennis team. (just kidding...sorta - was the only one who could play).

My daughters play soccer and basketball. Yeah, they can beat me at H-O-R-S-E easily and, no, I'm not just letting them win.

 

[MossRoad]

Ha! I got you beat. I could dunk a volleyball. But, never a basketball, either. Never could get that last inch or two higher.

Nice job on moving the post for your family. They will get years of enjoyment and you will always have a smile.

 

[Tig]

Great story. The four extra bags of concrete are a nice touch.