Basketball goal

[Birdhunter1]

An older guy I go to church with called me and ask if I'd help him remove a basketball goal from the edge of his driveway.
NO problem....

It was a 4" steel pipe that went to regulation height of 10', and had a perfect 3' radius bend on the top piece of it (I'd like to see the pipe bender that did that!).

Anyway we basically unscrewed it with a large pipe wrench and cheaterbar and then foudn it was mounted to a piece of 4" pipe in the groudn that when we measured the inside to see how deep it was it was about 11'. Whoever put it there years ago didn't want it to move. Anyway we dug around the top 1' cut it off, capped it and filled over it with dirt.

The problem is I am going to put this thing up for my nephew at my sisters house. 4" steel pipe that long will be quite expensive, I am wondering if I can bury a piece of PVC in a 2' diameter hole filled with concrete however deep I can go. The question is do yall think PVC will hold it solid enough in the ground? Considering I could barely lift it myself I know it is going to need some major support.

My gut it telling me to get him an actual basketball goal for his birthday and add the steel pipe to the scrap pile for use on something else.

 

[CurlyDave]

My gut it telling me to get him an actual basketball goal for his birthday and add the steel pipe to the scrap pile for use on something else.

I think your gut is right.

OTOH if I absolutely had to recycle the old one, I would consider taking the 1' section you cut off from the piece burried in the ground and drilling some 1/2" holes in the cut off end. Bend some 3/8" rebar to form U-shaped "tails" that can be inserted in the holes & hang straight down.

Set this in a concrete base & you should be able to attach the upright to an all steel & concrete base.

It would probably last, but removal would be a headache...

 

[EddieWalker]

Birdhunter,

For what it woudl cost to buy a kit, you could easily buy a section of pipe and re-use this heavy duty one.

I would never rely on PVC to support this. NEVER!!!!

I'd sleeve the existing pipe inside a larger one. I don't know my pipe sizes, but do know you can get 5 inch square tubing that will work well. You could check around for round pipe and see if a 4 1/2 inch exists and if it will slide over the 4 inch.

Since you only have one foot for support, you need to extend that 4 inch pipe another three feet. For additionals strength, I'm thinking another two feet above ground will be strong enough, but more would be better. That means you need a minimum of a 6 foot sleeve with three feet of the round 4 inch pipe inside the sleeve.

Get it all lined up and weld it together. You'll have to cut a few slots in the sides to get it really solid. You might also consider drilling all the way through and useing some galvanized bolts.

Then set it in concrete.

Hope I didn't make something very simple too complicated. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Eddie