Basketball goal attachment

[strantor]

It's not really an "attachment" at this point, but trying on the idea. The kids want to play basketball in the fat end of the road, but last time I moved the goal out there, heavy winds (we get a lot of those) knocked it over. I want it way heavier than filling the plastic base with sand/water makes it, and I want it removable by tractor but not by hand. I want to be able to put it away when not used. I'm ok with other kids in the community using it if they don't abuse it, but if they do, putting it away would be a lot less stressful than trying to enforce rules on them.

All it is currently is a basketball goal band-it strapped to a pallet with my FEL forks giving it extra ballast.

But I'm thinking of ditching the plastic base and making a new one out of a steel frame with fork pockets, filled with concrete. Or just a 'lip' that my quick attach could hook into, then it really would be an "attachment."

 

[MossRoad]

It's not really an "attachment" at this point, but trying on the idea. The kids want to play basketball in the fat end of the road, but last time I moved the goal out there, heavy winds (we get a lot of those) knocked it over. I want it way heavier than filling the plastic base with sand/water makes it, and I want it removable by tractor but not by hand. I want to be able to put it away when not used. I'm ok with other kids in the community using it if they don't abuse it, but if they do, putting it away would be a lot less stressful than trying to enforce rules on them.

All it is currently is a basketball goal band-it strapped to a pallet with my FEL forks giving it extra ballast.

View attachment 779420

But I'm thinking of ditching the plastic base and making a new one out of a steel frame with fork pockets, filled with concrete. Or just a 'lip' that my quick attach could hook into, then it really would be an "attachment."

My only advice would be to pad the heck out of it, because if some kid gets injured on it, you'll be on the hook for the medical bills (and maybe worse).

We had a base similar to that. The water was a pain. It eventually cracked, and I moved the BB to our garage, over the door, like all good Indiana homes should have.

 

[2manyrocks]

Your homeowner's insurance might not cover a claim if it arises when the goal is off your property, eg, its beyond your boundary out in the road ROW.

The way some kids like to dunk and hang onto the rim........just sayin'.

 

[Eagle1]

Better play it safe only let kids play on a government approved court.

 

[diesel85]

When I was a kid, my dad would get the tractor with the loader and he made clamp on hoop and board from a rotted out stand. He'd come out with the machine and we'd play ball.

Now a days it would bother me to know if the hydraulics failed and I happened to be under it, I would've been a squashed kiddo... lol

The risks that folks used to take back then.

 

[MossRoad]

When I was a kid, my dad would get the tractor with the loader and he made clamp on hoop and board from a rotted out stand. He'd come out with the machine and we'd play ball.

Now a days it would bother me to know if the hydraulics failed and I happened to be under it, I would've been a squashed kiddo... lol

The risks that folks used to take back then.

Sounds awful, but seriously, that's why families had so many kids way back when. They needed them for labor and to care for the elderly.

 

[strantor]

When I was a kid, my dad would get the tractor with the loader and he made clamp on hoop and board from a rotted out stand. He'd come out with the machine and we'd play ball.

This was my first thought^
And this was my 2nd:

Now a days it would bother me to know if the hydraulics failed and I happened to be under it, I would've been a squashed kiddo... lol

The risks that folks used to take back then.

It is strange to me, how cultural this is. I saw a a video recently posted on social media; a father had a baby on his lap, he was smoking a cigarette, and letting the baby take drags off it. 99% of all the comments were along the lines of "he shouldn't be allowed to have children!" Or "he should be taken out back and shot!!"

I recognized the environment in the video, it was somewhere in SE Asia; if I had to name a country I'd say Indonesia. I've been all over the place out there and the video wasn't nearly as surprising to me. If it was indeed Indonesia, or maybe Malaysia, probably Thailand too (never been there but heard stories) it's not out of the ordinary to see kids smoking cigarettes. I was told they don't know any better; that their government doesn't go to the effort of spreading awareness. But they have the internet, so...

It's not about cigarettes, that's just one example. Ever seen a 50cc scooter with a family of 6 crammed onto it, the baby sitting unsecured inside a 5gal bucket strapped to the back with bungee cords? That's also "normal" there. Does the government really need to tell folks that's a bad idea? I think not.

Their culture exists on the opposite end of the risk-vs-reward spectrum from our "padded corners and choke hazard labels" culture. I don't think that excuses anything and I can't imagine what justification they would give if taken to task over putting a baby in a bucket like that. But they do, and nobody there thinks they're bad parents for it, only people here do. And I have conflicting thoughts about the arbitrary nature of morality (ex: it's a crime to leave a dog in a car for 10 minutes but not to leave a mouse stuck to a glue trap until it eats itself). So I've come full circle back to: It is strange to me, how cultural this is.

Probably nobody back in those days would have a problem with the FEL basketball goal. They would know the risk, they're not stupid, But it wouldn't be a big deal. I have been conditioned to make exceptions for things like this under the "it was a different time" clause or the "different place" clause, and will continue to do so, but I don't know why.

 

[MossRoad]

I remember my grandpa letting me puff on his lit pipe when I was a toddler. Riding on the back dash of the car. Riding in pickup truck beds. Yep. Different times.

I also remember playing basketball on our neighbor's lit court at night and many times running into the backstop support pole during intense games. All of us did at one time or another.

About the only time we ever heard of legal problems would be dog bites.

 

[tradosaurus]

Depending upon the demographics of your area that goal could attract the wrong type of people.

 

[Eagle1]

What is the wrong kind of people?