Basketball hoop anchor kits explained: bolt-down, sleeve, hinge and direct bury

The four systems

Bolt-down: what is in the box

Goalrilla's 9-inch kit (B1002): “Steel Plate, J Bolts, Nuts, Washers, and Rebar Steel Rods.” Escalade's 7-inch kit (B1030): the same list, with the rebar “to strengthen concrete.” The procedure from the SB60 manual: thread a nut to the bottom of each J-bolt, pass the bolts up through the plate, add a top nut; the bottom nuts “will be forever embedded in concrete” and the top nuts “are used for leveling.” After the pour, the plate is pushed into the wet concrete, agitated to remove voids, and leveled and squared to the court. On day 5 the pole stands on the four bolts with washers and nuts, and the leveling nuts under the pole's base plate are turned until a post level reads plumb on two faces. Both kits ship with the hoop; you buy one separately only to move the hoop or to replace a lost part.

9-inch versus 7-inch

The number is the spacing between bolt centers, and it is why the kits are not interchangeable. Goalrilla's page: fits “all Goalrilla goals (DC72E1, CV72, CV60, CV54, GS72c, GS60c, GS54c, FT72, FT60, FT54, GS54),” not compatible with Silverback or Goaliath. Silverback's page: fits SB60, SB60 Ghost, SB54, Ignite, Prodigy, SBX60 and SBX54, and “NOT compatible with Goalrilla basketball goals.” The holes differ too: Goalrilla's guide wants 16 by 48 inches and eleven bags; the SB60 manual wants 16 by 36 and nine. If you are ever unsure which hoop you own, measure the bolt spacing on the base plate. How much concrete and how deep to dig cover both.

Sleeves and hinges

Spalding's U-Turn in-ground uses a “4-inch square steel pole with 4-inch square ground sleeve”: the sleeve is concreted in and the pole drops into it, so the pole lifts out for a move or a repave and a new pole can drop into the old sleeve. Lifetime describes an “optional ground sleeve” that allows moving in-ground hoops without breaking concrete. Goalsetter's Ground Anchor Hinge System is a 4-foot by 6-inch square anchor; the pole bolts to it lying on the ground and pivots up, which is why Goalsetter says two or three people can install it where Goalrilla's manual asks for four.

Direct bury

Silverback's NXT in-grounds and Goaliath's GoTek “directly install the pole into the ground and secure with concrete inside the pole” (Escalade's Stabili-Strength description); the SB54iG's pole is “directly installed into the ground and secured by concrete.” No plate, no leveling nuts, no second kit. The NXT pages add that the hoop is “not compatible with Yard Guard or Anchor Kit.” The trade is a few hundred dollars for a hoop that stays where it is set.

Moving a hoop with a second kit

Goalrilla's anchor page says it: the system “allows your Goalrilla basketball hoop to be dismounted and moved to another location” by unbolting from the plate and replacing the kit at the new site. The procedure is the day-1 pour at the new house with a new $110-$150 kit, a 72-hour cure, and the same four-adult assembly; the old plate stays in its concrete, cut flush or covered. Goalrilla's blog says most portables never move either; the difference is that a bolt-down in-ground can.