How to move a portable basketball hoop without draining it

The method, in four steps

1. Lower the rim to its minimum. Almost every portable here drops to 7.5 feet; the Lifetime 90168 stops at 8. This drops the centre of gravity and gets the board out of tree branches and garage headers.
2. Clear the path. Ten feet of board sweeping through a doorway or past a car mirror is how boards get cracked.
3. Tilt the base forward onto its wheels. Take the pole just below the board with both hands and pull back until the base pivots onto the wheels and the kickstand or rear foot lifts clear.
4. Walk it. Keep the tilt shallow — just enough to clear the back of the base — and push rather than drag. Two people is comfortable; one is possible on a small base and a flat slab.

That is it, for the ninety per cent of moves that happen on concrete. The makers build for this: Escalade publishes “large weighted wheels, ErgoMove wheelbarrow-style tilt, rear kickstand” on the NXT 54, Lifetime's 90040 lists built-in wheels on its 27-gallon Pro Court base, and the NXT 50's page says the base tilts forward onto its wheels and is movable by two people.

Lower the rim first, every time

This is the step people skip and regret. A 54-inch board at 10 feet, tilted back on a base, is a long lever with a lot of mass at the top of it. Lowered to 7.5 feet the same hoop is noticeably easier to balance and far less likely to run the board into something.

If the hoop has a crank actuator, wind it all the way down and leave the handle on. If it has a one-hand lift (Lifetime's Power Lift, Action Grip, Speed Shift), drop it to the bottom detent. If it is a telescoping pole with pins, pull the pins and collapse it.

Tilt and walk, done properly

Grip the pole with both hands at roughly chest height — not on the board, and not on the rim. Pull back smoothly; the base will pivot up onto the wheels with far less effort than its weight suggests, because the wheels sit close to the base's centre of mass by design.

Keep the tilt as shallow as will clear the ground. A steep tilt puts the mass further over the wheels and makes the hoop want to keep going. If the base starts to run away downhill, let it come back down flat — that is what the kickstand is for.

Across grass, gravel and a lip

This is where filled bases stop being easy. Base wheels are small and hard, and a lawn offers no rolling resistance relief at all: a 290 lb base sinks in, the wheels stop turning and you end up dragging.

Three things help. Lay planks or plywood as a track and roll along them. Pick a dry day, because a wet lawn is both softer and more easily damaged. And for a significant distance across soft ground, drain a water base first — it is quicker than fighting it.

For a step or a driveway lip, approach square-on rather than at an angle, and lift the base over with a second person taking the weight at the back. Rolling a loaded base diagonally over a lip is how the wheel axle housings break.

When draining is the right call

• A long move, or across soft ground. Anything beyond about fifty feet of lawn.
• Loading into a truck or trailer. Nobody lifts a 300 lb base. Drain, disassemble the pole if the manual allows, and load the base, pole and board separately.
• Before winter, if the base holds water. Freezing water is what splits bases — winter storage covers it.

To drain water: unscrew the fill cap, tip the base toward the opening and let it run, or siphon it with a hose if the hoop cannot be tilted. A sand-filled base is a different proposition — wet sand has to be scooped out through the cap with a scoop or a shop vac, which takes an hour or two and is the real cost of choosing sand. How to fill a portable base has the sand-against-water trade in full.

Moving house with a portable hoop

Drain the base completely, then take the hoop back to three parts: base, pole sections and board. Most portables come apart in reverse of their assembly order, and the assembly manual is the instruction set for it — Lifetime's and Escalade's are published online if the paper one is long gone.

Keep the hardware bagged and labelled by step. The single most common problem with a reassembled portable is a missing bolt from the pole-to-base joint, which is exactly the joint that cannot be improvised. Transport the board flat and padded, face up.

What breaks a base

• Dragging it sideways when loaded. The wheel housings are moulded into the plastic and that is the load they are not designed for.
• Stacking blocks on it. Point loads crack a moulded tank over a season. Use a weight bag, which spreads the load.
• Leaving water in it through a freeze. The expansion has to go somewhere, and it goes through the wall.
• Moving it at full height. Not a base failure, a board failure — but the most expensive one.

If the hoop has to go in and out often enough that this is a weekly job, the honest answer may be a different hoop. A wall mount uses no floor at all and never needs moving: best wall-mounted hoops, or best hoops for a small driveway for the whole decision.