This is a short video I put together detailing some big improvements that we recently made to the rigidity of our basketball goals in response to customer feedback that we received via product reviews.
Specifically, three stability concerns were trending in the reviews customers left about our adjustable Pro Dunk basketball goals…
- A bouncing motion while adjusting the height of the basketball goal
- Shake or movement of the basketball system when contacted by the ball or player (dunking)
- Inefficient placement of the gusseted support at the base of the basketball pole
We addressed all three of these concerns with two very big improvements…
-
Increased pole size
- Silver: 4″ to 5″ square pole
- Gold: 5″ to 6″ square pole
- Platinum: 6″ square to 8″ x 6″ rectangular pole
- Diamond: 8″ square to 12″ x 8″ rectangular pole
The Diamond now has the largest pole on the market boasting the highest Rigidity Index™ of any basketball goal available. Actually, with these upgrades, every one of our Pro Dunk systems has best-in-class Rigidity Index™ scores making Pro Dunk the highest performing basketball hoops available! This was a huge upgrade for us and we’re seeing great feedback from customers on this.
- Doubled gusset support. Instead of using just 4 gussets at the base of our system in a (X) pattern we are now using 8 which increases rigidity of the basketball system even further. We now use a hash (#) pattern which has proven to be quite effective for us.
In summary, the bouncing has been eliminated, rebound response is better than ever and we have an extremely effective gusset support system at the base all thanks to customer reviews.
As a side note, I’d like to mention another contributing factor to the elimination of the bouncing mentioned in reviews. We upgraded the adjustment mechanism on the Silver model which is where we were seeing the concerns in reviews. You can learn a little more about this upgrade in this blog post about adjustment speed.
Welcome basketball fans this is Mr. Basketball and today we’re going to be taking a look
at a few reviews that we received several months ago about the stability of our basketball
systems.
The first one is from DW in Wallingford, PA.
Great b-ball system. Easy to adjust. High quality materials. Great backboard response.
Very, very slight shake slash rattle or would have rated a 5.
The next one is from MJ in Waynesville, OH.
Shakes a little … bounces a bit when trying to lower.
And lastly, Ron Bench the Engineer from Orchard Park, NY.
First, I must declare that I’m a mechanical engineer with 30 years of experience in the
design and manufacture of precision mechanisms for the aerospace and defense industries,
as well as a number of years in the home construction business. So, consider my comments about product
quality with that in mind.
Although I’m sure the design of the main post mounting flange is structurally sound and
of adequate stiffness I did some structural calculations myself, I was surprised that
the welded connection between the mounting flange and the post has 2 times the gussets
for lateral stiffness as it does for fore-aft stiffness.
Since most of load at this joint is fore-aft due both to the backboard cantilever load
and rim loads.
So, to address both of these concerns … that being the stiffness of the pole and also the
gussets at the base that our engineer here has pointed out.
What we’ve done is we’ve increased our pole size about 2-3 months ago in May we did that
… May of 2011. And we also double the gusset support at the base of our systems.
so now we have stiffness forwards backwards left and right. and this has really increased
the rigidity of our systems. We now have best in class Rigidity Index on all of our systems.
That’s all I’ve got for today. If you have any questions please leave them in the comments
section below.
