Saturday 8 December 2012

Trampoline Mat Replacement

The mat on our family trampoline needed replacing. A web search identified the Gold Coast based business called Topline Trampolines and checking of the website suggested they were reputable with reasonable pricing. They have some excellent pages on the website which enables customers to accurately determine the size and type of mat to order. Here's a link to the page for what we were after, given our trampoline is rectangular in shape. After looking at our trampoline and doing some measurements we determined that ours is a "Hills" with 54 springs: 17 along each side and 10 along each end.
We placed our order online which was straightforward and the very next morning received an email advice letting us know that the replacement mat had been dispatched. Excellent service!
The mat arrived yesterday and we installed it straight away. The size was spot on.
Close observation of the replacement (see photo above) reveals two key differences between the old (on top) and new (on the bottom) mats:

  1. The overlap in the new mat is about 1 cm less than the original meaning that the stitching is closer to the edge. This is not a big drama but does make it more difficult to install the wires from the old mat into the new.
  2. The new mat has only two rows of stitching V four on the old mat. We suspect that the life of the new mat will be considerably reduced as a result and are a little concerned that the mat will be less able to handle use by other than small children. Hopefully the cost reduction approach by the manufacturer does not translate into reduced safety.

We are very happy with the service from Topline but a bit disappointed that the quality of the product seems less than the original. Time will tell.

1 comment:

Phillip Diprose said...

We forwarded a copy of this blog post to Topline Trampolines for their information. They have forwarded the following response:

"Just letting you know that having 2, 4 or 10 rows does not really make much difference. Once the sun affects the hem thread, it all goes at the same time anyway. A hem restitch can be done, once this happens. It is not unusual to have a few hem restitches in the lifespan of a mat."

Good to know.