You guys will never guess what happened to me over the weekend!!! We found an awesome deal on a trampoline for our family in October, but waited to put it up because of snow season. We finally put it up a few days ago since the weather was looking good.
Where we live, we get fierce winds. And our home is situated in a part of the neighborhood where those winds are not blocked at all. So we have gotten hit with 70-80 mph winds before during the crazy storms.
We did our due-diligence and checked the forecast, and even checked the wind forecast to make sure we were safe having the trampoline up because my husband was heading out of town and we didn’t want any incidents. But…. weather always changes.
Two nights ago, I was sleeping (without my hubby in town- which freaks me out anyway) and all of a sudden around 2:00am, I heard a huge bang and scratching sound along my bedroom window and wall. As I laid there half asleep, I realized that the wind was blowing extremely hard. And it hit me!! NO! I looked out the window to see that our trampoline had flew out of the backyard and over our home into the cultisac. Just sitting there!
Mind you, I’m 26 weeks pregnant. So my mind was racing….. I’m alone, I can’t even move that trampoline with one other person (and shouldn’t). So, in a panic I called two neighbor friends of ours to come over and move the trampoline into our garage. It was the only safe and realistic place to put it… and keep until my husband got home from his trip. I picked up pieces of our tramp strewn all along the yard. And fortunately, our tramp will still work once we get it all put back together. So, that is the good news out of this story.
Finally everything was settled and my ”Fight or Flight” response was over… I went inside and just bawled! It was so scary to have that kind of thing wake you up in the middle of the night without the hubby there. Needless to say, we have since purchased a Trampoline Anchor Kit on Amazon to help secure it down so this hopefully doesn’t happen in the future. But, if any of you have ways to keep trampolines from flying away, I’m all ears!!
michelle houchlei
Sorry to hear about your trampoline incident! I just thought I would let you know that we too were afraid of the winds catching ours or the possibility of it tipping over,(we have six kids). My husband dug all around the trampoline and covered it back over. Very sturdy idea.
Meg
That’s happened to our neighbors too! I will have to pass on the anchor kit link on to them.
Kathy
Another idea (that I learned after our trampoline flew away) is to take three 60 pound bags of sand from Lowes, etc. and put them on 3 of the legs. A local friend has done that, and her’s hasn’t moved an inch, even with all the crazy tornado weather we get .
Keri
Just a warning, the wind anchors DON’T always work. That wonderful December windstorm? We had our trampoline anchored down with two steel tornado anchors. The wind was so fierce that it bent and snapped the actual frame of the trampoline apart- sending it flying into the neighbors back porch! The bottom posts stayed in the ground anchored down. If you are having a really bad windstorm, anchor the TOP of the frame as well, or just take the net out. A pain, but hauling it out of your neighbors back door is worse.
Erika
Wow! This happened a few years back and the neighbors trampoline went flying, rolled and somehow missed cars and hit my father in laws house. It only dented the gutter but it’s still scary! I never even thought about anchors and will have to tell them about it since it’s flown several times. Glad your neighbors were so nice to help move back the trampoline!
Leslie Jorgensen
This same things just happened to me 2 weeks ago. It was the middle of the night the wind took the trampoline hit my house and flew to the side into the backyard of the neighbors behind me. It was so sad to see it all ripped and bent up. We had to take it to the dump and now my kids are so bummed. We just got it for Christmas!
Erin
That happens to us every spring. We can usually bend it back but every 4 years or so we have to get a new one. I’m glad yours was ok.
Kristen
We get crazy winds here also. My husband bought sand bags from Home Depot and we put 4 of them on the legs. We havn’t had any problem with thr tramp blowing at all. We take them off when it’s not windy and put them on when it might be.
Justinea
I can totally relate…three years ago our trampoline flew over our back fence into a field. I freaked out and well my three year old at the time was tramatized from seeing it fly over fence and my reaction. so the next two years I have spent calming her fears when its super windy. We too put sand bags on the legs when its windy or move it closer up against the house. scary!!
Jenny
A similar thing happend to us. Except, my husband was in the shower when the kids ran in yelling the trampoline was going to blow away. He yells at me to go out there and hold onto it while he gets dressed. Yeah right – our trampoline blew a block away and only touched down twice on it’s flight! Needless to say, we buried our next trampoline.
Loretta
How did u bury it? We lost my daughters trampoline a few weeks ago going to get her another one , however we would like to secure it do it doesn’t hurt someone or their property. Any ideas appreciated . Thanky
Andrea
The best way is to dig a pit and put the trampoline in at ground level. That helps minimize fall injuries, too. But not everyone’s yard is conducive to this solution, so the anchoring system is the next best thing. You can make your own by purchasing some short lengths of chain, an equal number of quick-links, and several of the heavy duty corkscrew-type ground stakes (the kind used to tether large dogs).
Debbie Watterson
This same thing happened to me. Mine was 2 months old. I wasn’t home at the the time, but my neighbors said that it was 50 ft. in the air, and then it proceeded to take out 9 mailboxes up the street. Crazy!!!
Emily Anzalone
A few years back we got a trampoline for Easter. We also get really bad winds, and 2 weeks after we got it, we came home from somewhere and it was folded up like a taco against our neighbors house!! Not fun!!!
Jennine
That happens all the time in Herriman. Friends who have experienced it say that sand bags work. We don’t have one so I don’t know from experience.
Kristin
Hire a bobcat tractor to dig a bowl shape in your backyard, then assemble your tramp except you probably won’t even need the legs anymore. The way you bounce on a tramp, you really are the deepest only in the middle. We did this and absolutely love that our 3 kids ages 5 and under can just run on and off the tramp at any given time!
Kath
So that happened to the people across the street from us. The house behind them owned the tramp and the wind picked it up and it hit there roof and actually broke the truss. Needless the say they were not to happy and of course had to have it fixed by professionals.
Leigh
WOW!! What a most frightful experience!! We’ve never owned one but, growing up, my neighbors did. There was a metal fence that separated the two properties. I can’t imagine being jolted up in the middle of the night (nor in the light of day) to a sound as incredible as that!!
Once when my husband was away on business, our garage door broke. It wouldn’t close all the way. &, as luck would dictate, it occurred the same day as I was going to celebrate my child’s birthday at school. Thankfully, my neighbor took the treats to school but, I had to stay at home & miss out on the memories. *pout face* Thankfully too, my parents lived about 30 minutes away, so I had backup too. *hee*
Andrea
You poor thing! We just bought a tramp about 3 weeks ago and I wanted to be prepared for this kind of thing , so I bought this same set to hold our tramp down! It looks like the best out their from my research.
James Robertson
Hi, this happened to me a few months back. We have ours on the patio so ground anchors are no use. I searched the internet for a alternitave but found nothing. So I weighed it down with concrete blocks hanging from rope. This worked fine till the kids started swinging on them. So im in the process of making weights that you fit round the legs and fill with water. If you have the same problem and would like to see what Iv come up with please email. james.robertson45@btinternet.com
Gemma
Omg… I was eating breakfast on Monday and heard an almighty bang, I drew the curtains and realised our 10ft trampoline was GONE!!!
I was shaking like a leaf because I live on the 3rd floor with a big roof terrace so it had fallen 3flights too!
The 1st thought in my head was ITS KILLED SOMEONE… (I live Nxt to a busy train station) but luckily it landed in the car park on the opposite side to the train station and totally missed the 2 parked cars too….
Now I’m over the fact that it didn’t kill anyone I’m actually really upset its gone… We had to take it apart and dispose as it was all bent and one part broke! I’m really gutted as we only purchased it last summer, it was cable tied to the railing in the garden but the wind just snapped them clean off, do you think if we was to get another that it would be safe enough if we were to lay sand bags over the feet and possibly hang weights off of the frame as well?
I must admit I am a little scared to get another but my kids loved it soooo much and it’s great exercise for them?
Thanks 🙂
jessica anderson
I just bought a 14ft skywalker trampoline… and thanks to all your wonderful comments I purchased six 60lb sand bags for the legs… we plan on buying six more… and a anchor set…. as we live in Arizona and have monsoons and micro bursts… I don’t wanna risk loosing our brand new tramp… thank you all for leaving your experiances and comments! 🙂
Jacqueline Maldonado
We took the posts and net off and flipped the trampoline over onto its top. Seemed to work.