Trampoline Spring Replacement Guide

Springs are the cheapest performance part on a trampoline and the one owners think about least. A tired spring set makes a trampoline feel dead, and it makes the bounce uneven, which is a genuine safety issue and not just a comfort one.

How to tell the set is finished

Springs have a fatigue life. Every stretch takes a tiny amount of elasticity, and eventually they no longer return to their original length. Four signs, in the order they usually appear:

1. The bounce feels dead even though the mat looks fine.
2. Permanent stretch. Take one spring from a high traffic arc and one from a low traffic spot, remove both, and lay them side by side. If the high traffic one is visibly longer, the set is tired.
3. Coils no longer touching. On a healthy relaxed spring the coils sit against each other along the body. Visible gaps between coils at rest mean it is stretched.
4. Rust at the hooks, or opened hooks. Surface rust on the body is cosmetic. Rust at the hook, or a hook that has splayed open, means that spring is close to letting go.

Why you replace all of them

This is the part people resist, because replacing six springs costs $10 and replacing 96 costs $65. Do it anyway. A trampoline with mixed old and new springs pulls unevenly on the mat, which does three things: it makes the bounce asymmetric and unpredictable, it concentrates load on the new springs, and it accelerates wear on the mat's V-ring stitching in the areas where the pull is strongest.

The only good reason to replace individual springs is an emergency fix on an otherwise young set, for example three springs that snapped in a storm on a two year old trampoline.

Sizing replacements

Two numbers: length and count.

Length is measured on a spring that is completely off the trampoline, relaxed, from the outside tip of one hook to the outside tip of the other. Common sizes are 3.5, 5.5, 7, 8.5, and 9 inches. Do not measure an installed spring, and do not measure the gap between the frame and the mat, because both will read long.

Count is a straight count of every spring position on the frame, including empty ones.

Longer is not better. A spring longer than the original will sit under too little tension, and a shorter one will over-tension the mat and can tear the V-rings out. Match the original. The size finder tool will confirm the spec from your three measurements, and our measuring guide shows exactly where to put the tape.

What quality actually differs

• Wire gauge. Thicker wire gives a firmer bounce and a longer fatigue life. Heavy duty springs of the same length feel noticeably stiffer.
• Galvanizing. Zinc plated springs rust in a season or two in wet climates. Hot dip galvanized last far longer outdoors.
• Hook geometry. A properly closed hook is much harder to pull off the frame accidentally.

For an outdoor trampoline in any climate that sees rain, paying a little more for galvanized springs is straightforwardly worth it.

Installing a full set without hurting yourself

Buy the spring pull tool. It is about $10, it looks like a T-handle with a hook, and it turns a miserable job into a manageable one. A screwdriver through the spring eye is the improvised version and it slips, which is how people gash their hands.

Then work in this order:

1. Remove the safety pad and set it aside.
2. Remove all old springs. Work around the circle rather than pulling one whole side at a time.
3. Hook every new spring to the mat's V-rings first, all the way around, leaving the frame ends loose.
4. Install the frame ends in a cross pattern: 12 o'clock, then 6, then 3, then 9, then halfway between each of those, and keep halving. This keeps the mat centered and the tension even.
5. The last dozen springs are the hard ones. That is normal and it means the tension is right.
6. Refit the pad, and check that the hooks all point the correct direction, which on most designs is with the open side of the hook facing down toward the ground.

Two people make this a 45 minute job. One person makes it a two hour job. Wear gloves and eye protection, because a spring that slips off a tool travels fast.

While the pad is off

You have the trampoline apart anyway, so take five minutes to inspect what you can only see now: the V-ring stitching on the mat, the inner edge of the frame rail for rust, and the leg bolts for movement. Our safety inspection checklist covers the full list, and if the pad you just removed is chalky, brittle, or split, it is due for replacement too. Our pad and net guide covers sizing that part.