Trampoline Winter Care and Off Season Storage

Most trampoline parts do not wear out from jumping. They wear out from sitting outside. UV, ice, standing water, and wind cause the majority of the damage that shows up as a torn mat in year four, and almost all of it happens during the off season.

The decision: leave it up or take it down

Both are legitimate. The wrong answer is leaving it fully assembled and ignoring it.

Take the mat and net off if

• You get significant snow load. Wet snow sitting on a mat for weeks stretches the fabric and the springs permanently.
• You get ice storms. Ice on a net shreds it, and ice on a pad splits the vinyl.
• You get high winter winds. The enclosure is a sail, and winter is when trampolines end up in the neighbor's yard.
• Nobody will be jumping until spring anyway.

Leaving it up is fine if

• Your winters are mild and dry, and it still gets used.
• It is anchored properly and you will brush snow off after storms.
• You use a fitted weather cover over the mat and pad.

The teardown, in order

1. Net and poles first. Unclip the net, slide off the foam sleeves, and pull the poles. Do this before anything else, because it removes most of the wind load immediately.
2. Safety pad. Clean it with mild soap and water, dry it completely, and store it flat or loosely rolled. Never fold it tightly, because creases become cracks in the vinyl.
3. Mat and springs. Work around the circle with a spring tool. Number nothing; springs are interchangeable. Clean the mat, let it dry fully, and roll it rather than folding.
4. Springs. Bag them, dry, ideally with a little light oil wiped on if they are not galvanized.
5. Frame. Leave it assembled and anchored, or break it down if you have the storage space. An anchored bare frame handles winter well.

Store everything somewhere dry and out of sun: a garage, a shed, a basement. Damp fabric in a sealed bin grows mildew, which stains permanently and weakens the weave, so make sure things are genuinely dry first.

If you leave it up

• Brush snow off, do not shovel it. A soft broom or a push broom with the bristles flat. A shovel or anything with an edge will tear the mat.
• Never let ice build up. Do not chip at ice on the mat. Let it melt, or brush the snow off before it turns to ice.
• Nobody jumps on a frozen mat. Cold polypropylene is brittle and cold springs are less elastic.
• Use a weather cover sized to your frame, and check after storms that it has not collected a pond of water.
• Check anchors monthly. Freeze and thaw cycles loosen ground anchors.

Spring startup checklist

Whether it came apart or not, do this before the first jump of the season:

1. Inspect every spring for rust at the hooks and for permanent stretch. Compare two of them side by side off the frame.
2. Check the mat for UV fuzzing, pinholes near the perimeter webbing, and any loose V-ring stitching.
3. Check the pad for chalking, splits, and crushed foam. This is the part most likely to have died over winter.
4. Check the net for holes and for fraying at the pole sleeves, and confirm the entry closure still latches.
5. Check every frame bolt for tightness and every joint for rust that has gone past the surface.
6. Re-tension the anchors, since the ground has moved.
7. Level the frame if the ground has heaved.

Our safety inspection checklist is exactly this list in interactive form, and it scores the result and tells you which parts to order. Most trampolines need one part after a winter, usually the pad, and catching it in March costs a fraction of what a torn mat in July costs.

The habit that doubles the life of everything

If you do only one thing from this page, cover the mat and pad when the trampoline is not in use for extended stretches, in any season. UV is the single biggest destroyer of trampoline fabric, and a $50 cover routinely adds years to a $125 mat and a $120 pad. Our lifespan breakdown goes into which parts fail when, and why the sun is behind nearly all of it.