I bought my pool from a dealer and had it installed professionally. I believe they did a great job. The excavation was done by a bobcat and both the excavator and installers used a transit. I bought a 24' round Vogue pool 52" high. I'm impressed with it as I grew up with a much "junkier" pool - nothing like what we have now.

As far as hints: They put 8"x16" concrete blocks under each upright; blocked the filter opening with duct tape and used a wet dry vac to suck out the air as the pool started filling and used a PVC "T" wrapped with towels to get out the wrinkles as they straightened out the liner during the first inch or two of water. One thing I've heard but don't know how true it is - "j" hook liners are harder to install than overlap. Apparently if not installed correctly, they unhook themselves and can cause a large mess.

I watched them just in case I needed to do it in the future, I'm going on my 5th year and no problems.