it's not as bad as I was imagining.
The only bad part is my pump is now slightly larger than the opening, so I really have to shove it in there to get it installed every spring... and it gets worse every year. Now, maybe it's reached a static point where it won't keep getting smaller and smaller, but I really do dread it every year.
Imagine me, on my hands and knees, cramming that pump into the vault, pushing with all my might and then suddenly FLOOP it breaches the opening and the pump goes crashing to the bottom and I nearly kill myself falling into the hole. Haha! That may be a slight exaggeration, but it's not too far off! It's definitely not a job for the weak of heart.