Sick of it.

[Artful]

i set my post 2' back from the edge of the road. Then added a t shape on top of it made from more 4x4 with a shallow (maybe 15 degree angle on the sides) v cut in the top. I cut a v in the bottom of a 2' long 4x4 to match the v in the 4x4 t then screwed a 4' 2x4 on top of that to mount the box on. Drilled a hole in the center of that and used a 12" long 3/8 lag and some big washers with a valve spring in between them to fasten it down. If the mailbox on the end gets hit it pops up out of the v and spins to the side. Post is back far enough that the plow driver would have to jump the curb to hit it. Secondary benefit is a kid hit my box with a baseball bat and it spun 180 and smacked him in the arm with the 2x4 breaking it. He had fun explaining that one to his parents then the cops...

love this - way to think outside the box

[MaryB]

Local post office has a waiting list for boxes plus I would have to dig out my driveway every day... being disabled it is a lot easier on me to have it delivered to the curb. City plow driver is slowly learning to get closer to the box after I showed him he cannot hurt it unless he jumps the curb with the plow...

[54bore]

for like 50$ a year you can get a PO box.
after the first year of trying to dig out a 5' wall of snow for the mail lady I figured the payment was a lot cheaper than the heart attack.

I AGREE!!! We have had a PO Box for 6 years now and much prefer it! When we stopped renting and finally bought our house we thought it would be neat to have our own mail box in front of our house, BUT everyone around here that have maiboxes end up with broken posts from snow plows, kids bashing them in, you have to dig them out all winter, every new snow the plow leaves a great big row of it in front of your 'neat mailbox in front of your house' (not his fault) It isn't more than a 10 minute round trip for us to run to the post office, a PO Box makes life easier in deep snow country!

[Jeff Michel]

I have to remove gravel/fill ruts the year around. The problem is that the right of way doesn't end at the brim stones, it extends (roughly) to the power poles. Yes, you pay taxes to the middle of the road. The right of eminent domain allows public works and utilities to operate supplying goods and services for the public good. If you place an impediment in the right of way, you will likely run amok with the authorities. Especially if it presents a hazard. After many fruitless conversations with DOT/utility companies it was determined it is a situation not likely to change.

[Taylor]

Here we are only allowed a 4X4 sized mail box post. no steel pipe or well casings. Our plow drivers try not to do damage but accidents happen. 2 years ago the force of a deep heavy wet snow took my box down. I went to the guy down the road got a rough sawn oak 4X4 ( true 4"X4"). Put up a temporary mail box and soaked the new heavy post in water sealer for a week then stood up to dry and cure. Pulled the temporary and put up the new one. Mail man complained the new post was to big new store bought 4X4s are actually 3 1/2 X 3 1/2. That post is solid and soaked will last a long time. I don't mow in the winter so a 1 time raking in the spring is small compared to clean safe roads in the winter. What upsets me is the new operators who close off my freshly plowed driveway when they plow the road.

I think you're mailman is lying to you.The regulations require that your box,be between 42 and 48 inches high ,measuring from the road to the bottom of the box with the number at least 1"high on the flag side,and visible from the previous box(distance taken into consideration).And if you have a rural carrier,then work out the height,based on his vehicle.The P.O. don't like this, but.....

Make him show you the reg,or ask for a mailbox repair form.I have been retired for 3 years.I don't think it would have changed.

[Hickory]

12-25-2010, 06:50 AM #12 Hickory

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Boolit Master

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Join DateFeb 2009LocationThe Great Black Swamp of Northwest OhioPosts6,600

I read this in the newapaper years ago, before internet.
It was about a guy who got into a pissen match with a township trustee about some drainage issue.

That winter the township trustee (tt) clipped off this guys mail box with the snow plough. The tt did not do it just once but every time he had snow to plough on the poor suckers road.

After many complaints and several years the clipping of the mail box did not stop.

So, the poor sucker (ps) decides to end it once and for all. The ps gets ahold of two railroad rails and welds them together back to back and plants them in the ground 8 feet, puts a wooden box around the RxR rails and his mail box on top.

When winter draws near and after the first snow the tt makes his way down the road to his ill appointed destinee with the mail box.
At the impact the snow blade is ripped off the truck, the truck slides sideways and ends upside down in the ditch.

The ps ends up in jail and after the trial the ps gets off with a light sentence and is told by the judge the fort knox mail box had to be removed and the next mail box had to be able to move if struck by the snow plough.

The next winter rolls around and the tt with a grin on his face and a mission in mind clipps the ps' s mail box and it flys out of the way only to return and cave-in the passanger door of the snow plough.

The ps this time put a set of coil spring welded together planted in the ground covered with a wooden box with the mail box on top.

[Thin Man]

Just reading about poles, railroad beams, or any other heavy materials being used for mailbox construction brought me a flash-back from about 30 years ago. A young couple (dating, not married) were out enjoying their motorcycle one evening just after dark had settled in. They came through town running fast for the thrill of it all and got a local police car after them. They got far enough ahead of the patrol car that the officer could not see them turn off the main road. This turn put them on a curvy paved road with poorly banked curves. Still running fast they left the road in the middle of a curve and centered a mailbox that was in the middle of that curve on the edge of the road. The result was predictable.

The owner of that mailbox had replaced his mailboxes several times in the past and was really tired of having to do this. It just seemed that every vehicle that left the roadway in that curve got his mailbox so he decided to fix the problem. The box he had installed at the time of this wreck was mounted on a steel pole. That pole was anchored inside a 55-gallon steel barrel that was loaded full of concrete. The barrel was not damaged and the mailbox was still standing after the wreck. The motorcycle was destroyed beyond recognition. Both the driver and passenger were burst open from their knees to their lower chest area. The weather was dry but cool and both bodies were pouring steam into the air and bodily contents on the ground. The ambulance crews and wrecker crews had a slow jobs of clearing up the results of this event. Early the next morning another wrecker came to that location, called by the owner of the mailbox. It carried off the mailbox and barrel and they were never seen again. The owner believed he could be held responsible for these two deaths and got rid of the evidence before it could be used against him. Smart move, just not soon enough for a young couple.

[ARKLITE881South]

I'm a retired county road maintenance worker, i retired after 25 yrs of plowing roads, oiled, paved and rocked. NEVER did i ever knock down a mail box, paper box, or damage personal property. Its not necessary to do that. And, I've plowed a lot of roads in that time frame. I would tell the guys treat the roads like they are your roads, or your grand mothers road. Take care of them, don't abuse them, respect people. Its too bad to hear about people who make a decent wage doing damage like some do. But, endangering someone's life isn't worth all the mail box posts ever made. That could open some one else up to face a huge lawsuit.

And, before you get down on the guys running the plows, and graders, take into consideration the hours they spend behind the wheel. I was normally the first guy to the shop,in the morning, and would work from the late evening until the next after noon at times. Putting in a lot of hours almost to the point of exhaustion. Trying to get the roads clear and sanded for the school buses and people going to work. We had a small crew, and you did what it took to do the job. No, we didn't take breaks, we ate on the go. You did what you had to do, and a lot more most of the times. Its a thankless job, and one not many people would take, not to mention last very long on.

[Sweetpea]

In the time I spent in Minnesota, I saw MANY mailboxes with the post set way back from the road. There would be a horizontal pole that could pivot around the pole, and would be held straight out from tension on a chain from above.

These could be knocked out of the way easily, and would swing right back.

I recently built a post for my parents, out of 4" square steel, and angle iron. But I doubt they see many plows in Lake Havasu!

[jim147]

Live in the country myself and I can't believe they plow your gravel road, we are lucky if they do the highway.

I have lost 3 mail boxes in the last 7 years to dot 1 was the brush hog.

[dpoe001]

I can't hate my plow guy,I live on a snow emergency route.When it snows he plows curb to curb and i get all the snow from the road on my sidewalks.its usually packed hard heavy clumps.The guy is just doing his job, I do call him on his cell phone and give him hell every time it snows! We usually end up laughing about something, i have known him my whole life.He took me hunting many many times as a kid! Plus he's my uncle and he's just doing his job to best of his ability.

[Half Dog]

What is a snow plow? Lol

[Petrol & Powder]

I set my post 2' back from the edge of the road. Then added a T shape on top of it made from more 4x4 with a shallow (maybe 15 degree angle on the sides) V cut in the top. I cut a V in the bottom of a 2' long 4x4 to match the V in the 4x4 T then screwed a 4' 2x4 on top of that to mount the box on. Drilled a hole in the center of that and used a 12" long 3/8 lag and some big washers with a valve spring in between them to fasten it down. If the mailbox on the end gets hit it pops up out of the V and spins to the side. Post is back far enough that the plow driver would have to jump the curb to hit it. Secondary benefit is a kid hit my box with a baseball bat and it spun 180 and smacked him in the arm with the 2x4 breaking it. He had fun explaining that one to his parents then the cops...

/\ Excellent solution /\

I knew a bright guy that had been around a long time and his mailbox looked like it had been airdropped without a parachute.I commented on it and he replied that it had been knocked off the post about 2 dozen times. He attached the box the post as loose as possible with a couple of finishing nails. When it got knocked off, either by accident or intentionally; he would just pick it up and return it to the post.

The guy was NOT lazy but rather frugal. He just didn't like buying mailboxes.

As for the OP's issue with plows/gravel & property associations - That's a tough combination. The collective group of property owners will individually resist paying more money for road maintenance. It's hard to find that happy middle ground between cost & quality. It's almost impossible to find that middle ground if it requires the consent of more than two people.

Maybe some landscaping near the road that doesn't require mowing, backed up by a wall a few feet back to stop the gravel from reaching the lawn?

[Lloyd Smale]

What I did was take a car or truck wheel and weld a pipe to it with a platform on top for the mail box. I then put a bit of quickcrete in the rim to kept if from tipping over easily. If something hits it it just knocks it over and I have to stand it back up. Learned this after replacing quite a few mail boxes. Money isn't a problem. our county road commission keeps hundreds of boxes in there garage and if the plow hits your box they will give you a new one. Did I say we get a serious amount of snow every year here. As to the rocks in the yard it used to be a real job. my neighbor has a tractor with a blower on it and he does my driveways. Two years ago he bought one of those big round broom attachments for it. Couple passes across the front yard and the rocks are all piled up and easy to throw in a wheel barrow. I heard last year they plan on paving my road this summer. That will end the problem completely. But then ive heard that rumor before and it never happened

we had a problem with the mail box getting plowed off. that is till we put a piece of railroad 5' in the ground I know I dug the hole. well the truck came down the road he swung over to get the box. plow hit that rail truck stopped rear wheels lifted off the ground. drivers head hit the steering wheel. that ended th war of the mailbox.

[Petrol & Powder]

I'm a retired county road maintenance worker, i retired after 25 yrs of plowing roads, oiled, paved and rocked. NEVER did i ever knock down a mail box, paper box, or damage personal property. Its not necessary to do that. And, I've plowed a lot of roads in that time frame. I would tell the guys treat the roads like they are your roads, or your grand mothers road. Take care of them, don't abuse them, respect people. Its too bad to hear about people who make a decent wage doing damage like some do. But, endangering someone's life isn't worth all the mail box posts ever made. That could open some one else up to face a huge lawsuit.

And, before you get down on the guys running the plows, and graders, take into consideration the hours they spend behind the wheel. I was normally the first guy to the shop,in the morning, and would work from the late evening until the next after noon at times. Putting in a lot of hours almost to the point of exhaustion. Trying to get the roads clear and sanded for the school buses and people going to work. We had a small crew, and you did what it took to do the job. No, we didn't take breaks, we ate on the go. You did what you had to do, and a lot more most of the times. Its a thankless job, and one not many people would take, not to mention last very long on.

I have to agree with this. I've never heard of a plow driver intentionally striking mailboxes. Objects near the road are bound to be struck from time to time and I'm surprised that it doesn't happen more often. I can't imagine that anyone would want to intentionally generate more complainants and damage claims.

[Elkins45]

I set my post 2' back from the edge of the road. Then added a T shape on top of it made from more 4x4 with a shallow (maybe 15 degree angle on the sides) V cut in the top. I cut a V in the bottom of a 2' long 4x4 to match the V in the 4x4 T then screwed a 4' 2x4 on top of that to mount the box on. Drilled a hole in the center of that and used a 12" long 3/8 lag and some big washers with a valve spring in between them to fasten it down. If the mailbox on the end gets hit it pops up out of the V and spins to the side. Post is back far enough that the plow driver would have to jump the curb to hit it. Secondary benefit is a kid hit my box with a baseball bat and it spun 180 and smacked him in the arm with the 2x4 breaking it. He had fun explaining that one to his parents then the cops...

I had to read this twice to visualize it, but once I did I think it's just brilliant. The V and the spring mean it's biased to stay in the same spot, and you can control how much force it would take to spin it by how much you compress the spring. What a great design!

Our county plow guys seem to enjoy knocking them down. I'm on my third post in the 10 years we've lived here. My problem is the side where we're supposed to mount the box is on a pretty high built up berm, so to mount a post three feet from the edge means you're standing waist high to the road. I made a composite post from two 8' 2x4 and there's only a couple of feet left above the arm. I left the snapped off remains of the last one in the ground as a buffer for the plow, and the current one has lasted 3-4 years IIRC.

The good news is we didn't get enough snow this year for them to ever run the plow.

[Plate plinker]

What is a snow plow? Lol

A mythical truck with a chunk of steel on the front for snow removal. Never to be seen on a dead end road if you live on such a road.

[Lloyd Smale]

we get a ton of snow here and have a great county road dept. I know them all personaly and they have absoulutely no reason to run over mail boxes on purpose and as our road commission gives boxes for free to peoples who have gotten hit id bet if a driver hit to many hed be in on the carpet. Thing is our plow drivers are out 8 hours and sometimes a lot more in the worse conditions in blizzards that cause them to shut down 100 mile sections of road. They plow in white out conditions and yup they occasionaly take out a mail box. Its one of the last jobs id even want. Its dangerous, mental and physicaly exhausting and doesn't pay what they deserve.

I'm a retired county road maintenance worker, i retired after 25 yrs of plowing roads, oiled, paved and rocked. NEVER did i ever knock down a mail box, paper box, or damage personal property. Its not necessary to do that. And, I've plowed a lot of roads in that time frame. I would tell the guys treat the roads like they are your roads, or your grand mothers road. Take care of them, don't abuse them, respect people. Its too bad to hear about people who make a decent wage doing damage like some do. But, endangering someone's life isn't worth all the mail box posts ever made. That could open some one else up to face a huge lawsuit.

And, before you get down on the guys running the plows, and graders, take into consideration the hours they spend behind the wheel. I was normally the first guy to the shop,in the morning, and would work from the late evening until the next after noon at times. Putting in a lot of hours almost to the point of exhaustion. Trying to get the roads clear and sanded for the school buses and people going to work. We had a small crew, and you did what it took to do the job. No, we didn't take breaks, we ate on the go. You did what you had to do, and a lot more most of the times. Its a thankless job, and one not many people would take, not to mention last very long on.

[44man]

Most all that have plowed our snow except the man that lives here are under contract. So much, so the faster they can plow the better in the pocket. Seen them go past at 45 MPH spraying gravel 30 yards too many times to count. Flat rate of maybe $600 to get done fast so they can go to the next job fast.

[kingstrider]

I'm glad I live in the south and don't worry about this stuff anymore. We actually saw flurries once last year and I had to scrape a light frost from the windows on my car last week. Burr that was a cold morning.