Mail Box 3 Cars 0

[William Yanda]

Here the recommended is a 4 x 4 posts are supposed to be break away. Last one I bought was actually a measured 3 1/2' X 3 1/2" A heavy snow and enthusiastic plow driver breaks them off. Also I think they arnt supposed to be over 2' in the ground so freeze thaws loosen them. With the new post regs and snap together plastic mailboxes they are a lot of maintenance.

I can remember when 4" and 6" well casings were popular. Sunk 4' down a 1/4" plate welded on top. to bolt the mail box to.

Last time I put it up I moved the post back 3' and graveled the pull off drive. Makes it easier for me in the chair and gets the mail man off farther on a narrow road. Actually moving the box back helped with the plows.

Let me tell you about Snuffy. It seems that the snowplow repeatedly took out his mailbox. He felt that the drivers were deliberately targeting it. And, the Town refused to replace it. He obtained an 8 x 8 oak sleeper for his mailbox post and planted it deep. The next time the plow hit it, it caused the plow to roll. The Town sued him, but lost because it was located per Post Office specs. Funny though, he hasn't had to replace his mailbox since that incident.

[JSnover]

You're not wrong, I actually considered doing an 8" haul truck axle buried 6'. I consulted the HP and they informed me that it would be considered a "deadly barrier " and did what I did. I don't want someone driving to school or work or whatever to slide off the road and end themselves because of my mailbox. But I don't appreciate it getting wrecked every time it gets touched.

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My mailbox is mounted on a telephone pole. But I also live on a pretty quiet street, so it'll probably never be an issue.

[Rapier]

Mail box 8, truck 1, car 1, motorcycles 0. The dead end road 4 miles long running along the bayou, was twisty and there was one straight with a 45 degree turn to the left at the end. Our mail box sat at the apex of the turn, on the right side of the turn going out. First I put up a regulation box mit post, did not last a week. So I put in a 3' square hollow brick colum 5' tall w/box and concrete top. So a high rise 4x4 PU blew it 300' down the road in fragments, deputy picked up Mrs night rider, the next day, with bricks in the grill, msurauding husband, with other woman, got reamed every which way but loose, happy ending for me, all paid by perp. Then I replaced the brick work with his money, with 3/4" rebar and solid concrete inside the brick. Then 4 boys all drunk, playing chicken, according to them, did not make the stop in time, adios one new Subaru. Then a 17 year old princess on drugs w/ her drug dealer boy friend in the brand new, daddy bought, BMW hit it and broke the colum off at the ground in one piece. Adios BMW. So, I got a section of treated bridge piling, about 18" in diameter, cut it in half. Buried the two sections four ft deep on both sides, two ft out of the ground, had the column picked by a wrecker and reset with concrete and four steel pipe sections at the joint. Rice rocket hit the mail box at about 100. Sold the place, new owners painted the two columns white, dumb adz yankees painting brick.

House was 400' off the road so, first notice I got of any trouble was a circus of blue and red lights out front on the road. The post office folks would come by now and again with their woke adz BS of feeling sorry for the perps. My property, my box, the box was 6" off my side of the road right of way on my property.
In FL the registered owner of a vehicle is 100% responsible for property damage to stationary property on your real property. Driver is the secondary layer of responsibility.

[Rickf1985]

My mailbox is a 6" .250 wall pipe welded to a car rim and buried 2 feet down. Box is mounted on top of that. I live on a back road on the inside of a 90 degree turn so hitting the box is going to be pretty hard to do. But I did have a newspaper delivery lady (remember newspapers? and even DELIVERED!) clip the box on top and turned the pipe fitting 90 degrees. My paper box was next to the mail box. That put a nice crease down the side of her Jeep, ALL the way down the side! Why didn't you stop when you first touched it? But in my area vandalism to boxes is a big thing, throwing heavy objects at them. Mine has never been damaged. Mine was put in before I moved there, the only reason I know what it is is because I dug up the one on the other side of my driveway that belonged to the house across the street. House was abandoned and falling down and I had bought the properties behind me and wanted to expand my driveway. I contacted the post office and had to fill out some forms before I could legally remove the box. Considering the condition of the house and it was condemned they had no problem with that but getting that thing out of the ground............. WOW! I found out later from a long time neighbor that all of them on that road are the same.

[John Guedry]

I've lost mailboxes to all sorts of vandels, but never a snowplow.

[kerplode]

Quite a few years ago it was common for people to intentionally destroy mailboxes by hitting them. So many people built the kind of "fortified" structures being described here. One day, a kid lost control of his ATV, hit one of these crazy contraptions, and was killed. His family sued stating that the crash would have been a simple, survivable, accident if not for the super reinforced mailbox structure. The homeowner lost everything.

[challenger_i]

You're good! There is a 4x4 post in there, somewhere!

My mailbox is mounted on a telephone pole. But I also live on a pretty quiet street, so it'll probably never be an issue.

[challenger_i]

John, when your mailbox gets took out by a snowplow, we are ALL in a heap of hurt!
However, I will say, in 1999 we had BIG icicles hanging of the derrick, 10 miles south of Cameron...

I've lost mailboxes to all sorts of vandels, but never a snowplow.

[compass will]

I dont know for sure, but i have heard of stories of people hitting these invincible mailboxes, getting hurt, and suing the homeowners . I always did a 4x4 with a board screwed to top and a plastic mailbox screwed to the cross board

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[Rockindaddy]

Sorry to hear the sad mailbox story. At my farm the kids swat mail boxes with ball bats and shoot em full of holes. In Florida the drunks run mail boxes over. I mounted my mail box on a chunk of concrete and added some propellers so it could power its way out of the water!!!!!





Sorry my mail box does stand upright. All my uploaded photos on this site load 90* out of kilter!

[Thin Man]

Several years ago a young couple (him & her, dating) were out riding on his motorcycle after sundown. They were going a bit too fast and caught the attention of a police officer who tried to stop them. The officer turned on his blue lights ad siren but the boy decided to out-run the officer. He turned off on a side road and the officer lost contact with the motorcycle. About half hour later another officer found where that bike had stopped.

A mailbox owner had lost multiple boxes and stands to other drivers over the years and got really tired of having to replace them. He bought a 55-gallon steel barrel, placed his mailbox and post in the center of it, then had it filled with concrete. It stood up against all future impacts, including this motorcycle. When the bike hit the barrel at high speed, it stopped solid. The 2 occupants slid forward into the handle bars and box and were dead before they hit the ground. Both bodies were torn open from knee cap to knee cap with their internal organs covering the ground where they landed. The mail box owner called his attorney and got bad news about his liability so he called a wrecker company and got the barrel and mail box removed before the sun came up the next morning. Never heard if the parents of either of the deceased brought a lawsuit against the mailbox owner.

[Rickf1985]

I would venture a guess he ended up in a lot more trouble with the law since he removed evidence from a fatal accident scene.

[country gent]

I have thought occasionally going the other way spring loaded joint box folds down and or swings out of way then pops back up... Would be easier to just go out and re align it than rebuild after being hit.

[Rickf1985]

Being a plow operator most of my life I have seen all sorts of box designs. And yes, I have taken out mailboxes with wet snow. It happens. It is not that you are going too fast, it is that you are moving tons of wet snow. If I had to slow down to the point where there was no chance of damaging any mailbox then I would be all day on just one road. Plowing speeds on residential roads seldom ever go above 20 MPH even though it looks a lot faster than that. Even on the major highways running V=plows I was only doing 35-40 mph usually. Faster than that and the snow came over the plow and back on the road. Plows are designed to go certain speeds and none are fast. The best mailbox designs I have seen were mounted on a very sturdy pole that was substantially off the road with a horizontal bar coming out to the roadside with the box on it. The junction between the to poles was designed to slip if the box git hit by car or snow. All you have to do is come out and push it back into position and done. Some people on my routes had them and even pulled them back before I got there.

[Froogal]

Being a plow operator most of my life I have seen all sorts of box designs. And yes, I have taken out mailboxes with wet snow. It happens. It is not that you are going too fast, it is that you are moving tons of wet snow. If I had to slow down to the point where there was no chance of damaging any mailbox then I would be all day on just one road. Plowing speeds on residential roads seldom ever go above 20 MPH even though it looks a lot faster than that. Even on the major highways running V=plows I was only doing 35-40 mph usually. Faster than that and the snow came over the plow and back on the road. Plows are designed to go certain speeds and none are fast. The best mailbox designs I have seen were mounted on a very sturdy pole that was substantially off the road with a horizontal bar coming out to the roadside with the box on it. The junction between the to poles was designed to slip if the box git hit by car or snow. All you have to do is come out and push it back into position and done. Some people on my routes had them and even pulled them back before I got there.

We have a new guy on our maintainer. He previously was on a different route, so he does have considerable experience. Never the less, considerable damage was done to my mailbox just from the snow hitting it. 3 different times. I am on a gravel road. The damage was done when the grader driver made a final pass at about 40 MPH. That final pass was not even necessary. The snow was already off onto the shoulders. Neither of the TWO previous operators ever made a final pass at such dangerous speeds.

Notice that I called the TWO previous guys "OPERATORS" The guy we have now is NOT an operator. He is just a driver.

[Rickf1985]

A grader should not be doing any kind of plowing or grading at that speed! That is about max on most but the newest multimillion dollar graders. Pushing snow further back is common practice where there is a good chance there will be more heavy snow. The main reason is twofold, the first plowing sets like concrete so you are not moving it after a day or so and if you try you ARE going to break something. The second reason is tied to the first, when the next storm comes where are you going to put the snow? You can't push it back over the first pile and you can't push the first pile without damage. Then the next, and next and next storms. See what I am saying? You always need to plan for more snow and leave room for it wherever possible. That said, doing the last pass you HAVE to be aware of peoples property along the road since you are on the right of way which in most cases is also their front yard. Mailboxes and paper boxes included.

[Scorpion8]

I mounted my mailbox on a section of 2x6 mounted atop a 55-gal clean drum. Plow knocks it over, I stand it back up. Put some weight in the bottom and wind won't knock it over. Each drum lasts 7-10 years. I drill holes in the top and bottom to drain water, so it rusts less.

[Froogal]

A grader should not be doing any kind of plowing or grading at that speed! That is about max on most but the newest multimillion dollar graders. Pushing snow further back is common practice where there is a good chance there will be more heavy snow. The main reason is twofold, the first plowing sets like concrete so you are not moving it after a day or so and if you try you ARE going to break something. The second reason is tied to the first, when the next storm comes where are you going to put the snow? You can't push it back over the first pile and you can't push the first pile without damage. Then the next, and next and next storms. See what I am saying? You always need to plan for more snow and leave room for it wherever possible. That said, doing the last pass you HAVE to be aware of peoples property along the road since you are on the right of way which in most cases is also their front yard. Mailboxes and paper boxes included.

Considering the fact that the grader ditch is totally grown up with trees, the snow cannot be thrown any further than the edge of the road, which is where it already was.

[Minerat]

Growing up our neighbor down the road had one if those big metal boxed. It was always caved in on the right side for being used as a target for flying beer bottles or other objects (watermellons, sugar beets, pumpkins) being thrown from passing cars. He welded a 5/8" rebar cage around the box and mounted it on a steel post so he only had to knock the dents out of the box not reset it every weekend.

[Pereira]

I think car thieves should be handled the same way they used to handle horse thieves.

Amen!

RP