Mail Box 3 Cars 0

[warren5421]

Will the mail box just totaled it's third car. Wife went out the drive today and a white KIA Soul was setting on our mail box. I called the police the car is stolen so I pay to fix the post back in the ground and buy a new box. Car is totaled oil all over the ground, plastic parts are laying around the area. Three other mail boxes were hit before mine. You ever dig a posthole in frozen ground, harder than the dead of summer. I us a cut off electric pole for the post, 10"-12" diameter at the top, in the ground 3'.

[John Wayne]

You're a better man than me. I gave up and got a po box.
JW

[country gent]

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.

[CastingFool]

I once had a county snow plow take out our mailbox. The box was salvageable, but the county brought me a replacement post.

[cwtebay]

Well casing, down 2' and the hollow filled with concrete. 2 (drunk driver?) cars and 3 snow plow clips later and it's still just fine. The requirements are basically ridiculous, if you follow them your mailbox will be tilting away from the road in 3 months.
As far as the stolen car goes - depends on what the state says for the driver paying for damage. If it was involved in a police chase - police pay. Could even attach to the driver's insurance, homeowner insurance, parent's homeowner insurance.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

[elmacgyver0]

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

[Sig]

My dad got sick of idiots taking out his mailbox with their cars. We used a lally column buried about 3' in a big ball of concrete. It's been there probably 40 years now.

[gwpercle]

Will the mail box just totaled it's third car. Wife went out the drive today and a white KIA Soul was setting on our mail box. I called the police the car is stolen so I pay to fix the post back in the ground and buy a new box. Car is totaled oil all over the ground, plastic parts are laying around the area. Three other mail boxes were hit before mine. You ever dig a posthole in frozen ground, harder than the dead of summer. I us a cut off electric pole for the post, 10"-12" diameter at the top, in the ground 3'.

Like Like Like ! ! !

Gary

[MrWolf]

Will the mail box just totaled it's third car. Wife went out the drive today and a white KIA Soul was setting on our mail box. I called the police the car is stolen so I pay to fix the post back in the ground and buy a new box. Car is totaled oil all over the ground, plastic parts are laying around the area. Three other mail boxes were hit before mine. You ever dig a posthole in frozen ground, harder than the dead of summer. I us a cut off electric pole for the post, 10"-12" diameter at the top, in the ground 3'.

Had almost the same thing happen. Mine was the first one hit. I replaced it with two sections of the 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 "joined" with some angle iron in the middle. Didn't even think the added damage that would do if hit....

[challenger_i]

Nicely done, but 4 1/2" drill pipe works better! Too bad the State outlawed such...

Well casing, down 2' and the hollow filled with concrete. 2 (drunk driver?) cars and 3 snow plow clips later and it's still just fine. The requirements are basically ridiculous, if you follow them your mailbox will be tilting away from the road in 3 months.
As far as the stolen car goes - depends on what the state says for the driver paying for damage. If it was involved in a police chase - police pay. Could even attach to the driver's insurance, homeowner insurance, parent's homeowner insurance.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

[challenger_i]

And ANOTHER example of Why We Need a "LIKE" Button!

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

[david s]

Because of snowplows where we use to live, I once built a mailbox stand that would pivot or swing when hit. The box itself generally was destroyed but the stand always survived if a bit worse for wear.

[technojock]

Way back in the 1960's there was a rash of run over mail boxes in our neighborhood. My father worked in structural steel and he made up a mailbox post from 10" diameter steel pipe and then filled it with concrete before setting it 2' into the ground. About a month later it was hit by a car that was later found at the bottom of the hill with the fan sticking through the radiator. Cars were made a lot tougher back then. I'm sure it would have put the engine of a Kia in the back seat. Pops had to reset the post in the ground but no one ever ran it over again...

Tony

[Handloader109]

Back in MS, my dad helped put one together for us back in 1989. Old drill stem, and an 8 inch diameter 16 inch or so long piece of pipe. Somewhere around quarter inch thick. Plate welded on the back. And a door with hinge in the front. A length of 3"x 12" x1/4" flat along the top for a place for our name.
Was actually two pieces of pipe, one about 2 ft long concrete in and lightly welded at ground level. It would snap into supposedly. Well first car lost control at about 50 and hit our drive then took out the mailbox. Tossed it 15 feet and the car looked like it. I put it back and it was a couple of years later a woman took it out going down the hill at about 60 and missed two power poles that would have killed her and her kids by inches.
As far as I know it's still there...
Oh, nothing broken either time, just needed new paint

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[MaryB]

My box is on a post set 3' back from the curb. I cut a 2' long piece of 4x4 in a V shape the long way on the table saw, attached the bottom of the V to the post with plywood gussets and screws and glue, top part of the V got a 2x6 5' long with a bolt in the center that has a spring under the washer to push the V pieces together. Mailbox mounted way out at the end. Plow hit it it pivots and survives... that box is 30 years old and just now needs replacing from rust! Kid hit it with a baseball bat one night, it swung around and the counterweight broke his arm... he had bad aim, hit the 2x6 under the box...

[challenger_i]

Poetic justice! The box fought back!

[contender1]

Well, I've seen all kinds of damaged mail boxes in my time. But my box has not been hit,, yet,,! Luckily,, where it's at,, it's not as likely to be hit. But if it does,, I'll be replacing it with something a bit more "sturdy" to avoid future issues.

[Bmi48219]

There is some liability in owning a mailbox that can teach criminals a lesson. Some drivers strike mailboxes for other reasons like glare ice, swerving to avoid an animal, a blowout or being run off the road. If that happens and injuries or death result from the crash, you can be held responsible. In our woke society I’d be surprised if you weren’t.
That’s why commercially available rural mailboxes are made the way they are, so as to not cause injury when hit.

[warren5421]

Post was in the ground for 30 years so they could not make me replace it. It is a fed crime to damage a mail box. Had several football players going around hitting mail boxes in the late 80"s, one fell out of the pickup killing himself. His mom and dad had to help pay for the 30-40 boxes the kid had damage that night.

[cwtebay]

Nicely done, but 4 1/2" drill pipe works better! Too bad the State outlawed such...

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.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk