mail box vs town plow....

[DavidVT]

Hi,
Looking for ideas to improve my mail box's survival rate vs the town plow...

Typical rural mail on a post next to the road situation.

I made it 9 years on this mail box, a pretty good record considering how many mailboxes get nailed these days. I have reflective strips all over it and that seemed to help until now.....

Seems the town went from a 6 wheel dump truck to the new improved 10 wheel dump truck. The new one just flat out hauls butt and they seem to have given up on raising the wing when coming to drives or mailboxes...

So, who has a nice mailbox mounting idea that will survive the annual snow plow assaults???

I am have considered the telephone pole kind of post that will make the plow notice it just hit something. However the EMS part of my brain knows that trying to do the immovable object vs irresitable force is just not the right way to go. I would hate to come out some summer night and find a drunk kid in his dad's jetta wrapped around the unmoveable mailbox.

So I am starting to think about some kind of swivel/sheerpin setup that would allow the mailbox to swing away from the road when the plow monster hits too hard.

I suspect the damage is done by the wall of snow they throw at 60mph, rather than actual contact with the plow itself...

Thanks for any ideas....

 

[oscar80]

Maybe something on a pivot that is off the road. the box would still be were its at with a pivot of some sorts a ways behind it. So when it gets smacked it just pivots back and you would just have to reset it.

Mailswing Pivoting Mailbox Survives Snow Plows [Home Improvement Ideas]

Dave

 

[DavidVT]

interesting idea, now to figure out how to make it myself.. $200 sounds steep unless I loose a mailbox every year...

 

[shvl73]

I wouldn't be so worried about it getting hit if it was placed well out of the travel lane. A "drunk" or anyone else, has to pass many telephone poles, stone walls, oncoming cars, trees, other mailboxes and whatever else, before getting to your mailbox. Ours is hung from a 4x4 post w/ a cross arm, suspended by chains and works well.

 

[oscar80]

Put a steel pipe in the ground away from the road. Make a little ledge for another slightly bigger pipe to sit on. Then weld an arm to that for the mailbox. That shouldnt cost too much. I would put a soft stop or something on it so it doesnt swing all the way around and get smacked again.

Dave

 

[mjarrels]

Saw one in Ca. some years ago mounted on about a 25' pole labeled AIR MAIL.

mark

 

[RobS]

I've seen ones like Dave posted but with a longer arm. The post sits further from the road that way. The key is an angled pivot pin that makes the arm always return to the center position. These are very common in upper Michigan.

 

[billbill1]

Ours gets taken out everytime they plow the road, the plow is going so fast that the snow and ice caves in the mailbox. They come by and pound it back into a shape that will almost resemble a mailbox. Our mail gets soaked too. We have lost or at least had ours torn up 10 times in the 7 years we have lived here. Like you, I have no clue how to solve it. The plastic kind just shears off the mailbox portion, we have lost 2 of those.

 

[ToadHill]

Iron pole mounted in the ground about 6 feet off the road. A pole from the mounted one out to the road with the mail box on it. Welded between the two a large coil spring from a car.

As the plow hits the box, the coil spring flexes out of the way then springs back when the pressure against it is released.

Just don't stand in the way when it springs back.

 

[BigE_]

My solution was pretty cheap -- $26 per year for a PO Box in town. Sure, town is 5 miles away, but I no longer worry about my mailbox, and my mail is dry, safe from ID theft people. Also, my neighbors used to always get my mail, and I'd get theirs. That no longer happens.

That being said, the guy who owned the house previous to me had a problem with hoodlums and baseball bats. He sunk a 3" diameter 1/2" wall metal post 4' into the ground, and mounted a custom built 1/4" steel mailbox on top of that. The next Saturday night he sat outside waiting.... Sure enough, around 11:30pm, he hears this loud THWANG, closely followed a loud cry and some swearing. Mailbox wasn't even phased. Of course, nothing is perfect, and post wasn't 100% level, so the new mailbox gets water inside every time it rains.

Another guy I know told me of a problem he had with the county snow plow. Every winter, the wood post on his mailbox would get sheared off at least once per winter. He tried markers, etc., but the plow guy didn't seem to care, and the country wouldn't do anything with his complaints. Finally, he dug a deep hole and put in a 12" metal culvert pipe in. Filled it with cement, and mounted the mailbox on top. The next winter the plow guy had to explain to his boss how his new blade got the side broken off....