Private Drive Sign

[MNBobcat]

Wow! I couldn't believe all of the replies when I logged on this morning! Some great ideas, too!

I'm going to put up a "private drive" sign for the winter. Next summer I'm going to trench for power and some kind of communication line and install a gate. I need some kind of control over who is coming on to the property. My daughter got married a year ago and now the son in-laws family drives in to go hunting and they never call to say they are coming. So I'll come outside only to find some car parked by the pole building and no idea why its there. Talking to them won't help. But installing a gate and not giving out the code will definitely take care of the problem(s).

I don't mind people stopping by. Mainly I just don't want people on the property and I don't know why they are there.

 

[Mousefield]

I have a length of 3/8" chain across my road ... plenty shiny and easy to see. Stops cars/atv/snowmobiles ... but does not stop hikers. Heck they hop gates. It's not a huge issue so long as they don't make a mess/steal things or pester the animals.

People come up to the house every other week, mostly looking for directions to this town or that, rest of the time they are wondering if I'd seen the neighbour that day.

I post signs at all entrances for a CYA, that way if they get hurt/killed/lost etc, can't very well sue me when they were clearly trespassing.

I used to have a steel cable across the entrance to our place before we move here. One weekend, when the one end was not padlocked as we were on the property it got stolen.
I have posted about 8 signs down our private road and it has slowed down the number of "lost" people. When they get down to our place, which is at the end of the private road I ask them which of the 8 private driveway signs did they miss? I have also in the past year or so put up an "end of public road" sign which seems to have really worked for us. Have noticed a lot less traffic down the road now. Part of how I can tell it there is a dirt turn around at the end of public road sign and you can see how many vehicles have turned around there. You will however always get people who don't care about signs, they are meant for others, not them.

 

[phiferpharm]

Perhaps a couple of these set with a trip switch will get the folks attention

 

[greasemonkeyok]

When you got nothin', you got nothin' to loose. The folks that fit into that category are not deterred by signs, just a little more cautious maybe. For some of them, prison ain't such a bad deal. If you don't believe me, just ask any old law enforcement officer.

What does deter them is work - so make it harder to get in and you will cut down on the numbers.

 

[Runner]

People turn around in my drive constantly. As long as they don't drive all the way up to the house, not too big a deal.

The thing that bugs me abou it is that they always spin their tires on the gravel on the way out and leave ruts that I have to go back and smooth out again. Nothing I can really do about it, except get the drive approach paved.

Oh well, more seat time, I guess...

 

[LarryD]

Have you ever looked at a GPS unit or map to see if you driveway might be listed as a road? My sister's driveway shows up as a city street on GPS units. She gets cars several times a week turning around in her yard.

That was my problem when we first moved in. Lots of people thought it was the other end of another road.

There is a large turnout before you get to my house and most people just used that, but one guy drove all the way to my garage then down into my yard (ok, it's weeds and grass) and back up to the house. I stopped him and asked what he wanted and he said he was looking for the road. I had to ask him at what point he figured out it didn't connect, was it my garage door.

 

[dcyrilc]

How about a sign that simply reads

DANGER
Live fire range
Authorized personnel only

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

If you are even thinking or willing to shoot at somebody just trying to turn around, please hurry and go get a gate. Keep yourself out of jail. And don't shoot my mother in law, she's always lost and turning around.

 

[Pirate]

Have you ever looked at a GPS unit or map to see if you driveway might be listed as a road? My sister's driveway shows up as a city street on GPS units. She gets cars several times a week turning around in her yard.

If your drive does show up as a road, how do you fix it?

 

[George2615]

People pull in my driveway to turn around almost on a weekly basis. When you live out on a country road and someone going down the road (possibly looking for one of your neighbors) realizes they have gone past where they need to be they need to turn around. Much easier to pull into a driveway then back out to go the other way. If people didn't pull in my driveway to turn around (or anyone elses) they'd have to do it in the middle of the road which would take about 10 moves pulling forward, back up, forward, back up, forward, back up etc. I doubt any sign would help, if someone needs to turn around they'll do it anyway.

 

[Cat_Driver]

There's not a sign made that will make people stop doing what they want to do.

The only thing that will work is a gate, chain etc.

 

[dmccarty]

How about a sign that simply reads

DANGER
Live fire range
Authorized personnel only

We too have a well posted private road with a gate. If the gate is closed it keeps out vehicles but we still get people who walk in from time to time. Last year after a heavy snow storm two neighbor twits walked in and put foot prints all over the road. I noticed when I went out to take a photo of the road with snow. NOT the image I was looking to capture. Years back a similar thing happened except I drove 50 miles round trip to get the photo but the neighbor hood twit used an ATV.

Signs only do so much.

I know a POlice range that is well marked as such. No trespassing, authorized personal only, firing range, live firing, trespassers will be prosecuted, etc signs all over the place.

Two dumb butts walked into the property after parking their truck near the range gate. No way they could miss the signs. They were hunting. By the time it was over with they were arrested by Wildlife Officers and they were danged lucky to not get shot.

If you are STUPID enough to trespass on such a well marked property as a police range no sign will work.

Another time two adults used the entrance of the police range to have a clandestine meeting of the adult kind. I guess hormones stopped their ability to read and think since they were surprised when a bunch of officers left the range and the two adults were caught in the act.

You can really only do so much with signs, gates, and fences. People are going to snoop. People are going to trespass. And Stupid is as Stupid does. You just cannot stop Stupid. You can just minimize what Stupid does.

We do keep our gate looking like a farm road gate. One cannot see our house from the gate. We keep the gate looking simple and unassuming though we would like to make it look nicer and put up some planters and such. Instead we just keep it looking like a simple gate on a farm road.

Later,
Dan

 

[RobertN]

We had the opposite issue. Maps and GPS show our road connecting to another road. The mapbooks and GPS recommend getting to our house that way. Well, there is a fence and boulders in the way. The roads do not connect, they just parallel for about 700'. They are two private roads, in two different road associations.

I made a couple calls and emails to GPS makers and mapbook makers. They thanked me for the info, and updated their databases.

The issue is, lots of people have older map books, or GPS map data.

We had had delivery issues, and had ordered limo's a couple times for wedding and a birthday. Limo's were lost on the other side of the fence...

That was 5 years ago; We have not had the problem in a while.

If your drive does show up as a road, how do you fix it?

 

[The Haymaker]

How about a sign that simply reads

DANGER
Live fire range
Authorized personnel only

I have no issue with the very occasional person to turn here. Whatever, I have bigger things in life to worry about.

I have thought long and hard about a sign that says just that, several actually. I have a 200 yard shooting range to the wood line, plus my air cannon plunks concrete ballasted aluminum polyurethane tubes somewhere out beyond the 2000' range. Hate to whack any of the trespassers who sneak in from all directions each spring for fiddleheads.

I wonder if such sign would make them wonder? The tubes actually whistle on the incoming, maybe that alone is warning enough?

 

[MicroPilot]

How about something like this posted up?

 

[300UGUY]

I worked nights for many years. So I was home during the day, my wife off to work. In the summer I usually sleep in gym shorts. I generally sleep pretty good, but I can be a little grumpy if you wake me up. More than once, when I answered the door, the sight of a large, fat, bald guy caused folks to simply walk away!! Once a group of JW women simply shut up and walked away when I started to scratch my butt. I guess they figured it was gonna go downhill from there.

 

[MNBobcat]

So get this....I just got home from Home Depot. I went there to get a "private drive" sign but all they had was a "private property" sign. Which I bought.

I go to park my truck in my pole building and I find a Toyota 4wd parked on the pad in front of my pole building. It has a trailer on back with a dead deer in it and nobody to be seen anywhere. So apparently some yahoo is out on my property somewhere.

I pulled the skid steer up tight to the back of their trailer and parked the nose of my truck tight to the nose of their vehicle. They aren't going anywhere without coming to my door and talking to me. Now I'm waiting for the Sheriff to arrive.

 

[Mousefield]

How about something like this posted up?

I like it, should work well. :thumbsup:

 

[Skyco]

I've contemplated adding some verbage to our "Private Drive/No Outlet" sign...

Maybe something like "Private Drive/No Outlet $25 turn around fee"

 

[CompactTractorFan]

So get this....I just got home from Home Depot. I went there to get a "private drive" sign but all they had was a "private property" sign. Which I bought.

I go to park my truck in my pole building and I find a Toyota 4wd parked on the pad in front of my pole building. It has a trailer on back with a dead deer in it and nobody to be seen anywhere. So apparently some yahoo is out on my property somewhere.

I pulled the skid steer up tight to the back of their trailer and parked the nose of my truck tight to the nose of their vehicle. They aren't going anywhere without coming to my door and talking to me. Now I'm waiting for the Sheriff to arrive.

Has the Sheriff got there yet???