Rural Mailboxes

['Bota Fan]

Glad someone revived this thread. It would be a real hoot to see some more pictures of the creative ways folks have used to combat mailbox vandalism. I'm sure, too, many TBN'ers would be willing to show off their artistic abilities and share pictures of some "purty" mailboxes.

BTW, a few years ago, my elderly M-I-L and some of her neighbors were victims of mailbox vandalism. When the police caught the little rascal who was responsible, his sentence was to spend his own money to buy new mailboxes and install them with the sweat of his own brow. Priceless!

 

[forgeblast]

In high school a bunch of guys were out one night trying to smash mail boxes. Apparently they were not too bright because they only had a hammer. Well once the first guy took a swing and missed. The driver had a huge crack and a hammer hole in windshield. We heard about it the next day, all laughed and decided that there were better things to do with out time.
Now living on our county road, i have had to pick my mail box up off the ground once or twice, but my box has been run into and looks too sad to knock over. Its kind of camo'ed. It seems that the nice, new, boxes are the first to go, but the ones hanging on by a thread are not worth their time.
Forgeblast

 

[LBrown59]

In high school a bunch of guys were out one night trying to smash mail boxes. Apparently they were not too bright because they only had a hammer. Well once the first guy took a swing and missed. The driver had a huge crack and a hammer hole in windshield. We heard about it the next day, all laughed and decided that there were better things to do with out time.
Now living on our county road, i have had to pick my mail box up off the ground once or twice, but
my box has been run into and looks too sad to knock over. Its kind of camo'ed. It seems that the nice, new, boxes are the first to go, but the ones hanging on by a thread are not worth their time.
Forgeblast

This is why what I did has worked so well.
I put up a new large mail box on the left side of the post.
To protect it from getting hit in the side I put the old large mail box back up on the right side of the new one after taking out the dents bolting the door shut and painting it all black and shinny
Being on the right side it helps blocks the view of the new one.
The old shiny junk Mail Box is a decoy to draw attention away from the new mail box.
I also painted every thing black and I mean every thing except the red flag.
Black don't show up very well on dark black nights.
Done this probably 7 or 8 years ago - hasn't been bothered since.

 

[EastTexFrank]

Interesting thread. Like most of you, we had problems with kids playing rural baseball at the farm. About 6 years ago I replaced the mailbox and we haven't had a problem since although occasionally we see a new nick on it. I took the mailbox within a mailbox route with the viod being filled with concrete. It weighed about 300# and was welded and bolted to a 6" square cedar post set 4' into the ground and set in concrete.

Alas, it seems that what the kids couldn't demolish in 6 years with a baseball bat the State can achieve using only a piece of paper. Last year the county deeded our part of the County road to the State and they have informed us that our mailbox is illegal on a state controlled highway. Strangely, it's not the mailbox that they object to but the post it is set on. All mailbox posts on State controlled highways have to be the breakaway type and since that won't support our 300# mailbox, it has to go. The funny part was that their letter stated that the fact that our post was non-conforming came to their attention because their 15' mowers had hit it 3 times and it was still standing. Seems to me that would be a good reason to leave it alone but perhaps TxDOT wants to get into the mailbox replacement business as well.

 

[Bird]

Yep, Frank, the state has had that rule a long time now. I learned about it over 10 years ago. My wife's brother's place and our place were on county roads, so we could use anything we wanted as long as it was acceptable to the mail carrier (and ours was easy to get along with ). But my brother bought his place on a Farm-to-Market Road (state road) and they not only required the breakaway post with a reflector, but they provided the post and did the installation. We had learned that you could add the mailbox later yourself, or if you had it available when the guy showed up to set the post, he'd go ahead and mount your box on it, so my brother had the box there ready for him.

 

[Double Orange]

The funny part was that their letter stated that the fact that our post was non-conforming came to their attention because their 15' mowers had hit it 3 times and it was still standing. .

Would that be the same mower guy that cut the first 45' of mine and two neighbors hay field down?

 

[EastTexFrank]

It could be. I forgot to mention that they flattened and bent some of the fence.

 

[weldingisfun]

Interesting thread. Like most of you, we had problems with kids playing rural baseball at the farm. About 6 years ago I replaced the mailbox and we haven't had a problem since although occasionally we see a new nick on it. I took the mailbox within a mailbox route with the viod being filled with concrete. It weighed about 300# and was welded and bolted to a 6" square cedar post set 4' into the ground and set in concrete.

Alas, it seems that what the kids couldn't demolish in 6 years with a baseball bat the State can achieve using only a piece of paper. Last year the county deeded our part of the County road to the State and they have informed us that our mailbox is illegal on a state controlled highway. Strangely, it's not the mailbox that they object to but the post it is set on. All mailbox posts on State controlled highways have to be the breakaway type and since that won't support our 300# mailbox, it has to go. The funny part was that their letter stated that the fact that our post was non-conforming came to their attention because their 15' mowers had hit it 3 times and it was still standing. Seems to me that would be a good reason to leave it alone but perhaps TxDOT wants to get into the mailbox replacement business as well.

Since TXDOT has been in the windshield replacement business (the way they resurface roads is to pour gravel and then let traffic force it into the road surface) for many years, it only seems natural for it to expand.