Mailbox Post

[Steve Stube]

Dave, very nice/attractive mailbox accent.

For those that would attempt to set a trap;

To add to what Jim D. said (and he is on target with respect to the liability issue) remember that in most cases you are planting the mailbox post in ground deemed "Road Right of Way". I know it is downright frustrating to loose a MB to an accident (or worse to vandals) but it would really hurt more to be responsible for injury or taking a life in "pay back" plus what it could cost you in a $$$ settlement. The next box I put up will be number 13 (replaced only 5 post so far since 1977) on the State highway out front. I have found that the brand new shinny boxes were soon smashed again so I try to make them to look old from day one - with an ugly paint job they seem to last longer. Oh, and if I can straighten the old smashed box to make it servicable, it goes back up and is not included in the count.
I woke to a knock at the door one morning to find a young man with a new MB tucked under his arm. He said his girlfriend had wrecked into the MB during the night and he was there to put in a new post and box. Wow, how nice - also not in the count.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Very nice mailbox post Dave. Around here the problem is occasionally kids, but mostly it's the clowns driving the snowplows in the winter. I lost mine last winter but was able to fix it with stainless screws and epoxy. Our neighborhood usually loses 2-4 per winter. Many of the folks around here are now fixing their boxes to the top of granite posts about 6" x 8". I don't know if any of these have been hit yet. If a plow driver hits one of those he'll really get woken up in a hurry.

[Lynn Sonier]

You may want to check with the post office and/or highway department before imbeding angle iron and stuff in the ground. The fellow around the corner had train tracks sticking up out of the ground to support his fence and they made him take it down. He lives on a corner and people had a tendency to go straight instead. Of course, you don't have to worry about the snow plows down here - you have to worry about hurricane(s).

[Alan Mikkelsen]

I've done a couple of these, now. I put a 3 1/2" square steel tube in the ground a couple feet, surrounded by cement. Then I just slide the stand over it. Looking at this picture, I better get this refinished next spring!

[Joe Pelonio]

Very nice work, makes me feel badly about my plain 4x4 post. We had to replace ours (just the box) 3 time within a year after it got blown up by tennis ball bombs, they got us at July 4th, Halloween, then New Years Eve. The next July 4th I yanked the post out of the ground and put the whole thing in the garage for the night. So far a year on the last one, maybe they moved away or outgrew the prank. Hopefully yours was just a hit/run accident rather than vandalism, it's too nice to have smashed.

[Lee Schierer]

Nice job on the mail box post. My wife has always wanted a nice looking box in front of our house, but the vandals wouldn' leave it there for long. Life expectancy on our road for a brand new mailbox is about 3-6 months. If the kids don't get them the snow plow will. A beat up box will last 10 years or more.

There are similar laws in PA regarding creation of intentional hazards along the side of a road. Mail boxes are cheaper than a lawyer.

[Lars Thomas]

Having just re-done my mailbox, I really like your address sign. But one question, if you were going the other way, wouldn't your address be 71??

[Dave Crabbs]

Having just re-done my mailbox, I really like your address sign. But one question, if you were going the other way, wouldn't your address be 71??

It's still 17 only the numbers are written backwards. That's my story and I'm sticking to it

[Gary Herrmann]

A girl friend of a neighbor boy got drunk last year and drove through my yard for about 15 ft before hitting my mailbox. Banged her Acura up badly. Left parts. She then parked it back at the neighbor's house the next day. After work, I matched the parts in my yard to her car and called the cops.

I just wanted a replacement post and mailbox and was going to do it myself, but her father didn't want to pay for "an expensive wooden post." He suggested we meet at a local hardware store to figure out the details. This really aggravated my wife, so she took over and we wound up with a $350+ cast aluminum post and mailbox - installed.

They guy looked like he'd been pistol whipped when she finished with him.

[Jason Roehl]

Well, it would be one ugly accident if my mailbox got hit. I have to go to the local post office to pick up my mail--there's no delivery withing the thriving metropolis of Mulberry. Of course, my neighbors immediately to the south are on the other side of the "boundary", so they get delivery (still within town limits, though ).

[Kirk (KC) Constable]

'Round these parts, that nice piece of work woulda been in the ground a day or so...two days tops...before the friendly TxDOT boys dug it up for you and replaced it with a breakaway post.

Guy across the road (and his name really is Guy) spent one Saturday afternoon putting a couple small 'billboards' on 4x4s outside his fence...well off the road, but outside the fence nonetheless. I saw what he was doing as he was finishing up the second post on the second sign, and wondered how long it'd be before the state dug 'em back up. They were gone Monday afteroon.

KC