So I walked out to get my mail...

[A_Harman]

...and stood there in disgust looking at the broken post where my mailbox used to be. I walked down the road a bit, and there was no sign of it or any possible content. Yes, an overzealous snowplow wiped out the mailbox when he was doing the shoulder. The city first plows the road, then comes back and plows the shoulder. This really makes a mess. It throws gravel into the yard, which I have to spend hours picking up before I can mow in the spring.

Since we've been in subfreezing temperatures for 6 weeks, the ground is frozen. And there is 2 feet of packed snow on top, so there is no way I can pound in a new post to put up a mailbox. I guess I'll be picking up my mail downtown for the next few months.

 

[kschachn]

Yeah, they got ours a few weeks ago too. We just call the city and get reimbursed for a new one, can you too? And if the ground is frozen, a lot of people put the post in a 5-gallon bucket of sand or rocks until the weather improves.

Some people here have elaborate swinging mailboxes that I still don't think would survive a direct snow plow hit.

Originally Posted By: A_Harman
...and stood there in disgust looking at the broken post where my mailbox used to be. I walked down the road a bit, and there was no sign of it or any possible content. Yes, an overzealous snowplow wiped out the mailbox when he was doing the shoulder. The city first plows the road, then comes back and plows the shoulder. This really makes a mess. It throws gravel into the yard, which I have to spend hours picking up before I can mow in the spring.

Since we've been in subfreezing temperatures for 6 weeks, the ground is frozen. And there is 2 feet of packed snow on top, so there is no way I can pound in a new post to put up a mailbox. I guess I'll be picking up my mail downtown for the next few months.

 

[eljefino]

I met a friend of a friend who plowed snow for the town. When he got back to the garage after his first big storm they showed him a mangled dented mailbox and told him to go see the boss.

He was freaking out because he thought he was real careful but they were just hazing the new guy and he hadn't hit anything.

As for you, well, yeah, stuff breaks. We have mailboxes on coil springs, mailboxes in granite reinforced masonry posts, mailboxes on 2" pipe, mailboxes on very long 2x4s with triangulated cable coming down from trees, etc. Look around at how your neighbors are doing it. Rig something up for the winter, your mailman will be understanding.

 

[Number21]

Those cardboard tubes you fill with concrete are pretty cheap....

 

[Rick in PA]

Happened to me once. I had my mailbox clamped to a saw horse out front until I could fix it.

 

[eljefino]

^ saw horse works great.

 

[Donald]

My Dad had a mail box on a pipe that he could slide a few feet in or out. He would pull it in until the road was plowed then push it out normal again.

Some put up steel I-beams next to the mail box.

I live on a dirt road. I am lucky if they bother to plow it.

Canada is going to mailbox centers, a neighborhood place where you can get your mail at any time. They will be stopping delivery.

The only way we can continue with mail delivery is if the post office gets a fair payment for doing the end delivery for Fedex and UPS.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: Rick in PA
Happened to me once. I had my mailbox clamped to a saw horse out front until I could fix it.


You can admit it. Your mailbox was hit in the previous century and its still clamped to a saw horse!!

 

[doitmyself]

Ours, and about 3 more down the line were hit today. Must have been a new driver. Bummer, as mine has been good for about 8 years.

Our county does have a program to replace them, but in the past I have given them the benefit of the doubt and replaced it myself.

Plowing snow at 3 am is a thankless job.

 

[A_Harman]

I've been here 11 years, and this is the first one they've clipped. Really, I've been pretty lucky with it.

 

[KD0AXS]

We have a mailbox post like this. If the plow hits it, it swings out of the way and then returns to its normal position.

 

[KD0AXS]

On the other hand, are you sure it was the snowplow?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgRFuT3Y5O8

 

[crazyoildude]

i live in a gated community but there is one family that likes to be a pain to everyone and they lose their mailbox a couple of times a year to someone playing mailbox baseball.. I told him if he would change the way he was he would not have to get new mailboxes so often..There are teenages that like to skateboard but he always call security on them..HeHe what does he think will happen.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Seems to me that hooking the mailbox to 30A/240V might solve that problem...

 

[earlyre]

most folks around here, put a couple steel fence posts, with a section of plywood about a foot or two "upstream" from the box.
and every year there's an article in the paper from either the county crew, or ODOT, recommending folks use steel boxes, as the plastic ones get too brittle in the cold.

that being said, I've seen a couple folks use the buckets that either Cat Litter, or bulk dish detergent tabs come in(with hinged lids) as makeshift mailboxes...for 2 years...

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: Donald
My Dad had a mail box on a pipe that he could slide a few feet in or out. He would pull it in until the road was plowed then push it out normal again.

Some put up steel I-beams next to the mail box.

I live on a dirt road. I am lucky if they bother to plow it.

Canada is going to mailbox centers, a neighborhood place where you can get your mail at any time. They will be stopping delivery.

The only way we can continue with mail delivery is if the post office gets a fair payment for doing the end delivery for Fedex and UPS.



Canada is going to mailbox centres?
Really?
My company builds roughly 200 homes and from 50-500 units of condos/walk ups and in all our new sub-divisions I have yet to see one of the mailbox centres of which you speak.
Many small towns have a post office,with the whole towns mailboxes to which the resident goes to to get their mail but mist small centres have been this way for as long as I can remember.
The city still gets home delivery though.
I do recall those super boxes in Ontario though when I worked in the new subs but the existing/older homes still got delivery.

 

[Chris142]

My mailbox stand is 2 pieces of rr track buried on the ground with a piece of steel welded to the top of it. This stand holds about 40 boxes. Let em hit that lol.

 

[supton]

My first mailbox used a 4x4 set in a 5 gallon bucket of sand. Made it at least five years before a friend clipped it with his plow. I then drove some spike into the ground.

I put the least amount of work in, so as to make it easy to repair. Has worked well thus far, for me.

 

[Cujet]

The solution in Wilton, CT was interesting. On RT-7, there is a guy with a mailbox that the mailman pulls down with a rope. It's on a long, hinged lever. with a weight on the other end. The snowplow completely misses the mailbox. As does the traffic.

 

[strat81]

Originally Posted By: Number21
Those cardboard tubes you fill with concrete are pretty cheap....


Mail bunker FTW.