I live on a rural road. 3 times in the last 6 months our mailbox has been pulverized by passing vehicles. I have two of the three side mirrors to prove it. I've replaced the mailbox once already and beaten it back into usable shape the other two times with my trusty ball peen. We come back from vacation and it's happened again!

Now it's war!

I just came home from Lowe's and purchased one type oh heavier gauge mailbox but now that I've looked at it more closely I don't think it's going to cut it. Ideally I want a heavy gauge steel mailbox that will handle larger packages. Something around 11x9x21 or so. I've also seen some of the pivot post folks use for snow plow areas. Do those work?

I'm not wanting to drop major coin, maybe $100, and I really don't wanna do bricks or masonry. Just looking for some input and suggestions?

Claymores

You can pick up 3/16" or 1/4" plate A36 steel pretty cheaply, and weld your own "armored" mailbox. The supply house that sells you the plate will probably shear it, too, into the sizes you need so all you'll have to do is weld it up.

Have you considered placing reflectors on the approach to the box to guide the assaulting traffic away from the road edge and your box?

Might be possible to get your county to paint "fog lines" on the road edge to help guide traffic away from your box, too.

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Have you considered placing reflectors on the approach to the box to guide the assaulting traffic away from the road edge and your box?

Might be possible to get your county to paint "fog lines" on the road edge to help guide traffic away from your box, too.

Wouldn't it be easier just to move the box away from the road a bit?

It sounds like it's accidental contact vs. intentional vandalism. Vandalism would leave behind ball bats, not side mirrors.

I found it easier and cheaper (and more secure) to get a Post Office box in town. I believe drunkards and antisocial teens were destroying mailboxes as a form of sport in our area.

Up here where the plows roam, mailboxes are often mounted on spring loaded booms. If the plow hits the box, it swings out of the way and is returned to position by the springs.

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Originally posted by GarandGuy: I've also seen some of the pivot post folks use for snow plow areas. Do those work?

The swing away (not spring) are required along county roads in my area and I'd say they're pretty effective. In 18 years, I've only lost one mailbox. Direct hit from the wing blade on the plow. It messed up the box and sheared the mounting bolts where the swivel pipe mounts to the post. County paid for the new box and I bolted everything back together.

Swing away is your best bet but even then a hit to the support post can ruin your day.


https://www.returntocentermailbox.com/
http://uvideoplay.com/page/ind...uctible-mailbox.html

My father mounted our mailbox to the bell end of a 6 foot piece of 8" ductile iron pipe buried 2 feet into the ground with about 18" of cement around the base. Seemed sturdy enough.

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Wouldn't it be easier just to move the box away from the road a bit?

It sounds like it's accidental contact vs. intentional vandalism. Vandalism would leave behind ball bats, not side mirrors.

I agree. Add reflectors. Check with your mail carrier to not run afoul of their regulations, placing it too far off the road.

this is the one i installed this year it hasn't seen winter yet we will see




Link to original video: https://youtu.be/A5lFTQdjQ58

Many people are in the camp of making it more rigid, but I'm in the camp of making it more flexible. First saw this at my brother's neighbor's house. They both lived along a 45 mph road in the Upper Midwest, and the city snowplow drivers got paid overtime in the spring to put back up mailboxes they damaged (talk about an incentive to damage mailboxes).

A bunch of companies sell swigning mailbox supports:

Mail Swing

Swing Safe Supports

JDM

Swing Clear

4 inch metal pole, in a yard of concrete, filled with concrete, then set a 3x5x12 inch wooden sleeve (for mail) in the mailbox and fill the remainder of the mailbox with concrete.

Then wrap the pole with 1x4 and stain it to look like a 6x6 post.

Put a game camera with IR so it captures the next idjit that tries to knock it off with a ball bat.

www.fortknoxmailbox.com
All you can stand, right there.

This one has a counterweight, and the carrier needs to pull down on the cord attached to the front of the mailbox, then it scoots back up out of the way. May not fly with your local PO but worth checking out.

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Originally posted by sigmonkey:
4 inch metal pole, in a yard of concrete, filled with concrete, then set a 3x5x12 inch wooden sleeve (for mail) in the mailbox and fill the remainder of the mailbox with concrete.

Then wrap the pole with 1x4 and stain it to look like a 6x6 post.

Put a game camera with IR so it captures the next idjit that tries to knock it off with a ball bat.

That ain't overkill enough.

This is how we installed pipe supports & piles in the arctic circle in Alaska:

Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_PQZ2j-4ys

Steps:

Purchase 12" NPS x 0.500" WT x 30' long Grade A53 pipe

Purchase 12" x 12" x 1" thick A36 steel, and drill mounting holes to match mailbox

Trim pipe to 22' long

Weld flat plate to pipe

Use Watson Air Drill to bore to 20'

Stab bottom of pipe fabrication into hole

Use crane to lift top of plate to 3'-6" and correct bolt hole orientation

Tack weld 2"x2" angle iron to hold pipe fabrication in place

Fill 1/3 of hole with high early strength concrete

Wait 72 hours

Fill outer annulus of remaining hole with high early strength concrete

bolt on mail box

After having our mailbox trashed by vandals, I bought one of these: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Gibra...t-Mailbox/1000199961 - or something very close to it. One morning came out to find a dent in "hood" that extends over the door. Heh heh heh. Bet whomever hit that ended-up hurtin' Next door neighbour's mailbox was trashed again. I took a pair of pliers, straightened-out the dent so I could get the door open, and left it. I guess the miscreants went off in search of easier prey, because it hasn't happened again, since.

I guess one of these days I'll take it off the post, peen the dent out the rest of the way, wire the rust off, and hit it with some black Rustoleum enamel.

When I was living in my hometown, population 500, the movie came out that showed the teens whacking mailboxes with a baseball bat while leaning out of a car window. This little craze caught on with a few of the local hooligans and quite a few of the big "farmer" mail boxes were taking a beating on a regular basis. One of the victims that had to replace several mailboxes decided to take matters in his own hands. He bought a new large mailbox, put a piece of clay tile in the center and filled the rest with cement. He then sunk a pretty much immoveable post back from the road and mounted this then 150lb. mailbox on a cantilever. He did this on a Monday and that Saturday morning he found a shattered baseball bat in his front yard and one of the teens cars was in the body shop for a new back window the following Monday. Apparently when the bat struck the basically immoveable object it broke and hit the back window shattering the glass. The fun and games came to a fairly rapid end after that.

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This one has a counterweight, and the carrier needs to pull down on the cord attached to the front of the mailbox, then it scoots back up out of the way. May not fly with your local PO but worth checking out.

That is not even close to regulation. However, an excellent relationship with your carrier may negate that rule. I have seen the rules ignored but that was decades ago when we were a politer society.