Conference 7.286::home_work

    Ah yes, Spring is comming. And so are those nights when my mailbox
    becomes the victom of a high schooler's prank. Three times last
    year, two time the year before. This year, I'd like to put an end
    to the drive by beatings. My house is 200 feet away from the mailbox,
    and the street is dark, as there are no street lights on my street.
    I'm open to ALL suggestions, as long as it doesn't require a small
    loan to finance. Thanks in advance.
    					Rich

    when i was a kid, a local farmer (with a large farm-style mailbox) had
    this problem.  his solution: place a regular sized box *inside* the
    large box, and fill the space between with concrete.  about a week
    after doing this, he went out to get the mail and found the remains of
    a baseball bat laying in the ditch close to his box.  there were no
    visible signs on damage (on the mailbox, at least) ...
    
    btw - be glad all you have is bashers.  someone put a homemade
    plastic-pepsi-bottle bomb in ours last year and blew it to smitheroons.
    i laffed at (what i thought was) a great idea, but the wife was not
    amused.

Maybe its in the NH conference but this has been talked about before -
including the issue of legal recourse should your "bat proof" mailbox prove to
injure someone.

bjm - who has a neighbor who put the mailbox out each morning and retrieves it
      each evening.

> including the issue of legal recourse should your "bat proof" mailbox prove to

    Yes, be careful of what you do, there are too many stupid law suit
    stories that you as a home owner don't want to hear about.

    I've seen many "new homeowers" put out their first RR (Rural
    Route) mail box, it's usually one of these cute-pretty ones with
    painted scenes on the side and/or accessories. There're a favorite
    target of the Mail Box Bashers. Go with a simple plain $4.99 Box.
    The pain, both financial and emotional, won't be so bad if it gets
    hit.

    I have seen some new molded plastic covers that will hold a
    standard size mail box. These might offer some deflection
    capabilities. The only other "safe" option that I would offer is
    to mount you box behind a tree or telephone pole if you can, so
    that when the kids are driving down the street with the bat out the
    window, the tree or pole is in front of your box offering some
    protection.

    Charly

    
    mailbox hid behind a tree or phone pole - you may not get any mail
    that way...imagine asking the mail man to get out of the mail jeep
    especially for you...*my* mail man would skip your house for good ;-)
    
    
    Eva

I had Mass Electric install a light on a pole right near the end of my
driveway, right over my mailboxes.  Added security, added safety.

ME does not charge to install the light.  It costs me $6.50/month.

A thought...

Chris

    
    I occasionally get a catalog of various home products, one of which is
    an "indestructable" mailbox. The picture shows a bulldozer parked on
    top of the mailbox. Looks identical to any other mailbox.
    
    My former brother-in-law (a weldor) custom built a mailbox out of 1/4"
    plate steel for my former mother-in-law... after she went through half
    a dozen mailbox bashings in 2 months. While backing down her driveway
    my car slid on an ice patch and hit the mailbox... trashing my rear 
    quarter panel without so much as bending the flag on the mailbox. 
    

>    my car slid on an ice patch and hit the mailbox... trashing my rear 
>    quarter panel without so much as bending the flag on the mailbox. 

    Is this what you're striving for... A mail box that'll cause
    several hundred dollars worth of damage to your car? Or worse, to
    someone elses car, who will then turn around and sue you?

    I'd much rather replace a $5 mailbox and a cheap post.

    Re: "Behind" a tree, I didn't mean behind a tree in the sense that
    the mailperson would have to get out of the delivery vehicle to
    get to the mailbox.... I meant behind as in when driving down the
    road, you'd pass the tree FIRST, THEN the mailbox. This makes a
    less likely target for the kids in a car with a baseball bat
    looking for mailboxes to bash.

    Charly
    

    
       	I saw something that might minimize some of the blow, and looked
    like a good idea in the winter anyway. A person mounted their mailbox
    on an L-shaped pole. The pole stuck into a pipe cemented into the
    ground. This allowed the mailbox to swing out of the way for snow
    plowing, then be swung back out so as to extend out over the snow 
    bank. It looked something like -
    
    		 	  +----------------
    		   	  |   Mailbox     |
                   	  |               |
    		+--------------------------
    		| +------------------------
    		| |
    		| |
    		| |
    		| |
    		| |
    		| |
    		| |
    		| |
    	  -----|| ||-----
    	       || ||
    		
    	Although not too likely, there is the possibility if someone struck
    it hard enough, it could swing around and strike the car of the drive-by
    smasher. Since this isn't the intent, it's likely any stupid law suits
    would fail in the event damage did occur, not to mention the fact that
    it's a federal offense to tamper with a mailbox.

    	Ray

    	One other thought. Using the swinging design, if the mailbox was 
    mounted to a piece of wood that extended out beyond the sides of the
    mailbox, it would make it much harder to hit just the mailbox. The wood
    could easily be attached to the pole using a couple of U-bolts and the
    mailbox screwed to the wood.
    
    	Ray

    I have a mailbox made by Rubbermaid - it's tough plastic.  We have had
    a couple of "bashers" in our neighborhood but our box hasn't been
    touched.  I think it cost about $12 at Walmart.

    I have my current mailbox mounted on a pole with a spring at the bottom
    end (right above ground level - the bottom six inches or so of the pole
    below that are embedded in cement, of course).  That way, if the snow
    plow hits it (expecting another 6-9" tonight!  Enough already!!!) it
    pops back into position.  I haven't had one bashed up by the
    neighborhood goons for a few years now - I think the kids
    (ir)responsible for most of that that sort of stuff that was common
    for a while grew up (??) - well, at least, got older, and don't live at
    home anymore.  I really hate vandalism!   It's enough work to keep a
    house in repair without some juvenile delinquent with lots of free time
    and nothing better to do making even more work.
    
    /Charlotte (wth two trees down in the back from yesterday's snow!)
                                                  

I also had problems with my mailbox but more from snowplows than baseball bats.
I considered the 'indestructable' type but felt it would work better if I
moved it behind (re .5: immediately after, not actually away from the road) a
telephone pole on the other side of the driveway.  While 'indestructible' will
survive baseball bats, with snowplows it will either fail or possibly get me a
very angry plow driver (or city).  Hasn't been touched since, and has the
advantage if anyone hits anything it's the electric company that'll get
sued and not me.  (actually that pole has been hit a couple times)

Of course not everyone has a conveniently placed pole.  Probably the best
idea is a breakaway/swing/spring design with enough reinforcement/resiliance to
the box itself to survive the direct hit.  The rubbermaid box sounds great for
this.

-Mike

    I've toyed with the idea of making one out of some 6"x8" rectangular
    steel tubing or something, but in fact our mailbox doesn't seem to
    be a target of choice for vandals.  The house is fairly close, which
    probably helps, and the mailbox is so beat up it looks as though
    some other mailbox basher already got to it first.
    Several other boxes on the street have been hit though, so it's
    probably only a matter of time.

	Count your blessing. My B-I-L lives in rural Vermont on a
	dirt road. The local kids, joy riding up there, usually
	just open the front of the box, stick in a 12 guage and
	blow out the back. He's replaced his quite a few time as 
	so have his neighbors...

	Red

    Well, I've seen a few mailboxes that were mounted/encased in cinder
    blocks. Basically, a base was made with cinderblocks that was large
    enough to completely surround the USPS-legal mailbox. The
    mailbox-baseball crowd will have no luck with those. 
    
    Warning, crude ASCII drawing follows:
    
    
    			+---------------------+
    			|    |  _______  |    |
    			|    | /       \ |    |
    			|    |/         \|    |
    			|____|   U. S.   |____|
    			|    |  M A I L  |    |
    			|    |           |    |
    			|____|___________|____|
    			|    |     |     |    |
    			|    |     |     |    |
    			|____|_____|_____|____|
    			|    |     |     |    |
    			|    |     |     |    |
    			|____|_____|_____|____|
    

    
    > Is this what you're striving for... A mail box that'll cause
    > several hundred dollars worth of damage to your car? Or worse, to
    > someone elses car, who will then turn around and sue you?
    
    Actually I'm not striving. My mailbox is fine just the way it is.
    But, in hypothetical anmswer to your question:
    
    	I have a 600' driveway lined with oak trees with a short hilly
        section and an 80 degree turn. I don't live in fear of hitting
    	my mailbox at the far end once I get past the rest. Plus, even 
    	the most basic mailbox will do several hundreds of dollars worth
    	of damage on impact with a quarter panel.
    
    	Regarding people suing me for hitting my mailbox. I most
        *certainly* don't live in fear of that either. In the event that
        someone actually managed to hit it, AND were silly enough to sue
    	AND my lawyers couldn't crush a frivilous lawsuit... that's what
    	an umbrella insurance policy is for.
    
    								- Mac  

re .10

My mailbox is installed exactly like this description (you been sneaking 
around my house?), using cast iron pipe (about 1.5" OD) and two elbows. The 
vertical section sits in poured concrete, but rotates within the concrete (I 
have a couple of screws extending from the pipe within the concrete so it can't 
lift out -- the screws created their own channel in the concrete, if you can 
picture that). I put it in that way about 15+ years ago and the mounting has 
remained intact the whole time through a lot of snow plows. I highly recommend 
this approach.

I did replace the mailbox a couple of years ago to accommodate the ever 
increasing volume of catalogs and to cut down on the possibility of mailhandler 
gangrene. The new mailbox appears to have taken one vandalism hit, but it 
swings so easily that not much damage was done (pushing out from the inside 
pretty much straightened it back out). It wouldn't do much against a concerted 
attack, but casual batterers can get some satisfaction out of a small dent and 
a good swing without substantially damaging the box.

I still liked the story I read in here somewhere about the guy that took 
out a PO box, filled his mailbox with concrete, and came out one day to find 
part of a Jeep fender next to it...

    	re:19
    
    	The one I saw was on Rt. 121 in Auburn, NH. Had I not already
    installed a traditional 4x4 post type, I would have considered this if
    I saw it earlier.
    
    	Ray

I have one of those Rubbermaid boxes. The 'pole' is 4x4 PT wood sunk
in about a bag or two of concrete. It is mounted about 4" downstreet
next to an oak.

For several years, many mailboxes in our neighborhood have been
battered beyond recognition. Ours has not.

Pete