[Shop-talk] Mailbox to end all mailboxes

[crothfuss at coastalnet.com]

-----Original Message-----

>I have a question about mailbox posts.  Does anyone know if there is a 
>requirement for your mailbox to "break away" if a car hits it?

Last notice I got from the Postmaster encouraged me to use a wooden post, but didn't require it.  

>Here is my problem, in my rural area of NJ, we get lots of wet snow.  The 
>plow drivers are off season NASCAR drivers practicing their time trials as 
>they plow.

My Dad made a mailbox post out of a 6" auger bit.  The mailbox still got knocked off, but the post never moved.  After many, many years a car finally ran it over...and it popped back up, almost straight.  Seems there was a 1" cable through the center of the bit, and while the outside had cracked, the cable nearly popped the pole back up.  After straightening with the tractor, it was still there when Mom sold the farm several years ago.

My mailbox was similar, but made from three right hand helix Detroit Diesel 8-71 blower rotors, pressed together end to end.  It tore a Mustang GT door skin completely off, but it "broke away."  

Your mailbox post sounds like it's gonna hold up to anything.  Solid is good, but may be a liability.  I did see the opposite-of-solid solution in central Michigan.  Rural dirt roads have the same kinda snowplow troubles as you mentioned.  The local solution was extremely long horizontal poles suspended from above with chain attached to nearby trees.  When the box gets slammed it simply swings freely right or left and upward, once the plow clears the post swings back to it's normal rest position near the road.   

Look forward to pictures.

Chuck