On Oct. 24 Fred Hargis said:

 

 

"I'm hoping to get by with something less elaborate. Right now I envision just 1 fence post (sign post, actually) and then a piece of painted MDO with our house number large enough to shield the box. My box is back from the road a fair distance and the blast isn't quite as bad. Even so, it's a jumbo mail box and when we have a really wet snow it does get rattled a bit."

 

 

The above quotes were from one of the Friday threads back in Oct. So today is a good day to point out my failure at Protecting my mailbox. My ultimate setup was to use 2 sign posts driven into the ground about 8" away from our mailbox (one of those Jumbo rural boxes). To those posts I bolted a piece of MDO that's probably 20" x 18" or so. It was mounted to shield the mailbox. So last night with all the snow we got, the county cowboys drove by and this morning I found my mailbox completely undamaged ( )....but it was laying on the ground (actually it was laying in the snow), along with about 4 pieces that comprise the top of my mailbox post (). So today, I'm trying to repair it so I can get it back up tomorrow. I'm guessing I should hav eused a larger piece of MDO, one that parutially protected the post as well...at least the part that holds the newspaper.

Sorry Fred, but I'm not laughing at you but with you.

BTDT to many time to count.

 

Neigbors box is gone again! He's been doing a "Red Green" repair repeatedly. 

OK, got it repaired. It will ave to sit in the shop overnight to let some glue dry, then I'll remount it tomorrow. I'll have to make a new one this spring and revise my snow shield plans. I think I can move it back toward the house maybe another foot or so (there's a 14" drain tile that belongs to the county that's kinda in the way).

...Guy down the road made one with almost a full sheet of plywood... 

The whole works including mail box, & post is now gone. 

I think some county drivers see these screens as a challenge. So they speed up and move as close to the side of the road as they can..probably recording it with their cell phone.

How about a mailbox that retracts into the ground.  Opposite of how a missile is launched from underground silo.  This way just retract and they can do whatever they want.  Then raise back up and wham, all ready to go.  

They slowed down going past mine after the last post I put in tore the wing blade off the plow truck when they hit it. 

The shields catch a lot more because of the increased surface area.  Use use 2" slats with a 1" gap.  lets some but not all of the energy through.  Best would be have someone weld you a box from steel plate and weld it to the top of a 3" pipe to set in the ground.

6" pipe filled with concrete set 4' into the ground works real good! 

 

..DAMHIKT 

I don't know if I've ever recounted my experience as a wingman on one of these rigs...

 

My BIL was the town superintendent for a small town in upstate NY.  This would have been back in the mid-late 70's.  The town super was an elected position and seems like the job was mostly overseeing and doing road work.  He asked if I wanted to operate the wing one day, we had had some blowing and drifting snow plus he wanted to cut the banks back to allow room for the next big blast so I said sure   The main road had already been plowed, we were going up on "the hill" to tackle this.  A big Oshkosh 6x6 with a V plow on the front and a wing on the right.  Seemed normal to me...

 

So up on the hill we went.  This was afternoon, still snowing, but pretty good visibility.  BIL stops the truck, gives me a quick lesson in operating the wing, tells me to watch out for the Hoopers' mailbox on the way out, not to hit trees and be mindful of everyone else's mailboxes - and away we went.  I pulled it back for the first mailbox, the next one would be a mile or so up the road; then we hit a drift.   A bunch of snow comes up over the V and hits the windshield, fogging it completely.  The defroster is on high and noisy, but cannot keep up - we're driving blind.  The wipers are slapping back and forth on high speed, but do no good after the initial blast and cleaning off because the glass is still fogged.  BIL is shifting gears to keep us moving forward and steering alternately with his left hand and knees so that he can operate more controls on the dashboard.  We are yelling at each other to be heard over the noise of the truck, the snow hitting the windshield, the defroster, the wipers slapping and the radio crackling!!! Pull the wing up he shouts, there is a sign post coming up and buried under the next drift!  I didn't see any sign, but he shouts it's there...  Most of that trip was done with a completely fogged over windshield.

 

That was afternoon, and I about wore out on a 5-10 mile run.  I cannot imagine doing that at 2,3,4:00 in the morning during blizzard conditions.  But I am glad they do do it for us.

I've seen some rural mailboxes with a cantilever setup, but never seen them in action.  If anything hits them, I guess they're supposed to swing out of the way and then spring back.  Or maybe just angled so gravity pulls them back into position.  Perhaps some type of sacrificial shield to absorb the blow from the wing would be appropriate.  Obviously the product of someone more clever or more resourceful than me.

1 hour ago, JimM said:

I've seen some rural mailboxes with a cantilever setup, but never seen them in action.  If anything hits them, I guess they're supposed to swing out of the way and then spring back.  Or maybe just angled so gravity pulls them back into position.  Perhaps some type of sacrificial shield to absorb the blow from the wing would be appropriate.  Obviously the product of someone more clever or more resourceful than me.

I've seen the advertisements for those posts, including a video of what happens when the plow goes by. The only thing keeping me from getting one is the weight they will support. I have the jumbo box, and that's because we get a lot of packages. They aren't marketed around here, I guess being more of a real "snow state" thing. We don't get this much snow all that often, and what I have would work fine with snow in lesser amounts.

Maybe on the MDO you could paint  "I ♥ snowplow drivers".

9 minutes ago, DuckSoup said:

Maybe on the MDO you could paint  "I ♥ snowplow drivers".

 

...We cringe when we hear the plows go by. It means the end of the driveway needs clearing again. 

While I don't have snow issues we do occasionally get idiots with baseball bats driving by taking out mailboxes.  Go ahead hit mine.  1/2 inch steel plate insert fights back. Took the idiot out of car and tore that shoulder all up.  

Bet he won't try that again. Got what he deserved !

4 minutes ago, Al B said:

Bet he won't try that again. Got what he deserved !

Plus the Felony conviction