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Re: [Shop-talk] Mailbox to end all mailboxes

To: eric@megageek.com, shop-talk@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] Mailbox to end all mailboxes
From: crothfuss@coastalnet.com
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:04:13 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
-----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
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