Sometimes you hate being right.......

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We have lived in this house for 27 years.

The first 12 years I must have replaced our mailbox post 7 or more times. One year from December until the next November I replaced that mailbox post 3 times. I don't know what it is. It is an auto magnet. And I don't understand why. There is a telephone pole less than 30 inches from the mailbox post. If drive eastbound you can't get to the mailbox post for the telephone pole.

So 15 years ago after the 3rd time it got knocked down in less than twelve months I had my first "Tim the Tool Man, Taylor" incident. I went to a local welding shop. I gave the guy my design and he made it. He took a rectangular piece of 1/4" steel plate and welded some 5" schedule 40 pipe to it. At the other end he welded some 1/8" steel plate. He drilled 2 groups of 4 holes in the 1/8" plate and 4 3/'8" holes in the 1/4" plate. Meanwhile, I dug a hole and built a wood form and placed it in the hole. I then mixed....3 or 4 bags of concrete and filled the form. I had made a plywood pattern of the holes in the 1/4 " plate. I put 4 "J" bolts through the pattern place the j-bolts in the concrete.

The next day after painting the new steel post, I mounted it on the concrete pad and bolted it down.

I knew without a doubt the next cars that hit that rascal.....there would be more damage on the cars than the mailbox.

Prior to yesterday, 4 vehicles had hit that mailbox post. No damage to the mailbox....


Well yesterday morning, I made a run to Fedex to pickup some parts I'd ordered. As I returned home driving my company van, I turned into my driveway, the sun hit the windshield on the van. The glare momentarily blinded me and I struck the mailbox and post.

The 1/8" steel plate that my mailbox and my neighbors mailbox was mounted to.....well it penetrated the steel on the passenger side door of my company van....and bounced out and slid the entire length of the van before I got stopped.

The moral of this story......if you build a tank proof mailbox....don't test it with one of your own vehicles!:eek::eek:
 
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Aw heck Ken, that just sucks............................. but it is SOOOOO funny :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Not laughing AT you, but with you, I'm sure after you finished being MAD at yourself, you to had a good chuckle about the irony of it all.

I'm just glad no one was hurt, vans can be fixed! :thumb:
 
Vaughn....that didn't make it any easier explaining the incident to my manager. I'll go get an estimate on Friday but I guessing $6,000-8,000 worth of damage.
 
Vaughn....that didn't make it any easier explaining the incident to my manager. I'll go get an estimate on Friday but I guessing $6,000-8,000 worth of damage.

I was thinking that would not be an easy talk with the boss. That's why they (and we) buy insurance, though.

Glad to hear the mailbox survived, though. Your reputation for overbuilding is intact. :p
 
I understand exactly the irony of the situation Ken. That's got to be a tough conversation with the boss. Especially when it happened at your own home.

Oh well, as has been said, "that's what insurance is for". Go take a break and have a cold OS.

Karl
 
Ken, glad you are alright, and like others (and yourself) I would do the same sort of thing.

For what it is worth, here we have a lot of issues with snowplows hitting our mailboxes so we have kind of designed them to be hit. Rather then build them stout enough to take on a snowplow, we design them so they swing out of the way when hit. We do that because here the mailbox is on the towns right of way and not on our property. If a snowplow is damaged by a mailbox, we would be liable for the damages.

Anyway to do that just have a bigger piece of pipe for the post set at a 10 degree angle towards the road. Then have another piece of pipe fit down inside it. Snug but enough so that it can swing. Build your mailbox horizontal member off that. With a 10 degree tilt, when something hits the mailbox, it swings out of the way, but then returns to center again automatically.
 
well ken thanks for the chuckle:) and now yu know how the others hit it,, if yu look back yu might see it was near the same time of day as yu done the deed..but i like dons idea of knocking it back straight.. in our state if yu had made such a mailbox structure and someone hit it and got hurt yu would be liable for the injurys and car damage..we arent supposed to have rocks that are to big near our road frontage..had a nice flower bed once with hand place rocks some dandys got i tdone and with in a week or two after it was completed got a visit from the local law telling me ot dismantle it or risk fines and damages..:eek:
 
Sorry to hear Ken, my mailbox is slight overbuilt also, stopped a school bus from backing into our ditch and when some boys put a tow strap on it to pull it out, it broke the tow strap and they broke the back window of their truck when it slammed to a stop!:eek:
 
Now Ken...

Could have been worse.
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:wave:

And sure it was probably tough to talk to the boss, but they have fleet insurance. I'm glad that it wasn't your car.
 
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