OT mailbox post?

Ignoramus5876 · 2006-03-26T13:23:53+00:00

Our old mailbox was hit by cars, snowplows etc, too many times. It isfalling apart. (no foul play involved, just a lot of idiot drivers andsnowplow operators)I made a swinging arm for a mailbox, so that when the mailbox is hit,it swings away and then back. So, now is the time for installing a new mailbox post. I bought a 30"post support that is made to be beaten into the ground with asledgehammer. It is like an arrow with four fins. I am now having second thoughts and am not sure if this is a good longterm solution. One of the reasons is that there is going to be quite abit of tipping moment due to a little longer swinging arm. (my guessabout 40-60 extra foot pounds of moment of force). I want this mailbox to stay vertical and not "tip".I live in Northern Illinois, so we have frequent freeze/unfreezecycles of soil. So... What's a good way of mounting a mailbox post? Maybe I should setthat mailbox post support at least partially into concrete? (ie, digha shallow hole, beat it into the hole level with ground, and fill thehole with concrete?i

OT mailbox post?

Mar 26, 2006 23 Replies

Rate this thread:

Harold and Susan Vordos 20 years ago

Seems to me that you'd want to go deep----below the frost line, so the ground can't heave the installation as it goes through the freeze/thaw cycles. . Mind you, I'm not an engineer, so maybe I don't understand it as I should.

Harold

Vote

daniel peterman 20 years ago

mount it on a coil spring

Vote

jim rozen 20 years ago

I *think* that was Mike Graham.

Jim

Vote

axolotl 20 years ago

The best was Gunner describing...some distant aquaintances....aiding mother nature by watering the flowers under the snow around the mailbox. In below freezing temperatures.

Kevin Gallimore

Vote