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Posted by SteveB on April 13, 2008, 1:19 pm
> Does anyone know what the height is supposed to be for a rural
> mailbox? I live on a rural gravel road and there is a deep ditch next
> to the road. I originally put a wooden post right on the edge of the
> road, but in summer the box just falls over after heavy rains because
> the edge of the road to ditch is so steep that there is nothing to
> really dig in to, unless I put the post hole about 6 feet deep.
> Besides that, the box is actually hanging over the road, and more than
> once a car has hit it. In the winter, the snow plows have broken off
> the post several times, and that just happened this past winter again.
> I drove a steel t-post next to the wooden post and wired it on, but it
> rained hard the other day and I found the mailbox in the ditch again.
>
> I'm completely fed up with fixing that damn thing about 5 times a
> year, which means I have now fixed it around 40 times since I moved
> here 8 years ago.
>
> I just took an 8 foot piece of 2" steel pipe and welded a shelf on
> top, that sticks out 3 feet past the post. This way I can put the
> post down at the bottom of the ditch, and the mailbox will not
> overhang the road. This seems like a more sensible method and it's
> unlikely the plow will hit it. The only problem is that after I
> installed it, the mailbox is only about 40" above the road level. It
> looks low compared to neighbors boxes or what my old wooden post was.
> I'm only in the ground about 16" so I cant raise it any more.
>
> Is there some measurement that the post office requires?
>
> If it's too low, I'll have to either weld on more pipe at the bottom,
> or maybe get a larger pipe and make a sleeve. I plan to put concrete
> around the post, but until I know the acceptable height limits I am
> not going to do that. Right now I just packed some rocks around the
> post in the hole, so I can get my mail. (Its too cold to make
> concrete anyhow). And I suppose if I make a sleeve, the post and
> mailbox will rotate when it gets windy.
>
> Another thought is to put some old tires around the post and fill them
> with concrete, which so far seems to be the best idea I can come up
> with, and then I could raise the post in the ground.
>
> It's just a bad place to put a mailbox. On the other side of the road
> it would be easy since there is no deep ditch, but the P.O. said they
> wont deliver on that side.
>
> Anyone have ideas?
>
> thanks
I have one in my neighborhood that is the old style, has the red flag
raised, has red letters on the side saying "AIR MAIL" and is atop a 30'
pole.
Check with the PO, and they will give you all that. After deciding where it
goes, I suggest a strong one for errant drivers or country boys who like to
take baseball bats to it. I lined my old aluminum one with plate steel and
put it on a 4" pipe with one bys to disguise the pipe. Every year or two
there'd be some new damage, and another graduating class learned the hazards
of mailbox baseball.
Steve
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