mailbox keeps getting knocked over by mailman

[dusty]

My mailbox is in front of my house and unfortunately lies along a concave curve, not very sharp, but sharp enough that either the mailman or a car has hit it three or four times over a couple of decades.

The box itself is bolted to a 4x4, then this goes into a patented flex adapter that allows the top 2 feet of post and the mailbox to flex if anyone touches it. The bottom 2 feet or so then feeds into a 4x4 bracket that is bolted to a concrete sidewalk at the four corners of the bracket with 5/8" lag bolts and lead anchors in the concrete.

Although the lag bolt/ lead anchor system has worked, one or more of the bolts seems to work out over time making the bracket and therefore the entire box and post unstable. This week after the box was struck by the mailman and toppled over, I was thinking of changing out the lag bolts for something else. I wasn't sure what. I spotted some "wedge anchors" in the hardware store, specifically for concrete, but no one there could tell me how they worked. I was also thinking of using some sort of concrete epoxy to glue stainless steel studs into the concrete and then just attach the bracket with ss nuts.

Not sure if I should do it or not. The lead anchors seem to "give" if anyone hits the box, but concreted studs probably won't.

Opinions welcome and thanks in advance.

[trader_4]

I guess it depends on what you think will happen if the anchors don't give way, ie how that flex thing will work. If that will flex, no damage to it or the box, then stronger anchors would help. If stronger anchors mean that the box get damaged, then I'd rather buy a few bucks worth of anchors. As to what's better than the old lead anchors, no experience there. But I'd bet googling for best fasteners for concrete would yield results.

I'd also tend to doubt it's the mailman hitting it, unless he's a reckless one. He's on the side of the vehicle by the box, pulling up to it, seems easy to avoid hitting it. If you're really interested and want to spend a few bucks, you could get a wireless camera for a PC and record what's going on, but if it's only once every few years, probably not worth it. Around here, it's typically snow plows that do the damage, either with the force of snow or hitting it.

[Clare Snyder]

Wedge anchors work very well.(Rawl Bolt, Hilti Kwik-Bolt or Strong-Bolt or even the Paulin Papc - although not as good as the Hilti oe Rawl ) I've had good luck with Rawl over the years _ I think they hold better even than the Hilti for your application . The R-XPTII-A4 Stainless Steel Rawl would be my recommendation

[Fred McKenzie]

Dusty-

Consider making the installation more flexible, not more rigid.

What about a simple post that would be easy to re-plant if toppled?

Take a look at "Tie Down Engineering 43016 Mail Box Post Kit". It appears to screw into the ground.

Fred

[rbowman]

Do you have a source of small stones?

[Dean Hoffman]

Maybe something more flexible would be better:

[A noiseless patient Spider]

Bingo!

[gfretwell]

You could also make it far more rigid and know who was hitting it because they would still be there. ;-)

A common thing here is 3 "piling cutoffs" (6-8" round scraps from dock builders) cut at an angle and wrapped with thick rope for a nautical look. Sunk 3 or 4 feet in the ground, they don't move.

[micky]

Instead of bolts and lead anchors, you should use molly bolts.

Drill a 3/8" hole into the ground until you get to the hollow part, and that will determine how long the screws should be.

[micky]

It looks like a good idea, but the photograph of the parts doesn't match the picture of the two round rods, slided at an angle so the thing returns to facing the street. They're not in the picture of the parts

-- which is probably wrong, but I would ask.

Here is another style:

I'm not recommending one over the other.

[hubops]

I kinda like the general idea - of both of these devices - but I'd be tempted to get a local welder to build something a little more .. Amish. John T.

[Clare Snyder]

Same thing as what I recommended - Molly was one brand I missed. Basically a wedge anchor bolt.

[Alex]

Use something like this or a wedge anchor. They won't fail.

[Alex]

3/8"? Molly bolts?

Look at my two suggestions and add an epoxied threaded rod to that.

[Clare Snyder]

IIRC you can get the hilties in half inch