Ok, this is getting to be much to involved of a thread. So let's figure
out how to settle this.. arbitration, if you will.

1) Nehmo wants a mailbox which is cute and cuddly and bounces
grandchildren on its knee.

2) Lots of other people want a mailbox which will be a one time install,
immune to the hooligans and eliminating the PITA labor of digging out
old concrete and pouring new.

Here you go, I did it at my mom's place after she lost a mailbox once a
year due to icy roads in Michigan. You build a hollow square tube with
an inside dimension to fit a 4x4. make it the same length as your post
will be buried deep. Sink the tube in the ground, top level with grade.
Use concrete if you like. Now you have a socket to put your post in.
If it breaks off you can easily slide the broken post out and drop in a
new one (a new 4x4 ain't gonna break the bank) (This solves issue #2).
If you're safety concious you can drill two holes perpendicular to the
road just above grade. I used a 1 1/4" bit if I remember correctly.
This will create a weak point where the post will break if slammed into.
(Happy Nehmo?) This has proved highly successful with a plastic
one-piece mailbox.. Mom loves it. In fact, sometimes she will actually
pull her mailbox out of the ground when expecting an ice storm, since
it's more likely it would get hit then. I even made her a little plug
out of scrap 4x4 and some plywood to keep the elements out of the empty
socket. Of course, once you do this, Murphy's Law says that your
mailbox will never be touched again.

Maybe this will actually help the OP..

~Rob



"Nehmo Sergheyev" wrote in
:

- Wayne Boatwright -
If the damage is intentional from something like joy-riding and let's
see
how many mailboxes we can knock down, then the *******s deserve
whatever
they get. I'd just as soon see them lying dead in the road.



- Nehmo -

Except that mail boxes are dumb, and they can't ascertain the intent
of the driver who runs into them. Nor can mail boxes determine the
other circumstances surrounding an accident - such as the number and
age of the vehicle's occupants. (Sometimes buses go off the road.)



Placing a stout mail box by the side of a road is socially negligent.
Going further and making a booby-trap mailbox is malicious.