Carpenter’s mailbox gets hit 8 times in a single year. Then he uses 4,000 pounds of concrete to make it indestructible: ‘You’re gonna get messed up’

Travis Howard, a carpenter known on TikTok as @builtbytravis, says his mailbox was hit eight times in a single year. His answer was a reinforced replacement that drivers may regret clipping, built on six-by-six posts set into two and a half yards of concrete, according to Motor1.

The structure is a beast. Howard said the post goes down about four feet and the whole assembly weighs roughly 4,000 pounds. He reportedly never set out to build a multi-ton monolith. “Every time I got hit last year, I just had to make it bigger and bigger because the hole kept getting bigger and bigger,” Howard explained.

His caption hints this isn’t the first rebuild, as Howard wrote that he hopes he won’t have to make a Part 3. In the caption, he also questions how long viewers thought the mailbox would last, as his aim with the indestructible mailbox was to stop the repairs. 

Some viewers think Howard built something that could seriously hurt a driver

Howard opened his video with a blunt warning for anyone tempted to test the new build. “Please don’t hit my mailbox again because you’re gonna get messed up,” Howard said. That line appears to have struck a nerve with some commenters, as several seem more worried about the drivers than the mailbox.

One viewer reportedly wrote that Howard is “Bro! You think your mailbox is worth someone’s life!?!” Another argued that nothing that close to a road should be solid, calling the build “Use steel beams and then just hope they dont use jet fuel.” However, not everyone who weighed in sided against the carpenter.

A commenter who claims to drive past the house daily said the old mailbox seemed to go down within two days of every repair. Another compared Howard to “the guy who builds the snowman around tree stumps,” a nod to a viral meme.

The Postal Service actually wants mailboxes to give way when a car hits them

The United States Postal Service says a mailbox support should break away if hit. Citing the Federal Highway Administration, it lists wooden posts up to four by four inches, or a two-inch metal pipe buried no deeper than 24 inches, as safe options. Howard’s build appears to exceed both, as his posts are thicker and reportedly sit twice as deep.

A fortified mailbox once reached a state’s highest court. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled a Huron County couple was not liable after a pickup slid on black ice, hit their reinforced post, and left the driver paralyzed. The homeowner built it to stop vandals, but the majority found the couple owed no duty to a driver who left the roadway.

That decision binds only Ohio courts. However, two dissenting justices argued the case should have gone back to trial. Rules in other states, along with local ordinances and homeowners association covenants, could still leave owners of similar builds exposed if someone is hurt.

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