On Jul 23, 10:18?pm, "Dave" wrote:
"Sheldon" wrote in message

ups.com...





On Jul 23, 10:53?am, "M.Paul" wrote:
"Tony Tung" wrote in message

. ..

A couple years ago, we installed solar landscape lights. Thanks to a
fortuitous geographic location, they work relatively well (i.e., they
light up well past midnight). My problem is that they're too fragile.
I
have them installed along the walkway and along the driveway, and about
half of them have been broken in half by a opening car door or a
misstep.

I'm looking for a durable set of lights that don't have any cheap
plastic
connectors between the post and the light. Anyone have a product to
recommend?

Thanks!
Tony

If they are like the cheap hollow plastic ones that I got at the Borg
here
is what worked for me. I pounded a length of rebar into the ground and
slid
the hollow lightpost over it.

You remind me of my neighbor on the corner who drove angle irons at
the edge of the road to keep cars from touching his lawn (weeds), he's
now in prison. I don't think pounding rebar into the ground is such a
smart idea, certainly not for someone who is opening car doors into
their lamps and walking into them. I know I sure wouldn't want any
rebar pounded into the ground alongside my driveway (not anywhere on
my property), tires are a lot more expensive than any stinkin'
lantern... not that your rebar stanchion is going to protect the
lantern anyway, it won't.

Btw, those lanterns are supposed to break-a-way in case someone trips
and falls on one... someone's kid falls on your rebar the parents will
own you. Unbeknownst to you what you built is known under the penal
code as a man trap... anyone gets hurt tripping on your [hidden] rebar
you will go to prison for a very long time. Anyone places any type of
low walkway lamps do NOT make them stronger.

Didja know that rural mailbox posts have to be break-a-way too... I
believe 4" X 4" cedar is as strong a post as is permitted in most
municipalities... mailbox posts nowadays are typically made of plastic
with a break-a-way point at ground level. But I see all sorts of tank-
like mailbox stanchions, some place huge boulders at the post base,
they're willing to kill people who inadvertantly hit their lousy $20
mailbox. Some even use those thick walled steel 'indestructable'
mailboxes that will come through a windshield and take someone's head
off... those are not approved by the US Postal Inspector. There's
some moron about a mile down the road from me who actually constructed
a 2' high raised bed flower garden at the edge of the road for his
lousy cheapo $10 mailbox, the moron doesn't care if someone avoiding a
deer gets killed... doesn't even have a reflector. And every winter
the snow plows push that monstrosity into the culvert and every spring
Mr. Moron builds it back.

If the mailbox and its supporting post is on the road shoulder proper, yes,
post should be breakaway.

Well of course, rural mail delivery is always from the roadway, the
rural deliverers are not going to enter private property with their
vehicles, in fact they are not going to drive off the roadway
proper... the mailbox must be reachable from the vehicle window while
the vehicle is on the roadway proper.

Below you spoke of urban/surburban delivery, where the mail deliverer
walks, not rural... and a lot of other gobbledygook about surveys,
etc.

The hollow plastic won't drive into hard soil, or rocky areas. The rebar
thing is a good fix to that. The uppermost portion of the light, the light
fixture itself, will still breakaway.

If you want to drive rebar into the ground go right ahead, but if
someone gets hurt you'll wish you didn't. And if you can drive rebar
into rocky soil then there is no reason you can't pull the rebar back
out and insert the lamp stanchion... guess you can't think that
sophisticatedly... no one drives wooden fenceposts into the ground
either, they make a hole with something more suitable, like a
fencepost digger or augur. I guess hammering a piece of rebar to make
a small hole is okay, but it's just plain stupid to leave it there...
no way will that piece of rebar protect the lamp from collision
damage... if someone opens a car door into it the entire lamp will be
damaged, but more importantly the rebar sticking up is likely to do
major damage to the door, will cost a lot more to repair than
replacing 50 of those cheapo lamps. And what if someome inadvertantly
drives over that lamp and the rebar punctures a perfectly good tire...
me, I'd snatch that piece of rebar out of the ground and use it to
beat your ignorant ass to a pulp.