How much gravel or dirt can I haul?

[Pookster]

I need dirt. Lots of it. and gravel. I think I would need like 3-4 pickup loads of dirt, and about 1 load of gravel.

Home depot is way expesive- the direct from mfg seems like the "logical" idea.

Is it better to forgo the pickup bed, and use my trailer? I have side pocket stakes and plywood I can use to make a box. This would allow me 8000lbs of dirt.

Q1: How much does gravel/dirt weigh by volume? aka, how much would 1 pickup load weigh?

Q2: Would it be unsafe to convert my trailer for such use? I dont know how well the wood steaks would like the abuse of several thousand pounds of force pushing it through the side..

 

[garlicbreath]

Holy cow dood, get it delivered if you need that much!! Time+wood+materials+wear-N-tear+possible accidents= get them to deliver it in a dumptruck!

 

[dyeager535]

A few years back I was dropping gravel (well, actually river rock, maybe 3"?) in a friends yard with their '73 C20. It's been abused, so I'm not sure what the specs of the thing are/were.

When I went to get the rocks, I told them I wanted 1500lbs. They used a front end loader (big one, not a bobcat) and just "guesstimated" what it would weigh once I got to the scale for checkout. It's been awhile, but I know that truck was WAY overloaded. It did make the 5 mile or so trip. Bumper couldn't have been closer to the ground.

The rocks weren't spilling out, and when weighed, the load was right around 3000lbs IIRC. Gravel will be even more "dense", and if it's wet, that adds a bunch of weight too.

You'd need a fairly heavy duty trailer to handle that kind of weight, single axle utility trailers typically have a weak axle, and much weight will at the very least "U" the axle under load. You could easily bottom out the trailer suspension too. Depending on how far the stakes were apart I doubt it would be a big deal, I'd just be more concerned with the suspension.

 

[Pookster]

Maybe Im overestimating? I know that in terms of dirt- I need... alot. I know 800 lbs of dirt was barely a quarter of my pickup bed. And it covered almost nothing. (20 40 lb bags). I could easily see using two pickup bed fulls. (which at that rate would be 3200 lbs per bed full).

My trailer is acutally a tandem axle car trailer from PJ's. They did include utility steak pockets, which was interesting, I never thought I'd use it, but...

The other thing is, how much is it for dirt delivery? Might just be worth it in time/effort/labor to just get it delivered....

 

[darkshadow]

call up an construction or excavation company and tell them you will take a load of fill.

they usualy are looking for a place to dump.


or get a landscapers truck like a f 550 or 650 with a dump and have them deliver it, make way more sence you would spend too much time running around

 

[tRustyK5]

Remembering back to the days I worked with my Dad...he was a bricklayer. 1 cubic yard of (somewhat damp)sand was 3500 lbs. A pick-up box full level with the sides is about 1.75 cubic yards or 6100 lbs...

Gravel might weigh more per yard, but both are pretty dense. I'd have to say dirt would be lighter depending on how wet it is.

I remember seeing a full pallet (4' x 4' x 4') of jumbo's (large solid concrete bricks) and a yard of sand plus 6 bags of cement in the back of my Dad's truck Easily 8500 lbs. That was his old '68 Chev 3/4 ton. He often did that to his '76 Chev 3/4 ton crew cab too.

Rene

 

[pauly383]

You can have all you want , take it from my yard , I am tired of it , want grass now

 

[6.2Blazer]

You won't be able to get a full pickup bed of either without way overloading your truck (not that people don't do it all the time, but..........).

If you need four pickup beds of dirt than I would just pay to have it delivered.......that much could easily be carried in one dumptruck load. Any place that sells top soil or gravel in bulk will either have their own fleet of dumptrucks or be contracted with a trucking company.

For how much dirt or gravel, most people not familiar with working with those materials typically way under-estimate how much is needed. You can make 10 tons of gravel disappear pretty quickly on a small driveway.

 

[gravdigr]

I can tell you that a grave is about 5 cu yards of dirt compressed (before it's dug). That much dirt comes out to 2 dump truck loads with a 10.5'x6.5' bed and probably weighs 5,000-6,000lbs per load. You would overload your pickup truck dramatically before the bed would overflow. I would suggest delivery unless you relish the idea of shoveling a few thousand pounds of dirt off your trailer. You could haul the dirt on your trailer no problem. My old dumptruck used sideboards that slid into the bed stake pockets and it held fine.

As for gravel, you really need to over estimate this. You may think 2 ton is a lot, it's not. My parking spot, which is just barely big enough to fit my K5 and F250 side by side, used 6 ton (12,000lb) of 1b gravel (1b gravel is about the size of marbles). If you step up to 2b you use a bit less but have bigger chunks to deal with. Also keep in mind the quarry may not let you leave over loaded. Our quarry is now making every vehicle register their GVW and if you are over it you have to dump off. So if your half ton pickup weighs 5k lbs you can only haul out 2k lbs of material. That can get to be a pain if you get loaded too heavy and have to shovel off 400 lbs of material. I suggest you just get it delivered and save your back.

 

[dwoods]

Dirt and gravel weigh apox. 2300# a cubic yard (Dirt can be alot more if wet)
To figure aprox. how much you need (lenth x width x depth ) x 100 will give you in pounds how much you need.


It takes about 2 1/2 tons to fill a pick up bed.

 

[gravdigr]

Dirt and gravel weigh apox. 2300# a cubic yard (Dirt can be alot more if wet)
To figure aprox. how much you need (lenth x width x depth ) x 100 will give you in pounds how much you need.


It takes about 2 1/2 tons to fill a pick up bed.

Is that weight number for compressed or loose dirt? I'm assuming loose.

 

[dwoods]

yeah loose

 

[gjk5]

I would call around, my local yard will deliver anything loose over 3 yards for free and will deliver anything you want for around $35. We are a relatively small community but I was at least 12 miles away on my last one.

I don't know about you, but that's plenty cheap not to have to d*ck with it.