Aggregate material weight calculator: cubic yards to tons and truckloads

Conversion factors the calculator uses

Short tons per cubic yard, from the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, adapted from a federal BLM handbook: Source

Asphalt, crushed concrete, mulch and other materials aren't in that table; choose "Other" and enter the factor from your supplier. These are typical values. Moisture and compaction change real weight, so scale tickets always win.

What the common materials are

• Base course: graded crushed rock laid under pavement and slabs, compacted in layers.
• Pit run: unscreened material straight from the pit, a mix of sizes, often used as fill under roads.
• Riprap: large rock placed along banks and channels to stop erosion.
• Caliche: a natural cemented soil common in the Southwest, used for roads and pads.
• Fill dirt and topsoil: light, bulky loads that usually fill the body before the truck reaches its weight limit.

Loose, in-place and compacted volume

A cubic yard isn't always the same amount of material. Rock and soil dug from the ground swell when loosened, so a yard in the bank becomes more than a yard in the truck. Then it shrinks again when it is spread and compacted on the job. Plans often state compacted yards, while trucks carry loose yards. Ask which kind of yard a job means before you quote it, and expect a job measured in compacted yards to take more truckloads than the number suggests.

How truckloads are worked out

• Tons = cubic yards × tons per cubic yard.
• Loads by weight = tons ÷ legal payload per truck, rounded up.
• Loads by volume = cubic yards ÷ body capacity, rounded up.
• Truckloads = the larger of the two, because a truck is full when it reaches either limit.

Worked example EXAMPLE

A job needs 100 cubic yards of gravel. At 1.42 tons per yard, that is 142 tons. A truck with a 20-ton legal payload and a 16-yard body needs 8 loads by weight but only 7 by volume, so weight decides: 8 loads, each carrying about 12.5 yards. The same 100 yards of fill dirt weighs 80 tons, needing only 4 loads by weight but 7 by volume, so the body decides.

Payload: the number that matters

Legal payload is the truck's allowed gross weight minus its empty weight. On the Interstate the gross limit is 80,000 lb, and axle groups are limited by the bridge formula Source, so many dump trucks are limited well below what their bodies hold. State roads can have different limits, and some states allow heavier dump trucks with extra axles. Weigh the empty truck, check your axle spacing with the bridge formula calculator, and enter the payload you can legally carry.

Using it to quote jobs

Truckloads times cycle time gives the hours a job takes; multiply by your hourly rate, or turn it into a per-ton price, with the dump truck hourly rate calculator. Quote heavy materials by the ton or load, since the truck reaches its weight limit before the body is full. For light materials like topsoil and mulch, a per-yard or per-load price fits better, because the body fills first.

Ordering by tons or by yards

Suppliers usually sell aggregate by the ton, weighed at their scale, while contractors plan by the yard. When you haul for a contractor who ordered by the yard, convert to tons to know how many loads to plan and to check the supplier's tickets. When you are paid by the ton, the tickets are your invoice; when paid by the load, count loads and keep each ticket anyway as proof.

Overloading risks

Heaping a load to fill the body can push a truck over its legal weight with heavy materials, and overweight tickets on dump trucks are common at scales and in enforcement on haul roads. Wet material adds weight after a rain. Know your truck's payload in tons and load by weight, not by eye. Ask the loader operator to stop at your number.

When you dispatch with us, we look for aggregate and material hauls that fit your truck's payload and your rate. See dump truck dispatch or send an application.