Material Weight Chart: Gravel, Dirt, Sand, Mulch, and More

A cubic yard of gravel, sand, or dirt typically weighs between 2,000 and 3,400 lb (1 to 1.7 tons), depending on the material and how wet it is. Mulch and wood chips weigh a fraction of that, roughly 250 to 800 lb per yard, while broken concrete and brick land in between. The chart below gives approximate weights for more than two dozen common materials, with sources.

The reason this matters for dump trailer owners is simple: heavy materials hit your trailer's weight limit long before they fill the box. Knowing the weight per yard tells you how many yards you can legally haul, and how close you are to overloading your axles, tires, and hitch.

Material weight chart (pounds and tons per cubic yard)

All figures are approximate weights for loose material, the way it sits in a loader bucket or a trailer box. A short ton is 2,000 lb. Where sources disagree or the material varies widely, the chart shows a range.

Aggregates: gravel, stone, and sand

Soils: topsoil, fill dirt, and clay

Landscape and organic materials

Demolition debris, masonry, and junk

Other reference weights

Why weights vary so much

Three things drive most of the spread in the chart.

Moisture. Water weighs about 1,685 lb per cubic yard and fills the voids between particles. Caterpillar's figures put dry loose sand at 2,400 lb per yard and wet sand at 3,100, a 29 percent jump. A load of topsoil or mulch picked up after a week of rain can be several hundred pounds per yard heavier than the same pile in August.

Particle shape and size. Uniform rounded stone like pea gravel or river rock leaves more air space than crushed stone with angular faces and fines. Material with a mix of sizes, like pit-run gravel or crusher run, packs tighter and weighs more.

Loose vs. bank vs. compacted. Soil in the ground (bank measure) is denser than the same soil after it is dug up. Caterpillar lists topsoil at 2,300 lb per yard in the bank but 1,600 lb loose. When you haul, you are dealing with loose yards. When a contractor measures a hole, they are measuring bank yards, and the excavated dirt will take up 20 to 30 percent more room in your trailer.

When you buy material by the ton but think in yards, ask the yard or quarry for their conversion factor. They weigh their own stockpiles on a certified scale, so their number beats any chart, including this one.

How many yards can a dump trailer carry?

Your trailer is limited by two things: weight and volume. Whichever limit you hit first is your real capacity.

By weight: yards = payload ÷ weight per yard

By volume: yards = inside length × inside width × side height (in feet) ÷ 27

Payload is your trailer's gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR, the maximum the trailer can weigh loaded) minus its actual empty weight. Use the empty weight from a scale ticket, not the brochure, and weigh it with the tarp, ramps, spare tire, and battery installed. For more on these ratings, see GVWR, Payload, and Empty Weight Explained.

Worked examples for 10k, 14k, and 16k GVWR trailers

The three trailers below are illustrative. Their empty weights are reasonable for the class, but real trailers vary by a thousand pounds or more depending on steel gauge, frame, hoist, and options. Check the VIN tag and weigh your own.

Now divide each payload by the material weight. "Vol" means the box fills before you reach the weight limit (2 ft sides, level load).

A few things jump out. With dense materials, all three trailers run out of payload when the box is less than half full. With mulch and compost, the box is the limit, which is why landscapers add side extensions or buy trailers with taller sides. If you add 2 ft extensions to the 14k trailer, the box holds about 14.5 yards, but at 600 lb per yard that is 8,700 lb of mulch, which is still under the 9,500 lb payload. Wet mulch at 1,000 lb per yard would put you over at about 9.5 yards.

Round down, not up. If the math says 3.4 yards, order 3 or 3.25. Supplier loaders do not measure to the tenth of a yard, and a bucket heaped a little high adds weight fast.

For a faster answer, the load calculator runs the same math: enter your trailer's GVWR and empty weight, pick a material, and it estimates payload and cubic yards.

Loading heavy materials the right way

Knowing the yards is only half the job. Where the weight sits in the box matters as much as how much there is.

For a bumper pull trailer, aim for 10 to 15 percent of the loaded trailer weight on the tongue. With 3 yards of gravel piled at the back of the box, tongue weight drops and the trailer can start to sway at highway speed. Piled too far forward, you overload the truck's rear axle. Spread dense loads evenly from front to back and keep the pile low and centered. How to Load a Dump Trailer walks through weight distribution in detail.

Wet clay and saturated soils also stick to the floor. That raises the force the hoist needs to start the dump, and it makes the trailer more top-heavy as the bed rises. Dump on level ground and stay clear of overhead lines.

How to estimate a load without a scale

If you do not have access to a scale on every trip, you can still get close.

1. Find the weight per yard for your material in the chart above, or better, from your supplier.
2. Estimate the volume in the box: measure the length, width, and average depth of the pile in feet, multiply, and divide by 27.
3. Multiply volume by weight per yard.
4. Compare that to your payload with some margin, especially if the material is wet.

Then check yourself on a certified scale (many truck stops, landfills, and quarries have them) the first few times you haul a new material. After a few scale tickets you will know what a "level 3 yards of crushed stone" looks like in your box.

Where these numbers come from

The aggregate, soil, and clay figures draw mainly on the loose-density tables in the Caterpillar Performance Handbook, a standard reference for earthmoving. Debris, wood, and yard waste figures come from the EPA's 2016 volume-to-weight conversion factors and the LEED reference factors as compiled by WasteCap Resource Solutions. Compost figures come from Oregon State University Extension. Snow ranges reflect FEMA's Snow Load Safety Guide, which puts a foot of fresh snow at roughly 3 lb per square foot when light and up to about 21 lb when wet. Mulch, pea gravel, and river rock ranges reflect typical supplier stockpile figures, which vary more by region than most materials.

Every one of these is an average. Your local material may sit outside the range, so treat the chart as a planning tool and the scale ticket as the final word. If you run into an unfamiliar term, the glossary covers the trailer-specific ones.

The bottom line

Dense materials like gravel, sand, dirt, and broken concrete weigh 2,000 to 3,400 lb per yard, so most dump trailers haul only 2.5 to 4.5 yards of them legally. Light materials like mulch and compost fill the box first. Divide your real payload by the material weight, round down, load it evenly, and weigh it when in doubt. If you are still choosing a trailer, use these numbers to size it: What Size Dump Trailer Do I Need? shows how to match box size and GVWR to the materials you haul most.