Dump truck capacity in cubic yards
There is no single number. A truck has a volume limit and a weight limit, and the material you load decides which one it hits first.
Last updated 29 September 2026How much your truck carries
Start with the body: its inside dimensions if it is a square box, or the maker’s rated capacity for any other shape. For the weight limit, add the GVWR from the door plate, the empty weight from a scale ticket and the material’s density under “Add detail”. The load is the smaller of the two, and neither is a legal limit.
Body volume, struck
cubic yards
- Cubic metres
- 8.92m³
This is a square box filled level with the top of the sides. A tapered floor, rounded sides or a sloped tailgate hold less: for those bodies use the maker’s rated capacity.
Show the calculationHide the calculation2 steps
The working
Body volume = Length × Width × Height
= 14 ft × 7.5 ft × 3 ft
= 315 cu ft
Cubic yards = Cubic feet ÷ 27
= 315 ÷ 27
= 11.67 cu yd
The two limits
- Volume. The body has a struck capacity — level with the top of the sides — and a heaped capacity that assumes the load stands in a crown. Both are on the body plate or the body maker’s sheet. Use struck for anything that flows; a heap of dry sand does not stay a heap.
- Weight. The door label states the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). Payload is that rating minus the truck’s empty weight, which a scale ticket gives you exactly. On public roads the axle and gross limits below apply as well, whatever the label says.
Estimating a body’s volume from its dimensions
When the plate is unreadable, or you are checking a quote, the body is a box and the geometry is enough for a first figure. Measure the inside length, the inside width and the side height, all in feet, multiply them, and divide by 27.
Cubic yards = Length × Width × Side height ÷ 27
Made-up dimensions to show the arithmetic: 14 ft × 7 ft × 4 ft = 392 cu ft, and 392 ÷ 27 = 14.5 cubic yards. That treats the body as a plain box. A sloped floor or a rounded profile makes the true figure different, so the body plate governs whenever you have it.
Body capacity is not legal payload
What a body can physically hold and what the truck may lawfully carry are different questions with different answers. A body plate says how many cubic yards fit; the ratings and the road limits say how many pounds may travel. With dense material the body can be filled to a weight the truck should never leave the yard with, so a full body is not evidence of a legal load. The scale ticket, not the level of the material, tells you which side of the line the load is on.
Federal weight limits on the Interstate
The limits in 23 CFR § 658.17 apply on the Interstate system and set the ceiling most heavy trucks are built to. States set their own on other roads and issue overweight permits, so the label and the state rule both matter — but no permit changes what the body holds. How the bridge formula turns axle count and spacing into a legal weight, with the arithmetic worked, is in the tri-axle dump truck capacity guide.
| Limit | Pounds |
|---|---|
| Maximum gross vehicle weight | 80,000 |
| Any single axle | 20,000 |
| Tandem axles | 34,000 |
W = 500 × (L × N ÷ (N − 1) + 12 × N + 36)
W is the allowed weight in pounds on the group, L the distance in feet between the first and last axle of the group, N the number of axles in it. It is why a longer truck may carry more, and it is the rule that often binds before 80,000 does.
Which limit binds
Payload = GVWR − Empty weight
Both from the truck: the label and a scale ticket. Not from a brochure — options, a tarp system and a full fuel tank all add to the empty weight.
Weight-limited volume = Payload ÷ Material density
Density of the loose material, in pounds per cubic yard, from the supplier’s ticket or a measured load. This is the figure that changes with the material — and with its moisture.
Per load = the smaller of Body capacity and Weight-limited volume
If the weight-limited volume is smaller, the truck is weight-bound and leaves with the body not full. If it is larger, the truck is volume-bound and the body is the limit.
Loads = Total loose volume ÷ Per load, rounded up
Loose volume — the material has already swelled by the time it is in the truck. See the bank vs loose guide for the conversion.
A worked example
Suppose a truck’s body plate says 14 cubic yards struck, its door label says a GVWR of 58,000 lb and a scale ticket says it weighs 26,000 lb empty. Those three numbers are the inputs to this example — they describe one hypothetical truck, not a class of truck. Its payload is 58,000 − 26,000 = 32,000 lb. The job is 120 loose cubic yards, and the supplier tickets give two different densities for two materials.
| Material (density from ticket) | Weight-limited volume | Per load | Binds | Loads for 120 cu yd |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy material (2,700 lb/cu yd) | 32,000 ÷ 2,700 = 11.9 cu yd | 11.9 cu yd | Weight | 11 |
| Light material (1,800 lb/cu yd) | 32,000 ÷ 1,800 = 17.8 cu yd | 14.0 cu yd | Volume | 9 |
Same truck, same job, 2 extra loads — because the heavy material fills the weight rating at 11.9 yards while the body could take 14. Bid the heavy material on the body volume and the shortfall is 22% of the trips.
What manufacturers publish for their bodies
These are dump bodies, not trucks. Each row is a body that a manufacturer lists on its own site, with the figure as printed. A body’s rated volume says what fits in the body. It does not say what a truck may legally carry: payload depends on the chassis, the axle configuration, the options fitted and the road limit above. The pages were read on 29 September 2026 and manufacturers change them, so confirm any figure you rely on with the maker.
| Body | Length | Volume, cu yd | Body weight | What else the page prints |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crysteel E-Tipper, light duty, carbon steel | 8′ to 12′ | 2.2 to 5.4 | Not found on the page | Rigid or folding sides. The page keeps its specification table behind a distributor login, so the length steps and side heights are not reproduced. |
| Crysteel S-Tipper, light duty, stainless steel | 8′1″, 9′, 9′6″, 10′, 10′6″, 11′, 11′6″, 12′ | 2.2 to 5.4 | Not found on the page | Side heights 10″ to 22″; inner and outer width 87″ and 96″. |
| Crysteel Contractor, Standard Duty | 12′ to 20′ | 3.7 to 11.1 | 2,251 to 3,308 lb | Split fold-down sides. The same page’s introduction says “5-7 yd³” with 14″ side heights, so the page carries two different ranges for this body. |
| Crysteel Contractor, Heavy Duty | 12′ to 18′ | 3.7 to 11.1 | 3,150 to 4,884 lb | ¼″ AR floor. The page states the ST4000 hoist is no longer available with this body. |
| Crysteel Select, built to order (square or elliptical) | 10′ to 21.5′ in 6″ steps | 5 to 20 | Not found on the page | Carbon or stainless steel; the page’s summary line also names AR steel. Side heights adjust in 2″ steps. |
| Rugby Contractor | 12′3″, 14′3″, 16′3″ | 4 to 6 | 2,217 to 2,780 lb | Side heights 17″; double-door sides with a removable center post. |
| Rugby Titan | 10′ or 12′ | 4 to 8 | 1,875 to 2,500 lb | Side heights 24″ or 30″. |
None of these pages says whether its volume is struck or heaped, or what the two ends of a range stand for; that was not found in the pages reviewed. Do not read the top of a range as a full load or the bottom as an empty one. Ask the maker which figure a given body was rated at.
Same length, different volume
Length alone does not fix a body’s volume. Crysteel’s Contractor literature, a 2015 sheet on its own site, lists two bodies at every length. They differ in width and in front, side and rear height, and the printed volume differs with them: a 12 ft body is 3.7–5.3 cu yd at one height and 3.9–6.7 at another, and a 20 ft body is 6.2–8.9 or 6.4–11.1. The sheet prints one capacity for its Standard Duty and Heavy Duty models alike; only the body weight differs, by 899 to 1,576 lb. A heavier body leaves less of a truck’s rated weight for the load, by the payload arithmetic above.
| Length | Width in/out, in | Front/side/rear height, in | Volume, cu yd | Weight, Standard / Heavy Duty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 ft | 87/96 | 42/14/20 | 3.7–5.3 | 2,251 / 3,150 lb |
| 12 ft | 91/100 | 52/14/24 | 3.9–6.7 | 2,297 / 3,250 lb |
| 14 ft | 87/96 | 42/14/20 | 4.3–6.2 | 2,525 / 3,544 lb |
| 14 ft | 91/100 | 52/14/24 | 4.5–7.7 | 2,579 / 3,660 lb |
| 16 ft | 87/96 | 42/14/20 | 5.0–7.1 | 2,760 / 3,929 lb |
| 16 ft | 91/100 | 52/14/24 | 5.2–8.9 | 2,822 / 4,061 lb |
| 18 ft | 87/96 | 42/14/20 | 5.6–8.1 | 2,995 / 4,326 lb |
| 18 ft | 91/100 | 52/14/24 | 5.8–10 | 3,065 / 4,474 lb |
| 20 ft | 87/96 | 42/14/20 | 6.2–8.9 | 3,230 / 4,720 lb |
| 20 ft | 91/100 | 52/14/24 | 6.4–11.1 | 3,308 / 4,884 lb |
This is a 2015 sheet marked “Specifications subject to change”, and it lists a 20 ft body with a hoist that the current product page says is no longer offered with the Contractor. It shows how volume varies with a body’s dimensions. It is not a current catalogue, and it does not say what the two ends of each range mean.
Why there is no table by truck class
A table of “dump truck capacities” by class, such as tandem or tri-axle, would need a body volume, a payload and a road limit at once. The truck-class figures found on dealer and hauler pages contradict one another, so none is published here.
- Body volume varies by body, not by truck class. Two trucks on the same chassis can carry bodies that differ by several yards.
- Payload varies with the chassis, the axle configuration, the options fitted and the fuel on board. It is on the label and the scale, and nowhere else.
- The binding limit depends on the material, so a volume figure alone is not a capacity. A table of body volumes would be read as a table of loads, and it is not one.
- State weight rules differ from the federal ones on non-Interstate roads. The number that applies is the one for the road the truck is on.
How Calcumetryx handles it
The dirt hauling calculator asks for the body volume, the payload and the material density, works out both limits and tells you which one binds — then gives the load count on the binding one. Leave the density blank and it reports the volume-bound count and says the weight check is missing, rather than assuming a density for you.
Two smaller jobs sit either side of it. Turning a tonnage on a ticket into yards, or the yards in a body into tons, is the cubic yards to tons calculator, which takes your material’s density rather than supplying one. Getting the volume of the area you are filling or digging in the first place is the cubic yard calculator or, for a pit with sloped sides, the excavation calculator.
- 23 CFR § 658.17 — Weight — Code of Federal Regulations, via Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
- E-Tipper | Light Dump Bodies — Crysteel Manufacturing, Inc.
- S-Tipper | Light Dump Bodies — Crysteel Manufacturing, Inc.
- Contractor | Medium & Heavy Duty — Crysteel Manufacturing, Inc.
- Select Dump Bodies | Medium & Heavy Duty — Crysteel Manufacturing, Inc.
- Contractor Dump Bodies | Medium & Heavy Duty — Rugby Manufacturing Co.
- Titan Dump Bodies | Medium & Heavy Duty — Rugby Manufacturing Co.
- Contractor — Medium & Heavy Duty Dump Bodies (product literature, © 2015) — Crysteel Manufacturing, Inc. (a TBEI company at the time)
- Payload, weight-limited volume and load count are defined by the formulas above — Arithmetic — verifiable by hand
Put it to work
All construction calculators →Work out the loose volume first, then the loads — with your truck’s figures and your material’s density.