Type of vehicle available to haul materials
Consider the following if you are choosing whether to use a pickup truck or trailer to haul bulk materials. Hauling bulk materials is best left up to open pickup truck beds and trailers. Enclosed vans and suv’s are OK to haul a few tubs,or buckets of bulk material, but shoveling stone, mulch or soil directly in the back of such a vehicle is not recommended. You wont be able to haul much and it will leave a big mess in your vehicle.
Weight of materials needed
First and formost is weight, weight of the matieral to be hauled and the weight capacity of the vehicle. Bulk products such as stone and soil are deceptively heavy. Soil usually weighs 2000 to 2400 lbs per cubic yard. Stone weighs in at 2600 to 3000 lbs per yard. Consider how many cubic yards of material is needed and what the weight capacity of your truck or trailer is.
In general, most small pickups have a weight capacity of about 1000 to 1500 lbs. Which means if your getting soil or stone in a small pickup 1/3 or ½ a cubic yard will be a good load. Full size pickups usually have weight capacities of 1500 to 2500 lbs, so a ½ cubic yard to ¾ of a cubic yard soil or stone is typically a safe load.
Volume Needed
Volume capacity is another consideration. A full size pickup truck with a full length 8’ bed will hold 3 cubic yards heaping full. A small pickup truck is usually good for up to 1 ½ yds with a regular sized bed.
Abuse and cleaning your vehicle
Your pride and joy pickup truck is going to get dirty and will endure some scratches in the bed when you use it to haul materials. If you are meticulous about your truck the cleanup of bark, soil and stone can take awhile. If you have a trailer with a very old undercarriage consider the problem involved if the axle breaks while on the way home while hauling 2000 lbs worth of bulk stone.
Ordering A Delivery
Consider when do you need it, products, quantity and dumping location.
Dumping Location
One possible advantage of using your own pickup truck or trailer maybe that you are able to get the material closer to where it is going to be used. When the decision is made to get a delivery, consider dump spot options. Bulk materials are delivered by dump trucks. These trucks are heavy duty special purpose vehicles unlike pickup trucks. The ability of these types of trucks to maneuver on a residential site is limited. They will leave compacted ruts in a lawn, and will likely tear up turf if a turn is required in the lawn area. Also the dump box goes very high in order to dump so trees overhead wires etc can effect where the load can be dumped.
Most of our loads of stone or mulch are dumped in the driveway to limit damage to existing lawn and landscaping. Also, driveways are susceptible to cracking when a dump truck drives off the side of them to access another area. Typically a cement or tarmac driveway which was constructed properly will not get damaged when the truck backs up and stays on the drive. Consider using an alternative dumping spot if your driveway is new. New concrete is susceptible to cracking. Consider that a 15 cubic yard dump truck of soil weighs aproxiametly 60,000 lbs or 30 tons. Your car weighs about 2 tons.
Another consideration is that it is easier to clean up a driveway and it is easier to shovel materials off a driveway. Recovering all of your delivered stone and mulch out of grass or a landscape bed may be difficult.
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Boulders