Gravel Weight Calculator

Gravel Weight Calculator turns a volume of gravel into a weight, which is what you need before booking a delivery, checking a trailer against its rating, or pricing an order from a quarry that sells by the ton.

How weight is calculated: Weight = Volume × Bulk Density

Each gravel type has its own bulk density, the mass per unit volume including the air gaps between the stones. That last part is why a cubic yard of gravel weighs nothing like a cubic yard of solid rock. Finer or well-graded material packs tighter and comes out heavier per cubic unit than loose angular stone.

Common gravel densities (approximate):

Practical uses:

• Estimating truck load capacity before ordering
• Calculating whether a vehicle or trailer can carry the load
• Pricing orders (many suppliers sell by the ton)
• Planning structural support for driveways and paths

Coverage tip: For landscaping, a 2 to 3 inch (5 to 8 cm) layer of gravel is standard. A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, so it covers 162 sq ft at 2 inches and 108 sq ft at 3 inches. In metric, a cubic metre covers 20 m² at 5 cm and 12.5 m² at 8 cm.

Example: You need 5 cubic yards of pea gravel. At 1.28 tons/yd³ that is roughly 6.4 short tons, or 5.8 metric tons. Standard tandem dump trucks carry 10 to 14 tons per load, so this fits comfortably in one.

The pickup truck trap

This is the number that surprises people, so it is worth stating plainly: one cubic yard of gravel weighs more than a half-ton pickup is rated to carry. Pea gravel runs about 2,560 lbs a yard and dense-grade base about 3,240, against a payload rating of roughly 1,500 to 2,000 lbs on a typical half-ton. The bed will physically hold two yards without looking full. The truck will not.

If you are hauling it yourself, work backwards from the payload sticker in the driver’s door jamb, not from how much space is left in the bed.

This calculator supports cubic yards, cubic feet, cubic meters, and liters for volume, and displays weight in short tons, metric tons, and kilograms.