How much a yard of gravel weighs

A cubic yard is a volume, 27 cubic feet, 0.764554857984 cubic meters. The tons change with the stone, the water in it, and whether the yard was loose in the truck or dense in the ground. This page answers that with the rows that speak to the question. It does not reprint every material on the density chart.

Short tons per cubic yard = kg/m³ × 0.764554857984 ÷ 907.18474. Pounds are short tons × 2,000. Tonnes per yard are kg/m³ × 0.764554857984 ÷ 1,000. At 1,600 kg/m³ the yard is 1,223.29 kg, which is 1.35 short tons and 1.22 tonnes. Leave the yard box at 1 on the tons to yards calculator and select #57. Those are the result lines.

Loose, wet, dry, and bank

Caterpillar’s earthwork table defines three states. Bank is material as it lies in the natural bank. Loose is material that has been excavated and has swelled. Compact is material that has been compacted and is denser. The common-materials table that follows prints loose and bank. It does not print a compacted-gravel column. The footnote says the weight varies with moisture, grain size, and degree of compaction, and that tests must be made.

The pound gaps are the same kind of difference the density chart already shows for crushed stone: Caterpillar pairs 1,600 kg/m³ with 2,700 lb, and these factors print 2,696.89 lb. Read the calculator when you are on this site. Read Caterpillar’s pair when you are quoting their table. Do not average them.

What this site starts at

#57, clean 3/4, pea gravel, and the sand page start at 1,600 kg/m³, so each of those yards is 1.35 short tons until you change the box. The #57 page also gives a planning range of about 1.35 to 1.5 tons, with limestone near the low end and a wet load of granite or trap rock closer to 1.5. That sentence is not the Caterpillar wet row. The wet 1/4 to 2 inch line at 2,020 kg/m³ converts to 1.70 short tons, and it is a different description. A wet #57 ticket can land anywhere in between. Type the ticket.

Compaction is the other mix-up. Caterpillar’s crushed-stone bank row, 2,670 kg/m³, is the in-place figure in that table, and the load factor printed beside it is 0.60. It is not the number this site uses for a packed driveway. The driveway calculator says to type 2,000 kg/m³ when a layer is a compacted base. That is 1.69 short tons per yard. Left at 1,600, the same 10 by 40 foot, 6 inch layer reads 9.99 tons instead of 12.49. 304’s planning default is 1,920 kg/m³, 1.62 short tons. Class 5’s planning default is 2,400 kg/m³, 2.02 short tons, which that page calls the heavy end on purpose. All three are labeled defaults. The density chart says which rows have a published table behind them.

One short ton of the 1,600 kg/m³ stone is 0.74 cubic yards. Ten short tons is 7.42 cubic yards, 5.67 cubic meters, and 9.07 tonnes. A short ton is 2,000 lb, 907.18474 kg. A tonne is 1,000 kg, so 10 short tons is not 10 tonnes. Shape math, with no material chosen, is the cubic yard calculator. A known area of #57 is the #57 calculator, which starts at the 1.35 ton yard.

Which number to order with

The truck is paid on the loose yard or the loose ton, whichever the quarry’s ticket uses. Caterpillar’s loose crushed-stone row and this site’s #57 start are the same 1,600 kg/m³, so a quoted loose yard of that stone is the 1.35 short ton line until the ticket says otherwise. The bank row at 2,670 kg/m³, 2.25 short tons by this site’s factors, is the in-place figure in Caterpillar’s table. Ordering 2.25 tons for every loose yard you need would buy the bank weight and deliver a loose volume that does not match the hole. Use the loose row for the truck. Use the bank row only when someone is asking what that stone weighs still in the ground, and even then the footnote wants a test.

Dry gravel at 1,510 kg/m³ and the wet 1/4 to 2 inch row at 2,020 kg/m³ are not a before-and-after on one load of #57. They are different lines in the table, and the wet line is a wider rock. The #57 page’s planning sentence, about 1.35 to 1.5 tons with a wet load toward the top of that band, is the range to keep for that product. A wet ticket at 1.5 tons is 1.5 ÷ 1.35, about 1.11 times the default. Type the tons per yard from the ticket into the density only after you convert it, or type the kilograms per cubic meter if that is what the ticket prints. Do not type 1.5 into a box that expects kg/m³.

Pit-run gravel in the same table is 1,930 kg/m³ loose, 1.63 short tons by these factors, against Caterpillar’s 3,250 lb. Pit run is unscreened bank gravel, not washed #57 and not a dense graded base. 304 and class 5 stay on their own pages at 1.62 and 2.02 short tons because those pages chose planning defaults, and the density chart already says class 5 was set at the heavy end on purpose. Concrete at 2,400 kg/m³ is the pour, 2.02 short tons per yard, and it is the wrong row for a gravel order even though the number matches class 5’s default. Sand starts at the same 1,600 as #57 on this site, so a yard of that sand is also 1.35 short tons until the sand calculator density changes. Caterpillar’s own dry loose sand is 1,420 kg/m³, a different row from the gravel lines above.

Sources

• Caterpillar, material density tables for earthwork volumes. Definitions of bank, loose, and compact, and the loose and bank pairs for dry gravel, wet 1/4 to 2 inch gravel, pit-run gravel, and crushed stone. The note says tests must be made.

Frequently asked questions