40 x 40 x 40 gaylord box: specs and uses

The compact cube

Forty inches on a side gives about 37 cubic feet, a little less than the standard 48 x 40 x 36. The footprint is smaller than a 48 x 40 pallet, so the box sits on a pallet with some room around it, or on a smaller pallet or skid. Shops that move product on 40 x 40 skids use this box as is.

The rating, and the footprint

The maker's listing for this size is 1,300 lb at triple wall. That is a hundred pounds less than the 48 x 48 sizes and two hundred less than the 48 x 40, in line with a smaller box carrying less. The equal sides mean the walls share the load evenly.

Who buys it

Farms that want a square bin for harvest, plants packing regrind or cartoned goods in a smaller lot, and shops that ship on 40 x 40 skids. A standing box is about 1.37 cubic yards.

A cube on a square pallet

The 40 x 40 footprint suits a square pallet, which is less common in the Boston area than the 48 x 40, so check that your pallets match before asking. Where they do, the cube shape stacks evenly and uses every inch of its footprint.

Ask whether your buyer or seller has square pallets before you commit to a cube of this size.

Check door height before ordering, since a 40-inch cube on a pallet stands taller than it looks.

Stack arithmetic for the 40 x 40 x 40

One standing 40 x 40 x 40 takes 37 cubic feet. Ten of them take 370 cubic feet, or 13.7 cubic yards, which is why a short run of empties from a 40 x 40 footprint dock can fill a container. Knocked down, the same ten collapse into a slab about 9.6 inches thick, assuming three walls and the calculator's default of 0.16 inch of board per layer. Measure your own board before relying on that figure.