Empty 20' Shipping Container Weight?

[IllMarty1]

Anyone know what these weigh? Thinking about a new deck over trailer, and may want to have ability to load container on it.

Marty

[MrJimi]

The weight is written on the back of all the ones I see, I hope you have a long and strong trailer
not sure about weight, I will vary, maybe Sandman2234 will chime in

[brandoro]

I looked at one and it was 4700lbs empty. Reason I looked was to see if my 2X3500lb axle trailer would carry one. Probably not worth taking the chance as it would be difficult to load/unload and would most likey cause some damage to the trailer since my trailer is not a deck over. Think I'll pay someone with a truck to bring me one. They tell me that most people get a car hauler with the hydraulic deck to move them, easier to unload that way.

[firedog]

The 20 footers will generally run from about 4400 to 5200 lbs. (empty of course)

[powerstroke444e]

If you plan on picking up one in a shipping yard most companies will not let you haul them on a small trailer. Most yards require over the top ties & chains @ all 4 corners. I have hauled 20's behind a 1ton & you would be surprised how much air they catch so be ready.

[IllMarty1]

Yep it weighs 4500 lbs. tare. Its actually lighter because on side has 16' garage door on. Would only pull it less than 100 miles one way. If the F350 cant handle it, I have a GMC 7000 dump to handle it.

[MikeD74T]

You can move one easily with a ramp truck. Many tow operators work a rotation & will work cheaper on "off" days. MikeD74T

[gordon21]

You should be able to find almost any tower to haul it 100 miles for about $250. He will back up, slide the ramp back, winch it up and secure it with straps. Two hours later he can set it down exactly where you want it in less than 5 minutes. Compared to the costs of trying to do it yourself, this is a no brainer unless you really do have a lot of big equipment and experience to do this. Your average tow truck can easily go down dirt roads or across fields to the exact place you want the container to set.

Things to worry about if you try to do this:
Damage to your own vehicles such as tranny or engine concerns.
Do you have enough HP in the tow vehicle. A container will have 64 square feet of non aerodynamic frontal area. That is a LOT.
Winching up onto the tow vehicle.
How would you get it off at the destination. Can you place it precisely?
How will you handle crowned roads or sharp turns? (container could twist on an open deck)

I had my container delivered about 120 miles and set into the woods down a driveway we made ourself with the tractor. The path was still dirt with no crusher run yet and only about 12-15' wide. As the tow truck driver backed into the woods, he had to carefully watch for trees. He dropped the back edge within inches of where I marked it for him. He spent about 10 minutes backing, unloading and gathering up his straps. It was a smart $250 that I spent.

Double check the weight. The yard I bought mine from only had 20' models in the 5000# and up range.

The best price for a tower will be a flexible schedule tow at his convienance. This is how you will get it done for about $200 or so.

[patrick_g]

I have two of the 20 footers. Do check the actual weight of yours. There are different height units (one is called high cube and is taller) and weights vary. The selling yards usually have means of picking them up and placing on a trailer so unloading is the issue. Mine were both transported on and unloaded from a semi by a forklift ($500 and this was a monster forklift) inside one of my buildings (14 ft rollup doors at both ends for drive through) however mine were both full and quite heavy.

Empty, I am confident that I could safely load and unload one of them onto and from my 12,000 lb (max gross wt) 18 ft trailer (not deck above so would require cribbing.) I am further confident that I could secure it safely to the trailer and pull it with either of my diesel pickups at or above the minimum interstate speed of 45MPH with no particular consideration for excessive risk to the equipment.

Attempting to drive at or near the upper speed limit would incur those considerations and risks because it is like towing a parachute and HP requirements go up radically for each small increment of increased speed.

So much for my confidence in being ABLE to do it safely. A fair question is, would I go through all the effort (and expense of procuring the required materials) required to set up to do it and the doing of it to save $250. I don't think so. If you didn't have all the required materials and equipment and had to buy any (or most) of it you could find the margin nibbled away to the point you were working for free or maybe even paying more for the opportunity to DIY.

Just for info:

You can move these things around on a concrete floor using some floor jacks on wheels (standard automotive floor jacks) You can jack them up at one end at a time with a pair of jacks at the ends of a beam you have placed transverse at the end. By jacking and cribbing you can raise the container pretty evenly up high enough to back a trailer under it. This requires a heck of a lot of running around and around and back and forth jacking, cribbing, moving jacks, lather rinse repeat, but is doable.

There is no really hard part except for the jillions of repetitions required to get it up high enough using this simple method. It would be wonderful if you had helpers and 4 floor jacks. Railroad ties make pretty good cribbing but other arrangements can be made.

For heaven's sake, if you are thinking of involving concrete blocks in the process, first take out a big life insurance policy in favor of someone you like. Oh, and the helpers need to be able to pick up a floor jack and lay it down at least at the height of your trailer deck, either single handed or with another helpers assistance. They need to be able to stack the cribbing (like playing with Lincoln Logs on steroids.)

Readers Digest synoptic versioin: Pay the $250.

Pat

[powerstroke444e]

With a F350 you should be able to put it on any gooseneck deck over trailer, & pull it all over.