How many cubes in a ton?
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Cubes per ton: the table
In South Africa a “cube” is one cubic metre (m³). How many cubes make a ton depends on what the material is and how wet it is. These are loose weights, the way material sits in a tipper or a stockpile, from Caterpillar's material reference tables.
| Material | t per loose cube | Cubes per ton | t per cube in the ground (bank) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sand, dry | 1.42 | 0.70 | 1.60 |
| Sand, damp | 1.69 | 0.59 | 1.90 |
| Sand, wet | 1.84 | 0.54 | 2.08 |
| Soil (packed earth, dug out, dry) | 1.51 | 0.66 | 1.90 |
| Soil (earth, wet, just dug) | 1.60 | 0.63 | 2.02 |
| Loam | 1.25 | 0.80 | 1.54 |
| Topsoil | 0.95 | 1.05 | 1.37 |
| Clay | 1.66 | 0.60 | 2.02 |
| Gravel, dry | 1.51 | 0.66 | 1.69 |
| Gravel, pit-run (natural, as dug) | 1.93 | 0.52 | 2.17 |
| Stone and gravel, 6–50 mm, dry | 1.69 | 0.59 | 1.90 |
| Crushed stone | 1.60 | 0.63 | 2.67 |
| Rubble, clean (concrete, brick, soil) | about 1.07 | about 0.94 | – |
The rubble figure is the Kansas Department of Health and Environment's factor for clean rubble (1,800 lb per cubic yard), which works out to about 1.07 t a cube. Rubble that's mostly broken concrete runs heavier. Treat every figure as a guide: moisture, grain size and compaction all change the weight, so weigh a load when the exact tonnage matters.
Loose, bank and compacted: why the number changes
The same material has three volumes:
- Bank: as it lies in the ground, before digging.
- Loose: after digging, when air gaps open up and it swells. This is what fills a tipper.
- Compacted: after a roller has squeezed it back down, usually as dense as bank or denser.
| Material | Loose cubes from 1 bank cube |
|---|---|
| Sand, gravel | about 1.12 |
| Clay | about 1.22 |
| Earth (packed soil) | about 1.25 |
| Topsoil | about 1.43 |
| Crushed or blasted rock | about 1.67 |
So when you dig a foundation, you cart away more cubes than the hole holds. A trench 20 m long, 0.6 m wide and 1 m deep is 12 bank cubes of earth, about 15 loose cubes in the tipper: one 10 cube load and one 6 cube load.
How many tons in a 6, 10 and 18 cube tipper?
A tipper's legal payload is set by its axles under the National Road Traffic Regulations, not by its body. From the maker's spec sheets for common models: a two-axle 6 cube (Tata LPK 1518 or similar) carries about 10.9 t, a three-axle 10 cube (Tata Prima 2528.K or similar) about 17 t, and a four-axle 8x4 with a 19 m³ body (Tata Prima 3338.K or similar) about 21.8 t.
| Material | 6 cube | 10 cube | 18 cube |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sand, dry | 8.5 t | 14.2 t | 25.6 t (over) |
| Sand, damp | 10.1 t | 16.9 t | 30.4 t (over) |
| Sand, wet | 11.0 t (just over) | 18.4 t (over) | 33.1 t (over) |
| Soil, dry | 9.1 t | 15.1 t | 27.2 t (over) |
| Crushed stone | 9.6 t | 16.0 t | 28.8 t (over) |
| Gravel, pit-run | 11.6 t (over) | 19.3 t (over) | 34.7 t (over) |
| Rubble, clean | 6.4 t | 10.7 t | 19.2 t |
| Topsoil | 5.7 t | 9.5 t | 17.1 t |
The pattern: a 6 or 10 cube carries a full body of most dry materials. Wet sand and natural pit-run gravel go by weight instead, about 9 cubes of wet sand or 8.8 cubes of pit-run gravel in a 10 cube. An 18 cube is a volume truck: full of topsoil or rubble, but only about 13.6 cubes of crushed stone or 15 cubes of dry sand before it reaches its legal mass.
Hire rates for each size are on tipper truck hire; the 10 cube costs R3,700–R5,250 a day with a driver, and details for the bigger truck are on 18 cube tipper hire. For more than about 22 t a trip, a 34 ton side tipper carries about 34 t on public roads, and an ADT works off-road; on big digs an excavator does the loading.
How many cubes do I need?
Cubes = area in m² × thickness in metres. For a slab, driveway or layer:
| Thickness | Cubes per m² | Cubes for 100 m² |
|---|---|---|
| 50 mm | 0.05 | 5 |
| 100 mm | 0.10 | 10 |
| 150 mm | 0.15 | 15 |
| 200 mm | 0.20 | 20 |
| 300 mm | 0.30 | 30 |
Those are compacted cubes. Loose material shrinks when it's rolled, so order more: natural gravel weighs 1.93 t a loose cube and 2.17 t in the ground, so you need at least 12% more loose gravel than the compacted volume.
Worked example: a 60 m² gravel driveway at 150 mm thick is 9 compacted cubes, so about 10 loose cubes. At 1.93 t a cube that's about 19.5 t, more than a 10 cube tipper's legal load: one 18 cube load or two 10 cube loads. Compacting it needs a roller, and spreading it a TLB or a bobcat.
Stone, sand and concrete priced per cube or per ton
Quarries and sand pits sell 13 mm and 19 mm stone, crusher dust, river sand, building sand and dump rock either by the ton or by the cube, and prices vary by quarry and region. To compare a per-ton price with a per-cube price, multiply by the weight of a cube: for 13 mm or 19 mm crushed stone, a loose cube weighs about 1.6 t, so the price per cube is about 1.6 times the price per ton. For crusher dust and dump rock, ask the quarry for its own loose weight per cube; it depends on the grading.
Ready-mix concrete is different: it's priced per cube of fresh concrete and arrives in a mixer truck, not a tipper. For mixing concrete on site, see concrete mixer hire.
Delivery is a separate cost from the material. A 6 cube tipper load in Gauteng is R1,250–R1,900 on a short run, and a 10 cube with a driver R3,700–R5,250 a day.
Rubble: tons, cubes and tip fees
Clean rubble weighs about 1.07 t a loose cube, so 6 cubes of rubble is about 6.4 t and 10 cubes about 10.7 t. Landfills charge by mass on their weighbridge: the City of Cape Town's disposal tariffs, for example, are per ton measured at the facility. Multiply the tip fee per ton by the tons above to budget the dumping, then add the tipper.
A TLB loads the rubble and a tipper carts it: see tipper truck hire for prices, demolition for bigger jobs, and plant hire rates for every machine. Booking is explained on how it works.
WhatsApp us your load for a tipper priceQuestions people ask
How many cubes are in 1 ton of sand?
About 0.7 cubes of dry, loose sand. Damp sand is heavier, so a ton is about 0.59 cubes, and wet sand about 0.54 cubes. Sand bought by the cube and sand bought by the ton are only the same deal if you know how wet it is.
How many tons is a 6 cube tipper?
Level-full, a 6 cube tipper carries about 8.5 t of dry sand, 9.6 t of crushed stone, 9.1 t of dry soil or 5.7 t of topsoil. A typical two-axle 6 cube truck has a legal payload of about 10.9 t, so it carries a full body of almost anything except wet sand.
How many cubes in a square metre?
A square metre is an area, so it depends on the thickness: multiply the square metres by the depth in metres. At 100 mm thick, 1 m² is 0.1 cubes; at 150 mm, 0.15 cubes. So 50 m² of gravel at 150 mm thick is 7.5 cubes compacted.
Is a cube the same as a ton?
No. A cube is a volume (one cubic metre); a ton is a mass (1,000 kg). They only match for material weighing 1 t a cube, which is close to topsoil (0.95 t) and clean rubble (about 1.07 t). Sand, stone and soil weigh 1.4–1.9 t a cube.
How many cubes of soil come out of a hole?
More than the hole. Soil swells when it's dug: a cube of packed earth in the ground becomes about 1.25 loose cubes, clay about 1.2, and blasted rock about 1.67. So a 10 cube hole in earth fills about 12.5 cubes of tipper: one full 10 cube load plus about 2.5 cubes more.
Related
Sources we checked
- Caterpillar earthwork volumes reference tables (loose and bank material weights, load factors)
- Kansas Department of Health and Environment Policy 10-02, C&D waste volume-to-weight factors
- Tata LPK 1518 6 m³ tipper leaflet (GVM and tare)
- Tata Prima 2528.K 10 m³ tipper leaflet (GVM and tare)
- Tata Prima 3338.K 8x4 leaflet (GVM, tare, 19 m³ body)
- National Road Traffic Regulations reg 240, axle massload limits
- City of Cape Town, solid waste disposal facility tariff notice 2026/27
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