Volume, weight and truck size
Add up your furniture and boxes in cubic feet, estimate the weight by a stated convention, and check a truck or container against both its volume and its payload.
Two boxes. The first adds your cubic feet and turns them into an estimated weight. The second checks one truck or container against both numbers, because a truck can have room left and still be over the weight it is rated to carry. Nothing is prefilled: the furniture total comes from your inventory, and the box counts from your box register. Your inventory explains the cubic-foot table, and Moving it yourself explains payload.
Cubic feet and estimated weight
Truck or container fit
Type the total and the estimated weight from the first box, then choose a unit. Choose “My own figures” to use the numbers on a quote, a contract or the label on the truck itself.
The published figures
Each company's own figures, as its pages showed them on November 2, 2026. Room counts are each company's claim, and they disagree with each other; the cubic feet and the payload are the numbers to compare. Specifications vary by make, model and year, so the unit you are given can differ. We list these companies because they publish their figures, not as a recommendation.
| Unit | Cubic feet | Payload or weight limit (lb) | The company's own room claim | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U-Haul cargo van | 246 | 4,030 | U-Haul truck rentals | |
| U-Haul 10 ft | 402 | 2,850 | Studio or 1 bedroom | |
| U-Haul 15 ft | 764 | 6,385 | 2 bedroom apartments and condos | |
| U-Haul 17 ft | 865 | 6,160 | ||
| U-Haul 20 ft | 1,016 | 5,700 | 2 to 3 bedroom homes | |
| U-Haul 26 ft | 1,682 | 12,859 | 3 to 5 bedroom homes | |
| U-Haul 29 ft | 2,057 | 11,939 | 4 to 6 bedroom homes | |
| Penske cargo van | 404 | 3,500 | Up to 1 room | Penske trucks and vans |
| Penske 12 ft | 450 | 3,100 | 1 to 2 rooms | |
| Penske 16 ft | 800 | 4,300 | 2 to 3 rooms | |
| Penske 22 ft | 1,200 | 10,000 | 3 to 5 rooms | |
| Penske 26 ft | 1,700 | 10,000 | 5 to 7 rooms | |
| Budget 26 ft | 1,698 | 9,180 (specification table; the same page's text says up to 12,000) | 5 to 8 rooms, or a 2 to 3 bedroom home | Budget 26-foot truck |
| PODS 8 ft container | up to 402 | 5,200 (a guideline) | PODS container sizes; cubic feet for 12 and 16 ft from PODS commercial storage | |
| PODS 12 ft container | 689 | 4,700 (a guideline) | Fits 500 to 800 square feet | |
| PODS 16 ft container | 827 | 4,200 (a guideline) | 3 to 4 bedroom home | |
| U-Box container | 257 | 2,000 | About a room to a room and a half | U-Box dimensions |
| U-Pack ReloCube | 308 | 2,500 | One room | U-Pack ReloCube size |
Two oddities worth knowing. PODS's larger containers carry less weight than its smaller one, and PODS says the heaviest items should stay under 75 percent of the limit. At the 7-pound convention, a U-Haul 20-foot truck filled to its 1,016 cubic feet would be estimated at about 7,100 pounds, more than its published 5,700; that is our arithmetic on the company's figures, and the door-post label on the real truck settles it.
Assumptions behind the numbers
- Box sizes are the ones sold as 1.0, 1.5, 3.0, 4.5 and 6.0 cubic feet (U-Haul's box pages are one example). Check the size printed on your own boxes.
- The dish pack is taken as about 5.2 cubic feet, the size of one company's dish barrel. California's tariff table counts a dish pack as 10 cubic feet and a wardrobe box as 15 for estimating; we use the wardrobe figure from that table.
- Seven pounds per cubic foot is the estimating convention in California's Maximum Rate Tariff 4 (PDF) and in Washington's Tariff 15-C for moves within those states. A 1998 federal board decision found measured densities of 3.06 to 5.71 pounds per cubic foot. Books are heavier than the average; a sofa is lighter. Change the figure if you have a better one.
Both boxes are arithmetic on estimates. The cubic-foot table and the 7-pound figure are estimating conventions, not measurements of your goods; a mover's survey or a certified scale settles weight. A unit's published payload is the company's figure for its fleet; the label on the door post of the truck you are given, or the container company's stated limit, settles what that unit may carry. Nothing here says a truck is big enough or a load is within its limits.