How many shovelfulls to a cubic yard?

[hwp]

I have always used a rule of thumb that there approx. 150 heaping round mouth shovelfulls in a cubic yard. But now I'm wondering how good an estimate that is. I used the last of the salt from my salt box this morning so neede to get some more. I thought I built my salt and sand boxes to hold about 1.25 cubic yards each. So I went off and bought a "cubic yard" of salt, brought it home and filled my salt box (220 shovelfulls). But I still had about 1/3 unloaded so I put the rest in the other side in which I usually store a sand/salt mixture. It had been about 10% full but now is nearly half full. By my count I unloaded about 320 heaping round mouth shovelfulls. I can't believe the vendor was off by that much so I must be. His measurement was a level scoopful on his loader. I have always thought that supplier's volumes were generous but never checked on them before. Anyone have a better estimate of the number of round mouth shovelfulls to a cubic yard?

 

[MossRoad]

Since your shovel is probably different than my shovel, there is no way to tell.

Build a 12" x 12" x 12" cube box and fill it with salt. Multiply the number of shovel fulls by 27 (since there are 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard) and that will be a good approximation of your situation.

 

[MossRoad]

Also, just re-measure you sand or salt box to see how big it really is. Maybe it is different than you recollect?

Also, just curious... how much does a yard of salt cost? I've never bought anything over a 30 pound bag of the stuff.

 

[MrJimi]

Or ya could just put a garbage bag in a milk crate,and fill it that should be very close to a cubic foot, measure first

 

[MadReferee]

The dozer bucket in the picture is 1.125 cubic yards. It's not all that much. Probably less that 150 heaping shovel fulls.

 

[LBrown59]

I don't know that.But my bucket on my BH holds 5 shovelfulls

 

[AlanB]

I could be off base here, but I bet it has more to do with what a "yard" is in your neck of the woods then anything else

While it sounds ridiculous as it is a truly duplicable, measureble quantity, we deal with it constantly in mulch that this guys Yard is smaller then that guys.

I thought about using some cubic yard boxes to show people, but in mulch (and I am guessing it is much the same with salt) people really don't care, they just know they got "more" or a better yard, over at so and so's place.

And as others have said, if you really want to know, then I would statisticly sample it as others have said. The bigger the sample, the more accurate you will be. When you are counting it in hand shovelfulls though, I would expect a wide range of numbers based upon what is "full"

My thought would be shop around to different suppliers a bit, and see who, and what loaders have the best "yard" available.

As an example, with our dump trailer, we have had it loaded with "4 yards" and told them to stop as it was rounded over the top of the sides, and we have also had "6 yards" and not been up to the top of the sides. (my trailer is actually 4.4 yards level with the top of the sides.

 

[DUMBDOG]

The problem is that you are using an American shovel, which are smaller than the Canadian counterparts. The Canadian yards are also larger than the American yards.

Seriously, do you have cubic yards up there, I though it would have been cubic meters?

 

[hwp]

I will try to answer some of your questions. I decided to take the measurements of my salt box so that I could calculate the actual volume and it turns out it is just over one cubic yard, so I guess the vendor must have a 1 1/4 cubic yard bucket on his loader. I prefer to work in metric because it is so much easier to work with but I think most of the readers on this board are more comfortable with English measurements so chose to use them. Around here some of the older vendors still work in cubic yards, ready-mix concrete is sold by the cubic metre and sand and gravel is sold by the tonne (1000 kilograms or 2240 pounds). The vendor was using a John Deere loader and I assumed he had a one yard bucket, but if he had a one cubic metre bucket that would explain the difference.

My round mouth shovels are the standard construction type. I think that most round mouth shovels like those use in construction are a fairly standard size, maybe not, but I think so, so there shouldn't be much variation between capacities of shovels. I hoped that someone in construction would have an answer to this.

BTW I use a grinder to keep the cutting edge sharp. I know the purists use a file but I'm too old and lazy to do that. But I admit that a file does give a better edge.

I paid CDN$88 (approx. US$75) for the "cubic yard" of salt. My guess is that salt weighs about 3000lbs/cubic yard, similar to sand and gravel, so there is the equivalent of about 100 30lb. bags in a cubic yard. My driveway is about 16,000 square feet and a cubic yard is enough to salt it 6 - 10 times.

 

[NewToy]

I could be off base here, but I bet it has more to do with what a "yard" is in your neck of the woods then anything else

While it sounds ridiculous as it is a truly duplicable, measureble quantity, we deal with it constantly in mulch that this guys Yard is smaller then that guys.

I thought about using some cubic yard boxes to show people, but in mulch (and I am guessing it is much the same with salt) people really don't care, they just know they got "more" or a better yard, over at so and so's place.

And as others have said, if you really want to know, then I would statisticly sample it as others have said. The bigger the sample, the more accurate you will be. When you are counting it in hand shovelfulls though, I would expect a wide range of numbers based upon what is "full"

My thought would be shop around to different suppliers a bit, and see who, and what loaders have the best "yard" available.

As an example, with our dump trailer, we have had it loaded with "4 yards" and told them to stop as it was rounded over the top of the sides, and we have also had "6 yards" and not been up to the top of the sides. (my trailer is actually 4.4 yards level with the top of the sides.

It all goes back to the size of YOUR shovel. You have to make sure that the guy's you buy yard goods from have the big shovels.

John