Cube runs out first, and it is not close
The defaults describe a plain cargo box 90 by 55 by 42 inches — 120.3 cubic feet, of which about 84 is realistically packable once the arches and the shape are allowed for. The stall kit takes 22 of that before a single crate goes in, leaving 62 cubic feet. A 24 by 16 by 12 inch crate is 2.67 cubic feet, so 23 crates fit.
By weight the same vehicle takes 35 crates: 1,400 pounds of payload less 210 for the kit, divided by 34 pounds a full crate. The vehicle runs out of room at 23 crates while it is still 12 crates short of its weight limit. That means every conversation about carrying more produce is a conversation about crate height and stacking, not about the vehicle rating — and a crate two inches shallower does more than anything under the bonnet.
The stall kit is a fifth of the vehicle
Twenty-two cubic feet of canopy, weights, tables and signage is a quarter of the packable space, and it is there on every trip whether you sell out or not. Growers who measure it are usually surprised; growers who do not tend to discover it on the morning they add a second market. It is worth measuring once, because it is the single largest fixed claim on the vehicle and the only one that is the same every week.
The return trip is not half a trip
At the defaults, 154 units go out in 13 crates taking 34.7 cubic feet, and 34 percent come home — 52 units. Those fit in five crates. The other eight are empty, and if they nest to half height they still take 10.7 cubic feet, so the produce side of the return load is 24 cubic feet: 69 percent of the outbound cube for a third of the produce.
This is the thing that catches people who plan to collect something on the way home, or who share a vehicle with another grower and expect to have room by mid-afternoon. The empties do not disappear. Run the defaults with crates that do not nest at all and the return load is 56.7 cubic feet — exactly what went out — against 46.0 with half-height nesting. That 10.7 cubic feet is four crates, which is why crates that stack into each other are worth paying for.
| Crates | Produce cube | With the kit | Weight | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Going out | 13 full | 34.7 cu ft | 56.7 cu ft | 647 lb |
| Coming home | 5 full, 8 nested | 24.0 cu ft | 46.0 cu ft | 392 lb |
Related
What goes in the crates is decided by the farmers market stall break-even calculator, and the morning that fills them is the market harvest pick list calculator. For a load that is limited by volume or weight in a general hauling sense, see the debris hauling trips calculator; for stacking rectangular boxes on a pallet, the pallet load planner. If the run involves several stops rather than one market, the mobile service route calculator covers the driving side.
Questions people ask
Why not just use the published cargo volume for my vehicle?
Because published cargo volume is measured to the roof with nothing in the way, and you cannot pack to it. Wheel arches, a sloping tailgate, a bulkhead and the simple need to reach the bottom crate all take a share, and on most vehicles the realistic figure lands somewhere between 60 and 80 percent. Rather than argue about the number, load the vehicle the way you actually load it, measure what fits, and set the packable share from that.
Should the stall kit really be its own input?
Yes, because it is the one part of the load that never changes and it is usually the largest single item. A canopy with weights, two tables, a scale, signage, bags and a cash box is easily twenty cubic feet and two hundred pounds. If you treat it as part of the produce load you will keep planning trips that do not fit, and if you never measure it you will keep being surprised by the same thing.
What does nesting actually save?
It depends entirely on the crate. Some collapse flat, some nest into each other when the lids are reversed, and some do nothing at all. The three options here are rough shapes rather than measurements, and the right way to use them is to stack eight of your own empties, measure the height, and pick the closest option. At the defaults the difference between full-height empties and half-height ones is about five cubic feet, which is two more full crates.
Does this tell me what I am allowed to carry?
No. It compares your load against the payload rating you entered and stops there. What may be carried on a public road, how it must be secured, whether a trailer changes anything and what licence applies are set by the vehicle rating and by the rules of your state, and none of that is stated on this page. If a load is anywhere near the rating, the sensible move is a scale rather than a spreadsheet.
How do I handle a trailer?
Run the trailer as a second calculation with its own dimensions and its own rating, and keep the stall kit in whichever one it actually travels in. Adding the two cubes together in one calculation will give you a crate count that is right and a trips figure that is wrong, because a trailer does not let you split a load the way a second trip does. Tow ratings and hitch weight are a separate question and not one for this page.