How Much Does a Yard of Crusher Run Weigh? Loose vs Packed

How much does a yard of crusher run weigh? The honest answer is two numbers. Loose, the way it sits in a pile or a truck bed, a cubic yard of crusher run usually tips the scale at 2,700 to 3,000 pounds, which is 1.35 to 1.5 short tons. Spread and packed down with a plate compactor or roller, the same stone squeezes into less space, so a finished cubic yard of base weighs about 3,500 to 3,800 pounds, or about 1.75 to 1.9 tons. Which number you use depends on whether you are buying by the yard or by the ton. This guide puts both in one chart, shows the yards-per-ton math and walks through an order for a typical driveway.

The short answer

Loose crusher run: roughly 1.35 to 1.5 tons in each cubic yard (about 100 to 110 pounds per cubic foot).
Compacted crusher run: about 1.75 to 1.9 tons per cubic yard (roughly 130 to 140 pounds per cubic foot, dry).
Half a yard: about 1,350 to 1,500 pounds loose.
One ton is about 0.67 to 0.74 loose cubic yards, or a little over half a yard once it is compacted.
Damp stone weighs more, and you pay for the water when it is sold by the ton. Use your supplier’s figure when you can get it.

What crusher run is, and why it is heavy

Crusher run is crushed rock that has not been screened down to one size. A typical blend runs from about 3/4 inch or 1 inch stone all the way down to fine dust. Because the chips and dust settle into the voids around the bigger rocks, there is much less empty space in a yard of it than in a clean, single-size stone such as #57 stone. Less air means more rock per yard, and more rock means more weight.

You will see it sold under a lot of local names: crush and run, crusher run gravel, dense-graded aggregate (DGA), quarry process or QP, ABC stone, road base, and state spec names such as 21A in Virginia or 21AA in Michigan. The blends are close cousins but not identical, so weights can shift a little from one quarry to the next. Our crusher run driveway guide plans with about 1.5 tons per loose yard, the top of the loose range, which leaves a small cushion. Western and Midwestern versions show up in our guides to Class 2 aggregate base and Class 5 gravel.

Crusher run weight per cubic yard: chart

A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet and a short ton is 2,000 pounds, so pounds per yard is the density times 27, and tons per yard is that number divided by 2,000. Our conversions for the usual range of densities:

100 lb/ft³ (loose, lighter stone): 2,700 pounds a yard, or 1.35 tons; about 0.74 yards in a ton.
105 lb/ft³ (loose, typical): 2,835 pounds a yard, or about 1.42 tons; about 0.71 yards in a ton.
110 lb/ft³ (loose, heavier stone): 2,970 pounds a yard, or about 1.49 tons; about 0.67 yards in a ton.
130 lb/ft³ (compacted): 3,510 pounds a yard, or about 1.76 tons; about 0.57 yards in a ton.
135 lb/ft³ (compacted, typical): 3,645 pounds a yard, or about 1.82 tons; about 0.55 yards in a ton.
140 lb/ft³ (compacted, dense): 3,780 pounds a yard, or 1.89 tons; about 0.53 yards in a ton.

The compacted figures match the dry-weight table the Virginia Department of Transportation publishes for compacted aggregate base, which lists 1.755 tons per cubic yard at 130 lb/ft³ and 1.890 tons at 140 lb/ft³. Metric version: loose crusher run is roughly 1,600 to 1,760 kg per cubic meter and compacted base roughly 2,080 to 2,240 kg per cubic meter.

Loose versus compacted: which number to use

The loose weight is what a yard of crusher run weighs in the truck or the pile. The compacted weight is what a yard of finished base weighs after it has been wetted and packed. The rock does not get heavier when you tamp it; the same tons just fit into a smaller space, so a compacted cubic yard holds more stone.

Buying by the ton? Work out the finished volume of your base, then multiply by a compacted figure such as 1.8 tons per yard. That already covers the shrink.
Buying by the loose yard? Order more yards than the finished hole holds. With loose stone near 1.42 tons per yard and packed stone near 1.82, it takes roughly 1.2 to 1.3 loose yards to make one compacted yard.

Actual in-place density varies more than a chart suggests. In field tests on dense-graded aggregate base layers reported in a Rutgers study for the New Jersey DOT and FHWA (FHWA-NJ-2008-002), dry density readings ran from about 106 to 140 lb/ft³ depending on the job and the test device. How hard you compact, the blend and the stone type all play a part, which is why the order should include some extra.

Wet crusher run weighs more

Crusher run is often loaded damp, and a little water actually helps it pack. Moisture readings in the same New Jersey field tests ranged from about 2 to 10 percent. That water rides along on the scale: at 5 percent, a loose yard of about 2,850 pounds of stone carries roughly another 140 pounds of water. If your load is sold by the ton after a week of rain, you get slightly less rock for the same ticket. Our guide on reading a weight ticket explains the gross, tare and net lines.

How many tons of crusher run do you need?

Cubic feet = length × width × compacted depth, with every measurement converted to feet (4 inches = 0.33 ft, 6 inches = 0.5 ft).
Cubic yards = cubic feet ÷ 27. This is the finished, compacted volume.
Tons = cubic yards × about 1.8 tons per compacted yard, or your supplier’s number.
Add 5 to 10 percent for soft spots, edges and uneven grade.

Example: a 12 × 50 foot driveway built up with 4 inches of packed crusher run needs 600 square feet × 0.33 feet, which is 200 cubic feet. Dividing by 27 gives roughly 7.4 cubic yards of finished base. At 1.82 tons per compacted yard that is about 13.5 tons, or roughly 14.2 to 14.8 tons with the extra. If the yard sells by the loose yard at about 1.42 tons, the same job takes about 9.5 loose yards before the extra.

One ton of crusher run, compacted 4 inches deep, covers about 66 square feet at 1.82 tons per yard. The crushed stone calculator lets you enter your own tons-per-yard figure, and the crusher run driveway guide covers depth, lifts and crown.

Hauling it yourself

A loose yard of crusher run, at about 2,700 to 3,000 pounds, is more than many half-ton pickups are rated to carry. Check the payload figure on the sticker inside the driver’s door before you ask the loader to fill the bed, and remember that the weight of passengers and a toolbox counts too. A small utility trailer has the same problem; read its rated capacity, not the size of the box. For bigger jobs a delivered load is usually easier, and our page on dump truck capacity in tons lists typical truck sizes.

For smaller amounts, a 5-gallon bucket holds about two-thirds of a cubic foot, so a bucket of loose crusher run weighs roughly 65 to 75 pounds, which is about as much as most people want to carry.

Crusher run compared with other base and gravel

Clean washed stone such as #57: the gaps between same-size stones stay open, so it hardly compacts and its placed weight stays close to its loose weight. Crusher run, by contrast, gains a lot of weight per yard when it is packed. See gravel weight per yard.
Crushed stone in general: covered in how much a yard of crushed stone weighs.
Asphalt millings: land in a similar loose range, about 1.35 to 1.7 tons per yard in our millings weight guide. For how the two compare on a driveway, see asphalt millings vs crusher run.
Slag: its weight depends on which furnace it came from, so do not swap in a crusher run figure; see how much a yard of slag weighs.

Questions people ask

How much does a yard of crusher run weigh in pounds?

About 2,700 to 3,000 pounds loose, as it comes off the truck, and about 3,500 to 3,800 pounds once it is wetted and compacted into a finished base.

How much does half a yard of crusher run weigh?

Roughly 1,350 to 1,500 pounds loose. That is already close to or over the payload rating of many half-ton pickups, so check the door sticker before loading.

How many yards is a ton of crusher run?

About 0.67 to 0.74 loose cubic yards. Once compacted, a ton fills only about 0.53 to 0.57 cubic yards, because packing squeezes out the air.

Is crush and run the same as crusher run?

Yes. Crush and run, crusher run, dense-graded aggregate, quarry process, ABC stone and state names like 21A are all crushed stone blended from about 3/4 inch down to dust. Blends vary a little by region and quarry.

How much crusher run does a driveway need, in tons?

Find the finished volume first: length times width times packed depth, in feet, then divide that by 27. Each finished cubic yard takes about 1.8 tons. For a 600 square foot drive packed 4 inches thick, that comes to about 13.5 tons, plus 5 to 10 percent for waste.

Does wet crusher run weigh more?

Yes. Crusher run is often loaded damp, and the water is weighed with the stone. At 5 percent moisture a loose yard carries roughly 140 extra pounds of water.

Related guides

Open the crushed stone calculator →

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