When you’re buying or selling equipment, you care about its capacities. How much can that Telehandler lift? What’s the reach of this Excavator? How efficient is the machine?
If you’re shipping heavy equipment you also need to know about the specifications and dimensions.
This can help you to understand how much deck space the piece will take up on the trailer bed. Or if the load needs a specialized trailer for example, the machine being over dimensional or particularly heavy. Take a look at out trailer information page for a better idea on the many different types.
Most people don’t know off hand the dimensions of their heavy equipment. That’s why you can spend a lot of wasted time having to look them up.
People who regularly ship a variety of equipment have a go-to source for checking heavy equipment specifications and dimensions.
Construction equipment size guides
Several construction equipment size guides are available online. These are very useful for checking equipment specifications and dimensions.
Equipment auction company, Ritchie Bros., provides nearly 16,000 specs on the most popular construction, farm, forestry and mining equipment via the company’s equipment specification guide. It’s called Ritchie Specs (formally Ritchie Wiki).
A number of construction publications also offer construction equipment size guides to help you.
- Equipment World offers a heavy equipment specs and dimension tool for more than 3,500 separate equipment models. It features 45 equipment categories with more than 150 individual equipment manufacturers.
- Construction Equipment Guide offers more than 430,000 specifications for around 20,000 models. Because of the variety on the site you can find construction and farm equipment specifications. As well as trucks and trailer specifications.
- Hot Line Guides offers a construction equipment guide that is available as a print publication or digital subscription. So you don’t have to search the web for heavy equipment specs and dimensions.
- Looking for farm equipment specifications? Options can include Lectura Spces, which includes specs for more than 30 equipment categories.
- And Tractor Data, which provides specs on nearly 16,000 farm, lawn and industrial tractors.
Validating dimensions for heavy equipment
Equipment specs should be straight forward, but they’re often not.
That can be because looking up the same equipment specifications and dimensions using different guides will sometimes provide conflicting answers.
For example, Construction Equipment Guide lists the ground clearance height for the Case 580 N backhoe loader at 1.3 feet, whereas Ritchie Specs lists it at 1.25 feet.
Although this example isn’t pertinent to hauling equipment, it shows the inconsistencies that are possible when using an equipment specs tool.
When equipment specs tools provide conflicting results, try looking up the equipment specifications and dimensions published by the manufacturer. In this case, the correct ground height of the Case 580 N is 1.25 feet.
Minding machine modifications
Using the equipment spec guide provided by a manufacturer is usually a great starting place for machine spec information. But you have to consider any changes made to the machine by you or any previous owners.
If you’re buying the equipment, ask the seller if they made any modifications to the machine and if they know of any modifications made by previous owners.
For example, putting tires with thick treads will make a machine taller and wider. This can become a problem when travelling under bridges and overpasses.
Especially if the height of the machine almost exceeds common bridge clearance. So now the few inches added by the new tires will put it above the maximum bridge clearance height.
The addition of laser sensors can also add height to the machine when they are placed on the roof of the machine.
An extended boom will alter the transport length of the machine.
Equipment options
Also, consider the attachment. It will add to the transport length of the machine, as well as the weight.
If for example the machine is equipped with a snow blade, it could be even wider than the machine. So sometimes removing the attachment becomes necessary to allow for it plus the machine to fit on a trailer.
Ultimately, if there’s an issue with the shipment due to equipment being too wide or long or tall, the hauler will be responsible.
If they suspect the equipment is bigger than what their trailer will safely and legally haul, they won’t take your equipment. So it’s pertinent to have accurate heavy equipment specs and dimensions before you arrange transport.
Trustworthy dimensions for heavy equipment
Trusted Dispatch is a heavy haul load board service. It offers heavy equipment specs and dimensions for the largest number of equipment types.
The company offers spec information on more than 60,000 agricultural, construction, forestry, mining and oil and gas equipment.
This bank of equipment specs is larger than all of the construction equipment guides listed above.
Users of the Trusted Dispatch Equipment Specs tool can find information on the most popular original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), such as AGCO, Bobcat, Claas, Case, Caterpillar, JCB, John Deere, New Holland, Volvo and more.
They can also find information about all sorts of equipment, such as backhoes, combines, dozers, excavators, loaders, tractors, and more.
Using the tool could not be easier. Just type in the model of the equipment you wish to ship, and the platform automatically populates the equipment’s length, width, height and dimensions.
Trusted Dispatch’s Equipment Specs tool provides only equipment specs needed for shipping the equipment, so there’s no need to search through multiple PDF pages of specifications to find the four specifications you want (weight, height, length and width).
Another great benefit to the tool is that it can be used in conjunction with getting a quote, thereby collapsing two processes into one.
Get a free – instant quote
You can easily and quickly get a quote on shipping the equipment on Trusted Dispatch’s platform.
From the Equipment Specs tool web page (or app), click on the “From” tab (upper left) and input the equipment’s pick-up location.
Then click the “Next” button and input the equipment’s drop-off location. Click the “Next” button again and verify your load’s dimensions.
If you need to send multiple items, there is an opportunity to do that here by clicking on the “Information” button and follow the instructions.
For large Items that require multiple loads, input dimensions for the single item going on one load, then post duplicate loads when prompted.
For small items being shipped on a single load, input the total dimensions of all the items stacked in the desired orientation.
You can use the Trusted Dispatch Equipment Specs tool to find the dimensions of each item, but you will have to input the totals for each dimension and the total weight.
Once you’ve completed this process, or you’re shipping only one item, simply click on the “Next” button and enter your email address.
Once you’ve entered your email address and clicked the “Enter” button, a quote populates on your screen and gets sent to the entered email address.
