How Much Fits in a Pickup Truck Bed?
A 6.5 ft bed holds about 2.2 cubic yards level with the sides. See bags, boxes and mulch to scale below.
Drag to turn. The figure is a 5 ft 9 in person.
Pickup bed, 6.5 ft in numbers
- Inside size drawn: 6.5 ft long × 5.3 ft wide × 1.75 ft high
- Volume: 60 cubic feet · 2.2 cubic yards · 1.7 m³ · 451 gallons
- Medium moving boxes (18 x 18 x 16 in): about 20 by volume
- Full contractor bags (42 gallon, about 5.6 cu ft): about 8 by volume
- 3-seat sofas (84 x 36 x 34 in): about 1 by volume
- Queen mattresses (60 x 80 x 10 in): about 2 by volume
- Refrigerators (36 in wide, kept upright): about 1 by volume
- Washing machines (27 in wide, kept upright): about 4 by volume
- Cubic yards of dirt or mulch (3 x 3 x 3 ft): about 2 by volume
"By volume" is total space divided by item size. Real loads leave gaps; the 3D view above counts how many fit when packed tightly.
Full-size pickup beds come in three common lengths: about 5.5, 6.5 and 8 feet. Most are a little over 5 feet wide between the sides and about 4 feet between the wheel wells, with sides around 20 to 22 inches high.
Level with the top of the sides, a 6.5 foot bed holds roughly 2 cubic yards, a 5.5 foot bed a little under 2 and an 8 foot bed close to 3. That is why landscape suppliers often say a full-size pickup carries about 2 yards of mulch. Heavy material like gravel or wet soil hits the truck’s payload limit well before the bed is full, often at a single cubic yard or less, so check your payload rating.
Use the menu above to switch bed lengths; the drawing ignores wheel wells, so treat the counts as a best case.