Open Top Containers

Description

Bulk goods that have to be loaded by crane need an open top container. It is a straightforward modification of the general purpose shipping container, made for cargo that either will not fit through normal container doors or is simply far quicker to lift in from above. General industrial goods, pipe, steel bar, cable, iron ore, mining materials and logs are all typical loads. We hold both 20 foot and 40 foot open tops, and the choice between them is usually decided by weight rather than volume.

Specifications

• 20ft external: 6.06 × 2.44 × 2.90 m (20 ft × 8 ft × 9 ft 6 in) · internal: 5.80 × 2.29 × 2.66 m
• 40ft external: 12.19 × 2.44 × 2.90 m (40 ft × 8 ft × 9 ft 6 in) · internal: 12.00 × 2.29 × 2.66 m
• Door opening: 2.34 m wide × 2.58 m high (7 ft 8 in × 8 ft 6 in)
• Inside capacity: 32.0 m³ (20ft) · 64.0 m³ (40ft)
• Tare: 2,177 kg (20ft) · 4,300 kg (40ft)
• Max gross: 21,832 kg (20ft) · 28,280 kg (40ft)

Features

• Both top loading and door loading
• TIR approved PVC tarpaulins, or tilts with a removable rear header
• Bow and sealing devices, attachable
• Plywood or hardwood flooring
• Heavy duty lashing rings, set in the floor or in the bottom side rail
• Hard top roof available where extra security and protection are preferred

Note that the roof opening is smaller than the container’s internal dimensions, because the top side rails protrude inward to support the roof bows and stubs. If you are lifting a load in with barely any clearance, measure the roof aperture rather than the internal width.

When a flat rack is the better option

Open tops are often requested for tall, awkward goods, and for genuinely overheight cargo they are the wrong unit. Open top containers do not remain open-topped once loaded. The roof bows serve two purposes: supporting the tarpaulin, and providing structural stability to the container. Neither can be dispensed with, so the sheet has to close over your cargo. If it will not, a flat rack — or a different solution entirely — is what you need, and we would far rather establish that on the phone than after a delivery.

Delivery and cover

Delivery is free across the UK, taking in Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey, and the price shown is the total payable because no VAT is added at checkout. Access scales with size: a 20ft at 2,177 kg tare is a straightforward tilt-bed delivery needing roughly twice its length as a clear run, while a 40ft at 4,300 kg needs an articulated vehicle and room to reverse. Both need level, load-bearing ground, and both need you to think about the crane lift path as well as the delivery route, since a position that is easy to deliver to is not automatically easy to load into. Where a crane or HIAB offload of the container is needed, that is agreed in writing before delivery. New units are covered for 12 months against structural defects and water ingress. Separately, you keep 14 days to change your mind under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, and 30 days to reject the goods if they are faulty under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Which open top we hold

Each unit has its own listing, so grade and price can be checked before anything is ordered. Long machinery runs tend to go into the 40ft x 8ft new and used open top container; on a tighter pad the 20ft used open top container is the one that fits. Heavy bulk materials, where a low centre of gravity and fast discharge matter more than volume, are better specified as open top half height containers, and anything genuinely overheight belongs on a flat rack instead. The whole open top container category is there to browse; alternatively, tell us what you are loading and we will say which shell takes it.