4-wall gaylord boxes

A 4‑wall gaylord adds a fourth layer of board to the triple wall. Container Exchanger puts the commonly cited capacity for the wall count at 1,500 to 2,200 lb, with sidewalls usually 36 to 41 in high. For a buyer in the Twin Cities the useful fact is not the number itself but what it buys: a used 4‑wall box starts from a higher rating, so after the cuts for grade, place and time it can still stand where a used 3‑wall would not.

What the wall count suits

• Dense bulk: regrind, ingredients, paper stock and parts that would sag a 3‑wall box.
• Used boxes that must stack on an unheated dock.
• Loads near 1,000 lb a box.
• Plants that want one spec for both full and part-full boxes.

Where it is the wrong box

• Light loads, where the extra board is wasted.
• Tight budgets for one-way trips: a 3‑wall is enough.
• Stacks that sit longer than a quarter without a rethink.
• Octabin duty: a 4‑wall rectangular box still bows on dense, round loads.

How a used one stacks

Stack Check starts from the low end of the commonly cited range, 1,500 lb for this wall count, and then cuts it for grade, storage place, days under load and pallet overhang. Below is what comes out for two loads: 900 lb and 1,300 lb a box. Read down for grade, across for place.

A box weighs something too

Stack Check adds 30 lb for each empty box, the figure Uline lists for its octagon bin, to the load before it stacks. A 1,300 lb load is therefore a 1,330 lb box, and that is what the bottom box has to carry once for each box above it.

What to put on the request

1. The footprint and height.
2. The wall count and, if it is printed on the box, the maker's mark.
3. The grade you will accept.
4. The weight of a full box and where it will stand.

Ask whether the four walls are in the maker's mark or the listing alone. A mark is better.

See also the triple wall page, weight capacity, the edge crush test and Stack Check.

Questions, answered