Heavy Duty Pallets: Over 18,000 lb static
Over 18,000 lb static is stackable territory, up to 30,000 lb on PHS Plastic's lists, and almost none of it nests.
Who is up here
At the top of the range are stackables rated up to 30,000 lb static: PHS Plastic's 48 x 48 in STK 207, a 56 x 44 in beverage pallet, and Nelson Company's used one-piece HDPE 48 x 40 x 6.3 in at 49 lb. These are pallets for dense product, tall block stacks and long storage.
Their dynamic ratings are far below static: 4,000 lb for the STK 207, 5,000 lb for the Nelson pallet. A 30,000 lb pallet does not carry 30,000 lb on a forklift. The sheet is telling you what the pallet holds at rest, not what it lifts.
What this costs in the trailer
None of these nests, so every returned pallet takes its full height. Where a heavy-duty nestable fits 1,200 on a trailer, a pallet this rigid fits about as many as the rackable comparison, 540. For 6,000 returned pallets, that is 12 trailers instead of 5.
| Pallets to return | Rehrig Pacific Heavy-duty nestable (1,200 per trailer) | PHS Plastic EXP 100 nestable (2,340 per trailer) | Rackable (540 per trailer) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,500 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 6,000 | 5 | 3 | 12 |
| 18,000 | 15 | 8 | 34 |
Racking is lower again
The Nelson example is rated 2,200 lb racking against 30,000 lb static. If it goes on a rack, 2,200 lb is the number.
A stack worked out
Take a stackable rated 12,000 lb static. The bottom pallet carries the pallets above it, so with each loaded pallet weighing 1,900 lb it can hold 6 above, a stack of 7. With 5,942 lb per pallet it can hold 2 above. This is a ceiling on a flat floor for a still stack, not a promise for a stack that moves or waits.
| Loaded pallet, lb | Pallets above the bottom | Stack height | Load on the bottom pallet, lb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,900 | 6 | 7 | 11,400 |
| 2,407 | 4 | 5 | 9,628 |
| 2,914 | 4 | 5 | 11,656 |
| 3,421 | 3 | 4 | 10,263 |
| 3,928 | 3 | 4 | 11,784 |
| 4,935 | 2 | 3 | 9,870 |
| 5,942 | 2 | 3 | 11,884 |
A beam load worked out
Take a pallet with a 2,000 lb racking load. A loaded pallet of 1,564 lb uses 78.2 percent of it and leaves 436 lb; one of 3,182 lb is 1,182 lb over. Rack engineers also apply their own safety margins, so treat the figure as a ceiling.
| Loaded pallet, lb | Share of the racking load | Left over, lb | Within the rating? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,564 | 78.2 percent | 436 | yes |
| 1,767 | 88.3 percent | 233 | yes |
| 1,970 | 98.5 percent | 30 | yes |
| 2,273 | 113.7 percent | -273 | no |
| 2,576 | 128.8 percent | -576 | no |
| 2,779 | 138.9 percent | -779 | no |
| 3,182 | 159.1 percent | -1,182 | no |
A rating is only as good as its test
Very high static ratings are measured under a uniform load on a flat surface, and the sheet may not say how long the load was held. Ask whether the figure is a short-term test or a sustained one, because plastic creeps under a steady load and a heavy stack that stands for weeks asks more than one that moves the same day.
A note on this page
At the top of the range, floors and equipment become the limit. A pallet rated this high needs a floor that does not flex, forks that can carry the combined weight and rack beams that were engineered with such loads in mind, or the pallet will not be the weakest part.
Words on this page
- HDPE
- High-density polyethylene, a tough resin used in many plastic pallets, valued for strength against its weight.
- Creep
- Slow, permanent bending of plastic under a steady load. A pallet can hold a load for an hour and bow under it after a month.
- UL
- Underwriters Laboratories, a safety testing body that publishes fire test standards, including one for storage pallets.
- Dynamic load
- The weight a pallet holds while it is moved by a forklift, pallet jack or conveyor. It is lower than static because motion adds shock.
- Closed loop
- A route where pallets return to the sender after delivery, so the empty trip is a standing cost.
- Recycled content
- The share of a pallet moulded from reground plastic. Makers print it as a range, often by colour.
- Nest increment
- The extra height each additional empty pallet adds to a nested stack, measured in inches. A small increment means a short stack.
- Pallet pooling
- A rental model where a company owns the pallets and moves them between customers, instead of each customer buying its own.
Tell us the footprint and how many stacks you move.
We work out the empty trailer, then take the request for a load.