U-Haul U-Box Dimensions

U-HAUL U-BOX Dimensions 

                       

I went on a mission today to study the U-BOX portable storage unit.  My goal was to determine what their exact dimensions are and how they are constructed.  This is a simple account of what I found:

Measured Size:    Interior – 4’8” wide x 7’8” deep x 6’9” tall

U-Haul advertises 5’ x 8’ x 7’6” and a capacity of 300 cubic feet.  The actual square footage is 35.8 square feet and the actual capacity is 242 cubic feet.  In other words their “approximate” sizes are overestimates of 11.7% in floor space and a whopping 24% in capacity.  OUCH!!!

Here is their advertising so you can see what they actually claim.

You make the call whether you want to trust a company that embellishes the statistics about the size and capacity of their portable storage unit that much.  If they didn’t use the word “capacity” it wouldn’t be that bad.  But come on, it is painfully obvious that the extra height provided by the feet under the unit don’t add in any way to the capacity.  I think we are all smarter than that.

As for the construction materials, these boxes are made of and exoskeleton of 2x4 lumber and plywood walls, floors and ceilings.  Other than a few screws holding some of the structure pieces to each other, the vast majority of the fasteners are staples and adhesive.  Around this plywood box is a fairly heavy duty tarp screwed to the top and kept tight with Velcro attachments.  That’s pretty much it.  Imagine trying to build a plywood box as cheaply as you could and this is pretty much what you would come up with.

Economical to build? Yes.  

Water tight?  Secure?  You make that call.

Here are some pictures of the U-BOX portable storage units in Grand Rapids:

U-BOX Portable Storage Unit

Mobile Storage Unit

Self Storage Unit