Going to add a fresh layer of gravel, about 1 1/2" to 2", to my old driveway/parking area. It's about 50'x60' area with a 12' wide 25' long drive. Plan on using #73 stone with dust. Thinking 15 to 20 ton but not sure. Any suggestions ?

By my math you need 20.37 yards. Here we order it by yard, I don’t know about tons. Seems like if you were buying by weight you wouldn’t want it to rain eh?

I know a full dump truck load is around 20 tons from the quarry. The people I work with that have done gravel work refer to it in tons. I will use your number though when I call it in, if they ask for it in yards. -Thanks

Ask your quarry how many tons to the yard.

At 2" thick I think you'd be closer to 40 tons using this material estimator. It is sold by the ton here as well. I'm sure your local quarry can estimate it as well.

https://www.wendlingquarries.com/material-estimator/

You need 18.5 cubic yards of material. A triaxle will hold 10 yards so you need 2 loads.

the ton is an easy measurement because the trucks have to go over the scale any way , many of them have a scale built in to the truck , they run out of weight on gravel before volume capacity.

any supplier will know an approximate yard to ton ratio for their product

What John C said. Do the math to figure out how many cubic yards and ask the quarry what that would be in tons for the type stone you want. If it's anywhere near a full truck load consider having a full load delivered. For me the delivery cost is about 25% of the total.

That's what I come up with too.

This what I come up with.

you have a 3300sft area x.16(2") = 528 cu ft divide by 27 (27 cu ft in a cubic yd )=19.55 cu yds
multiply that by 1.2 for compaction (20%)=23.47 yds multiply that by 1.5 (yd of limestone weights 3000lbs) =35.19 tons

I agree with mjh - except 2" is .16666, so thats 550 cubic feet - or 20.37 cubic yards.

compaction puts you at 24.5 yards.

weights vary a bit - so you'd need 35 to 40 ton

a quarry should be able to convert yards to tons for you based on their specific unit weights
better to have a little extra than trying to spread it thin

Iv put in many drive ways, hence my screen name. Get more than what it’s calling for. You can always lose it some where

Up here, crushed granite at the quarry is sold by the ton and easily converted to yards. Gravel is sold by the yard, in truck loads, and there are gravel pits all over the place here. Nothing was ever sold by the ton up here until somebody started crushing Granite and a scale was put it. Say 20 years ago or less up here. Every body and their brother hauls gravel here...12 - 14 bucks a yard .

When you order price it out on rounding your number up to full truck loads as a lot of times its the hauling that's more expensive and it will cost you the same for the hauling on a full load compared to a half a load.

The material difference in cost might not be that bad and having extra is better than being short.

I'd order a full load and see how far that gets you. I just had a full 17 tons delivered, when further than I expected.

Always better to get more then you think as it settles and needs to be filled in. Our driveway is a 1/4 long to the house and I was surprises how many loads it took to cover most of it! The one thing I noticed is the big dump truck shows up about 20% full so the point of the big truck seemed lost.

^^^ This. Go on the high side at 40 ton so as not to run out. With limestone I use 2700 pounds per cubic yard loose in the truck, 4000 pounds per cubic yard compacted. 2 quad axel loads shoud do it.

Zim

I see we have some pavers on hear