# Moving Truck Size Calculator

> Estimates the volume of a household's belongings from the number of bedrooms (175 ft³ per furnished room, rooms = bedrooms + 1 living area) and matches it to the U-Haul rental classes 10 ft (402 ft³), 15 ft (764 ft³), 17 ft (865 ft³), 20 ft (1,016 ft³) and 26 ft (1,682 ft³), with the box count and the next size up.

- Calculator id: `moving-truck-size` · Category: Everyday Life (`everyday`) · Tool name: `recommend_moving_truck_size`
- Canonical page: https://tttkmbb.com/everyday/moving-truck-size · This document: https://tttkmbb.com/everyday/moving-truck-size.md · JSON definition: https://tttkmbb.com/everyday/moving-truck-size.json

## Purpose

Estimates the volume of a household's belongings from the number of bedrooms (175 ft³ per furnished room, rooms = bedrooms + 1 living area) and matches it to the U-Haul rental classes 10 ft (402 ft³), 15 ft (764 ft³), 17 ft (865 ft³), 20 ft (1,016 ft³) and 26 ft (1,682 ft³), with the box count and the next size up.

**Use when:** You are booking a rental truck for a home move and need to know which size class fits a studio, apartment or house of a given number of bedrooms.

**Do not use when:** You need the volume of a specific box or item (use rectangular-prism), a professional mover's quote by weight, or vehicle payload limits; furniture-heavy or minimalist homes can differ from the room-based estimate by a class.

## Input

| Parameter | Type | Unit | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `bedrooms` | integer |  | required | Number of bedrooms (0 = studio). (min 0, max 5) |
| `furnished_rooms` | integer |  | optional | Total furnished rooms including living, dining, office and garage, if you want to override the bedrooms + 1 rule. (min 1, max 12) |
| `long_distance` | boolean |  | optional, default false | true adds a 15 % allowance so that everything fits in one trip. |

## Output

| Field | Type | Unit | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `rooms_counted` | integer |  | furnished_rooms, or bedrooms + 1 (minimum 1). |
| `estimated_volume_ft3` | number | ft³ | rooms × 175 ft³. |
| `estimated_volume_m3` | number | m³ | Same volume in cubic metres. |
| `planning_volume_ft3` | number | ft³ | Load with the long-distance allowance (× 1.15) when selected. |
| `recommended_truck` | string |  | Smallest U-Haul class whose cargo volume covers the planning volume. |
| `truck_capacity_ft3` | number | ft³ | Cargo volume of the recommended class. |
| `truck_typical_use` | string |  | U-Haul's description of the homes the class is meant for. |
| `utilisation_percent` | number | % | estimated_volume_ft3 / truck_capacity_ft3 × 100. |
| `boxes_estimate` | integer | boxes | About 20 medium boxes per room (typical range 15–25). |
| `alternative` | string |  | The next size up, or what to do if the load exceeds the largest class. |

## Formula

`rooms = furnished_rooms or max(1, bedrooms + 1); estimated_volume_ft3 = rooms × 175; planning_volume = estimated_volume × (1.15 if long_distance else 1); recommended_truck = smallest class with capacity ≥ planning_volume (402, 764, 865, 1016, 1682 ft³); utilisation = estimated_volume / capacity × 100; boxes = rooms × 20; 1 ft³ = 0.0283168 m³`

Movers estimate 150–200 ft³ of goods per furnished room; 175 ft³ is the midpoint and a home is counted as its bedrooms plus one living/kitchen area (a studio is one room). Capacities are U-Haul's published cargo volumes; other rental companies' classes of the same length carry similar volumes.

## Data Sources

- U-Haul – Moving truck sizes and cubic-foot capacities — https://www.uhaul.com/Truck-Rentals/ (reference, retrieved 2026-09-24)

Data freshness: `static`. Deterministic formula with fixed constants; results never go stale. Inputs supplied by the caller determine the output.

## API

- `GET https://tttkmbb.com/api/v1/calculate/moving-truck-size?bedrooms=…`
- `POST https://tttkmbb.com/api/v1/calculate/moving-truck-size` with JSON body `{"inputs": {…}}`
- Response: unified envelope (`success`, `request`, `result.values`, `result.units`, `sources`, `freshness`, `timestamp`, `next_actions`, `links`); see https://tttkmbb.com/docs/response-format.md
- Schema: https://tttkmbb.com/api/v1/calculators/moving-truck-size · OpenAPI operationId `recommend_moving_truck_size` in https://tttkmbb.com/openapi.json
- Authentication: none. Rate limit: fair use, see https://tttkmbb.com/docs/rate-limits.md.

## MCP

- Server: `https://tttkmbb.com/mcp` (Streamable HTTP, JSON-RPC 2.0, no auth)
- Tool:  `run_calculator` with `{"calculator_id": "moving-truck-size", "inputs": {…}}`

## Example

- 2-bedroom apartment: inputs `{"bedrooms":2}` → `{"rooms_counted":3,"estimated_volume_ft3":525,"estimated_volume_m3":14.9,"recommended_truck":"15 ft","truck_capacity_ft3":764,"utilisation_percent":68.7,"boxes_estimate":60}`
- 4-bedroom house, long distance: inputs `{"bedrooms":4,"long_distance":true}` → `{"rooms_counted":5,"estimated_volume_ft3":875,"planning_volume_ft3":1006,"recommended_truck":"20 ft","truck_capacity_ft3":1016,"utilisation_percent":86.1,"boxes_estimate":100}`

```
GET https://tttkmbb.com/api/v1/calculate/moving-truck-size?bedrooms=2
```

## Limitations

You need the volume of a specific box or item (use rectangular-prism), a professional mover's quote by weight, or vehicle payload limits; furniture-heavy or minimalist homes can differ from the room-based estimate by a class. Movers estimate 150–200 ft³ of goods per furnished room; 175 ft³ is the midpoint and a home is counted as its bedrooms plus one living/kitchen area (a studio is one room). Capacities are U-Haul's published cargo volumes; other rental companies' classes of the same length carry similar volumes. All values are computed from the formula above; no measurement or live data is involved.

## FAQ

**U-Haul suggests a bigger truck for my 3-bedroom house. Who is right?**

Rental companies size by bedrooms alone (20 ft for 2–3 bedrooms, 26 ft for 3–4+) and assume full living, dining and garage contents. Set furnished_rooms to the real number of furnished rooms, including garage and office, to capture that.

**What if the estimate exceeds 1,682 ft³?**

No standard rental truck is larger; plan two trips, a second truck or a trailer, or have a mover quote by weight.

**How much does a loaded truck weigh?**

Household goods average about 7 lb per cubic foot, so a full 20 ft truck carries around 7,000 lb, within the class's payload rating; check the rating for pianos, safes or books.

## Related

- [Rent Split Calculator](https://tttkmbb.com/everyday/rent-split.md) — Split the rent of the new home.
- [Rectangular Prism Calculator](https://tttkmbb.com/geometry/rectangular-prism.md) — Volume of a box or piece of furniture.
- [Volume Converter](https://tttkmbb.com/conversion/volume.md) — Convert cubic feet to cubic metres.