40Ft X 8Ft Used Container Flat Racks

Used 40ft flat rack container for sale, built for out-of-gauge loads

A 40ft flat rack container for sale is what you buy when the cargo simply will not fit inside anything. Strip away the side walls and the roof and you are left with a steel deck on container corner castings, with end frames at each end and lashing rings set into the rails, the floor and the posts. Usable deck length is about 38ft 3in (11.65 m) and deck width about 7ft 3in (2.22 m), while the load itself can overhang the width and stand well above the top rails. This is used stock, priced at $6,000, and it carries the same handling fittings as any other box in the yard.

What people put on a 40ft flat rack

• Excavators, dozers, telehandlers and other tracked or wheeled plant
• Boats, hulls and oversized tanks that break the container envelope
• Transformers, generator sets and switchgear on skids
• Structural steel, pipe bundles, poles and long timber
• Prefabricated modules, trusses and precast sections
• A permanent yard platform for staging heavy material at working height
• Deck or bridge duty on farms and job sites, spanning a ditch or soft ground

Set against the alternatives, the flat rack wins on access and loses on protection. An open top container keeps its walls and a tarp over the load, which is the better call whenever the cargo fits inside the profile. A low-bed trailer moves the same kind of load but has to stay hitched to a truck and cannot be stacked, craned or handed to a shipping line. A flat rack sits in the middle: lift it with the same spreader that lifts a container, load it from any side or from above, then strap the cargo down and move it as a unit. Buying used rather than new takes a large bite out of the price of what is otherwise a specialist piece of equipment.

Deck, frame and condition

The deck is 28mm (about 1 1/8 in.) marine plywood over a heavy steel understructure, so it takes concentrated point loads from tracks, outriggers and machine feet better than a plain sheet floor would. Lashing rings run along the side rails and are also set into the floor and the corner posts, which lets you rig chains and ratchet straps in a proper pattern rather than improvising round the frame. External dimensions match a standard 40ft envelope: 40ft (12.19 m) long, 8ft (2.44 m) wide and 8ft 6in (2.59 m) high over the end frames. Tare weight is around 10,915 lbs (4,950 kg).

End frames come in two styles across the flat rack fleet, fixed and collapsible, and the collapsible type folds flat so empty racks stack for storage and repositioning. Forklift pockets are fitted to some units and not others. Both of those points, along with plate details and the working condition of the deck, vary between individual racks, so we confirm the exact specification of the one allocated to your order before it ships rather than guessing from a listing. Expect used-condition cosmetics: this is industrial equipment that has earned its keep.

Tie-down planning deserves as much thought as the lift itself, because nothing on a flat rack is contained by walls. Work out where the load bears before it arrives, spread it across the deck rather than concentrating it over one bay, and rig chains so they pull the cargo down and inward instead of only sideways. Timber packing under machine tracks protects the ply and stops point loads chewing the deck. Owners who use a rack regularly tend to keep a set of chains, ratchet binders and dunnage with the unit so nothing gets improvised on a wet morning.

Delivery, payment and returns

Delivery is a flat $550 anywhere in the continental United States, quoted at checkout, with most orders landing 1 to 3 weeks after they are placed. A 40ft rack travels on a tilt-bed truck, so plan for 100ft to 120ft of straight, firm approach and around 14ft of overhead clearance at the placement point. Firm ground matters more than usual here, because a rack that settles unevenly will sit twisted and make loading awkward.

Payment options are Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Apple Pay and Google Pay through Stripe, plus bank transfer by ACH or wire. We do not collect sales tax. Standard unmodified units come with a 30-day return window and free return shipping, with custom and modified builds excluded. Tell us the weight, footprint and lift points of what you plan to carry and we will say whether a flat rack, an open top or something else is the right tool.

Specifications