Shipping containers: How strong?

[awemawson]

I need to tuck some gear away safely so I am thinking of getting a 40' 'High Cube' (ie 9'6" High) shipping container, but where to put it? I have a place in mind that would straddle a small stream, so it would rest on concrete pads either side of the water so only supported on it's end locating points. Would it be strong enough to drive my forklift inside (dead weight 4 tons).

A container is basically a big rectangular beam so logically it should be very stiff, but has anyone experience of this sort of mounting for a container?

 

[Simon-]

they are good for approx. 30 odd tonne. Had to load up three tractors for my boss last week.

The tractors weighed approx 3.25 tonne each and I had no problems. They didn't come through when the crane came to pick it up. lol I was a bit sheepish!

We put the container on fine gravel.(directly on the ground which was reasonably level) with no problems

 

[troppo]

Those containers hold more than that very easily, they are moved by being held by the top corners so i dont think a few tonnes should be a worry

 

[penfold]

If the data plate is still on the door it will tell you the maximum load and maybe even the max. load density(if not just divide the max. load by the floor area). These things are swung around by their corners so anything inside the SWL is fine as long as it's distributed over the whole floor; if it's in good nick a 20% or so overload would probably be fine too.