How tall are shipping container doors?

The header is what catches things

Back a riding mower, a stack of pallet racking, or a tall dresser toward a container's doors and the side walls are never the problem. The header above the door opening is what catches things first, well before you would ever run out of width or floor.

That header sits lower than the container's own exterior height, because the door frame steals a few inches off the top the same way it steals a few inches off the sides.

The header height behind that

On a standard container, the door opening runs roughly 7 feet 5 to 6 inches tall, a bit under the 8 foot 6 inch exterior height. A high-cube box, built to 9 feet 6 inches on the outside, opens to roughly 8 feet 5 inches, the extra headroom the high-cube exists to sell.

• Standard exterior height: 8 feet 6 inches. Door opening: roughly 7 feet 5 to 6 inches.
• High-cube exterior height: 9 feet 6 inches. Door opening: roughly 8 feet 5 inches.
• Both figures are ISO industry ranges, not a single fixed number across every manufacturer and year.

Those are ranges because used boxes vary from unit to unit and maker to maker. The exact opening for the container you are actually getting is stencilled on its own door beside the CSC plate, so if your load is within a couple of inches of the header, trust that stencil over any published average, ours included.

Why the high-cube is worth knowing about

If you are regularly backing in anything tall, a lifted truck, stacked pallet racking, ladders and gear on a rolling cart, the extra foot on a high-cube can be the difference between a clean load and a scraped header. The 40 ft high-cube is a size we sell, standing 9 feet 6 inches on the outside against 8 feet 6 inches on a standard box. A 20 ft high-cube or a 45 ft high-cube is a different story, those we source to order rather than keep in the yard.

When the load is taller than the header

A load that will not clear roughly 7 feet 5 inches is not automatically a lost cause. Most of the time you can take the height out of the load instead of out of the box.

• Pull the top shelf off a rack and bolt it back on once the rack is inside.
• Take a light bar, a roof rack, or an antenna off a truck and put it back on after the truck is in.
• Load off a lower trailer, since deck height and ramp angle can cost you more headroom than the header does.
• Tip long items in on the diagonal, where the corner-to-corner clearance is greater than the straight height.

If the load is tall every trip rather than once, stop fighting the header and take the extra foot at the door with a 40 ft high-cube. Call us with the height of what you are loading and we will tell you which box clears it.