A 40 ft used cargo-worthy container, for most working farms. About 320 square feet, one uninterrupted floor, and steel that stands outdoors about 30 years. What moves you off that answer is the approach into your drop spot, whether the work is spread across two fields, and how long you actually need the space.
Farms run out of dry, locked space faster than anybody plans for. A 20 ft box gives you about 160 square feet, which sounds like plenty until the mineral tubs, the fencing supplies, the spare gates and a side by side are all in there and you cannot reach the back wall. The 40 gives you roughly double that, about 320 square feet and about 2,390 cubic feet, in one straight run.
The straight run is the part people undervalue. Two 20 ft boxes give you the same square footage split by a wall, and a wall is exactly what you do not want when you are backing an implement in or laying 16 foot lumber flat. One long floor also lets you keep a walking aisle down the middle, which is the difference between storage you use every day and storage you dig through twice a year.
Money runs the same direction. A used cargo-worthy 20 ft is $3,200 delivered and a 40 is around $4,900 delivered, both inside the free ring. You are not paying double for double the room. That gap is why the 40 is the box that leaves our yard most often for farm work.
A tilt-bed sets the container by pulling forward while the box slides off the back. That means the truck needs a straight, firm run: roughly 65 feet for a 20 ft container and about 95 feet for a 40. If the only way to your barn lot is a hard right through a gate post, the 95 feet may not exist, and the 40 stops being the best container for your farm no matter how good the price per square foot looks.
Ground matters as much as geometry. A loaded truck sinks where a pickup floats. Pasture lanes that carry a tractor in August can be soup in March, and soft ground is the most common reason a drop has to be moved to another day. Firm, well drained, reasonably level, with room for the truck to line up: that is the whole checklist.
The fastest way to settle it is photographs. Send us the gate, the lane and the spot you have in mind, and we will tell you which size the site will actually take before anything gets scheduled. Our foundation and placement guide walks the ground prep side in detail.
Length is the loud decision. Condition is the quiet one, and for farm work it usually goes the same way.
One thing you never have to add: the lockbox. It is welded on before the box leaves here, sale or rental, and it is inside the quoted price rather than beside it. A padlock sitting behind that steel collar is a much harder target for a set of bolt cutters.
We do the cutting, welding, wiring and finish work here rather than sending it out. If you want vents, shelving, a man door or a roll-up before it ships, say so with the quote and it goes on the box before it ever comes to you.
There is one clean case for splitting: the work happens in two places. If the hay ground is three miles from the home place, two 20 ft containers put dry, locked storage at both ends and save you the trips. Square footage per dollar is worse. Time saved is better. On a working farm that trade usually wins.
The second case is the site itself. If the far field can only take the shorter pull-in, a 20 goes where a 40 cannot, and the container that fits beats the container that is cheaper per square foot.
Beyond the two standard lengths there are 10 ft units, 20 ft high-cubes, 45 ft high-cubes, double-door boxes and open-side boxes. We source those to order rather than keeping them in the yard. A double-door container, open at both ends, is genuinely useful on a farm because you can load from either side and never have to back all the way out. If one of those shapes solves your problem, tell us and we will go find it. Just know it is an order, not a walk-through of the lot.
If the space problem is permanent, and on most farms it is, buying ends it. Rentals run $165 a month for a 20 ft and $235 a month for a 40 ft, and the crossover where buying costs less than continuing to rent lands around 18 to 20 months. After that the box is yours for the next few decades with nothing to shingle, paint or rebuild.
Renting earns its keep when the need has an end date. A tobacco season, a barn rebuild after a storm, a year of extra hay because you took on more ground. Nothing gets signed for a term here, so you keep the box month to month and stop when the job is done. If you change your mind partway through and want to keep the box, rent credit toward the purchase is often available. Exactly how much and on what terms lives in the agreement rather than on this page, so ask on the phone and we will walk you through your own case.
Delivery and leveling are free inside 75 road miles of the Woodlawn yard, which covers most of this corner of Virginia and a good piece of North Carolina and West Virginia. Farther out than that we are on the road every week anyway, and the haul gets priced before you agree to anything. Call (276) 237-6144 with your county and what you are storing, and you will have a real number the same day.
Take two pictures, one of the gate and one of where you want the box to sit, and send them along. We will tell you which size your ground will take and what it costs, delivered and leveled.
Same-day reply. We'll send a real number, a real delivery window, and any photos we need to confirm fit.
You'll hear back from us today (or first thing tomorrow if it's late). For anything urgent, call (276) 237-6144.