What size grab waggon you need, and what it actually carries
A quick note on spelling before anything else, because people search both ways and get different results. Waggon and wagon are the same vehicle. Waggon with two g's is the older spelling and it is still the common one across Leeds, Bradford and the rest of West Yorkshire. If you have been ringing round for a grab waggon and getting nowhere, try the other spelling too. Nobody in the trade will blink at either.
Grab waggons are described by their number of wheels, and that number tells you the legal weight limit rather than the size of the load you get. The limits are set nationally in the Road Vehicles (Authorised Weight) Regulations 1998, and they are the same for every operator in the country.
| Vehicle | Axles | Common name | Maximum authorised weight |
|---|
| Rigid motor vehicle | 2 | 4 wheeler | 18,000 kg |
| Rigid motor vehicle meeting the Schedule 1 conditions | 3 | 6 wheeler | 26,000 kg |
| Other rigid motor vehicle | 3 | 6 wheeler | 25,000 kg |
| Rigid motor vehicle meeting the Schedule 1 conditions | 4 or more | 8 wheeler | 32,000 kg |
| Other rigid motor vehicle | 4 or more | 8 wheeler | 30,000 kg |
Source: The Road Vehicles (Authorised Weight) Regulations 1998, Schedule 1.
Here is the part that catches people out, and it is the single most useful thing on this page. Those figures are the weight of the whole loaded vehicle, not the weight of your waste. What you actually get is the payload, which is the figure above minus the weight of the lorry itself, and a grab waggon carries a hydraulic crane on its back that a normal tipper does not. That crane is heavy and it eats into the number.
As a rough trade guide, an 8 wheel grab commonly lifts somewhere around fifteen or sixteen tonnes of waste and a 6 wheeler around ten to twelve. Treat those as a starting point and not a promise. They vary by build, by crane and by operator. When you ring for a quote, ask for the payload in tonnes rather than the number of wheels, and ask for it in writing. An operator who cannot tell you the payload of their own vehicle is not the operator you want.
The reason this matters financially is that a grab is priced as a vehicle movement. You are hiring the whole waggon and its driver for a trip, so you pay much the same whether you fill it or half fill it. Two thirds of a load in an 8 wheeler costs what a full one costs. That is not sharp practice, it is just how the job is sold, and it is exactly why a small heap is the wrong shape for a grab.
The three things that stop a grab waggon taking your job
Weight is rarely the problem. Access is. A grab loads with a crane arm from where the lorry is parked, so the whole job depends on the arm being able to physically get to the heap. Before you book anything, walk outside and check these three.
One, the reach. A grab arm has a working radius from the side of the lorry, commonly around six metres, sometimes a little more. If your soil is at the bottom of a back garden forty feet from the road, a grab cannot touch it no matter how big the waggon is. The waste has to be within the arm's swing of a spot the lorry can legally and safely stand. This is the single most common reason a grab booking falls through on the day.
Two, what is above the lorry. The arm goes up before it goes across. Overhead power lines, phone cables, low branches, a railway bridge on the approach, scaffolding across the front of the house, a carport. Any of these can stop the job dead, and the driver will refuse rather than risk it, which is the correct call. Look up, not just along.
Three, whether the lorry can stand there at all. A loaded 8 wheeler is thirty two tonnes. It needs a firm surface, room to turn and somewhere to sit without blocking the street. Terraced streets across inner Leeds, Bradford and Halifax are the classic problem. So are cul de sacs, resin and block paved driveways, anything built over a drain run, and new build estates with narrow bends and parked cars both sides. If a bin lorry struggles down your street, a grab will struggle down it too.
If any of the three is a no, a grab is not your answer and no amount of ringing round will change it. That is the point at which people usually find us, and it is a fair reason to call.
Do you need a permit for a grab waggon?
No, and this is a genuine advantage over a skip. A permit is required because a skip is left standing on the public highway, sometimes for a fortnight. A grab waggon arrives, loads, and drives away inside the hour, so there is nothing left on the road to license. Leeds asks for a minimum of ten working days to process a skip licence, and it only accepts applications from registered skip companies, so a road skip is a planning decision rather than a same day one. Our full breakdown is in do you need a skip permit in Leeds.
The same applies to our own vans. Nothing is left on your street, so nothing needs a licence, and we can usually come the same day. If a skip genuinely is the right tool for your job we hire those too, from £242, and the honest comparison is on our skip hire page.
When the load is smaller than a waggon
Most of the jobs that reach us after a grab quote fall into one of three shapes, and all three are priced by weight rather than by vehicle.
- Soil and muck away. Beds dug out, a lawn lifted, a patio base excavated. Very heavy, small in volume.
- Rubble and hardcore. Broken concrete, brick, a chimney breast, old flags.
- Mixed builders waste. The one a grab genuinely cannot take, because grabs want a single clean material and a mixed heap is refused or surcharged.
Our heavy waste pricing runs from £45 for 50kg, £68 for 100kg, £136 for 200kg and £340 for 500kg, with no VAT to add because the price you are quoted is the price you pay. We hand load, so the waste does not have to be within reach of a crane arm or even at the front of the property, and we take mixed materials in the same visit. For anything at or under roughly half a tonne this is almost always the cheaper route. Above a few tonnes of one clean material sitting kerbside, hire the grab.
If you are between the two and not sure, our skip bag collection sits neatly in the gap, and the full side by side is in our grab hire vs man and van guide.
Grab waggon questions we get asked
Is a grab waggon cheaper than a skip?
For several tonnes of one material, usually yes, because you skip the licence, the waiting period and the hire days. For anything under a tonne, no. You are paying for a whole lorry movement either way, so a part filled grab is expensive waste of a different kind.
Can a grab take mixed household rubbish?
Generally not. A grab is built for loose bulk materials such as soil, rubble, hardcore and muck away. Furniture, bags, appliances and general clutter either get refused or attract a surcharge that removes the saving. Mixed loads are what a van crew is for.
How much notice does a grab waggon need in Leeds?
Usually a day or two, and longer in a wet spell when groundwork stops and everyone books at once. There is no permit to wait for, so the lead time is purely the operator's diary.
What if the waggon turns up and cannot reach?
You will normally still be charged, because the vehicle and driver made the trip. This is why the three access checks above are worth five minutes before you book rather than after. If you are unsure, send the operator a photo of the street and the heap and let them make the call.
Do you operate your own grab waggons?
No, and we would rather say so plainly. Kruze runs vans and crews and prices heavy waste by weight, which is a different job. When a grab is genuinely the right tool we will tell you that and you should hire one. We are licensed to carry waste under registration CBDU597687 and everything we take is documented with a waste transfer note.
If you are clearing a whole plot rather than one heap, our guide to site clearance in Leeds explains which parts of the job need a machine and which parts a van crew can clear.
