Standard Road Case Sizes: The Missing Reference Sheet
The touring case sizes nobody writes down: quarter, third, and half pack footprints, cable trunk and workbox dimensions, and the 90-inch vs 96-inch trailer math (45-inch half packs, the 24x48 grid) that decides whether your pack rolls tight.
Road case sizes look random until you stand them next to a truck. Almost every standard touring footprint traces back to one of two interior widths: the 90-inch trailer and the 96-inch trailer. Brady Cases spells this out directly: their "Truck Pack" line is sized off a 90-inch trailer, and their "Semi Pack" line is sized off a 96-inch trailer. Everything below hangs off that split.
The short version: in the 90-inch family, a half pack is 45 inches wide, a third pack is 30, and a quarter pack is 22.5. In the 96-inch family, the grid runs on 48-inch lengths and 24-inch widths. Two 48s nose to nose, or four 24s side by side, and the row is full.
What are the standard road case footprints?
Rental shops standardize on a handful of footprints so any case fits any row. CLE Productions lists their four: 22.5" x 45" (quarter or half pack), 22.5" x 30" (quarter or third pack), 30" x 45" (third or half pack), and 30" x 30" (third pack only), loaded 4 across for quarter packs, 3 across for third packs, and 2 across for half packs.
Manufacturer specs match. Brady's half pack trunk is 45"w x 22"d x 30"h outside (casters included) with a 43" x 20" x 23" interior. Their quarter pack is 22.5" x 22.5" x 30" outside, 20.5" x 20.5" x 23" inside. Kent Custom builds the same system in 1/4, 1/3, and 1/2 pack configurations on 22.5", 29", and 44" footprints with 22.5" or 29" heights.
Why is a half pack 45 inches wide?
Because two of them exactly fill a 90-inch box. Calzone's half by quarter cable trunk measures 45" x 22.5" x 32" and is "designed to fit 2 cases lengthwise or 4 cases across in a standard 90" truck." The arithmetic is the whole standard: 2 x 45 = 90, 3 x 30 = 90, 4 x 22.5 = 90. Any mix of quarter, third, and half packs that adds up to 90 makes a clean row, which is why a truck pack works like Tetris instead of a jigsaw puzzle.
One caveat before you memorize anything: actual interiors vary. CLE notes their trucks run two inside widths, 93" and 100", so the 90-inch grid is the safe common denominator, not a law of nature.
What changes at 96 inches?
The grid stretches to 48-inch lengths. LM Cases sells a 48" x 24" utility trunk labeled explicitly as a "96" Truck Pack" case, with a 46.5" x 22.5" x 22.5" interior. Two 48-inch cases nose to nose span the 96-inch interior; four 24-inch-wide cases fill a row side by side.
Christie Lites built their entire lighting rental fleet on this grid. Their published case sheet runs: eighth case 24" x 24" x 6", quarter 24" x 24" x 12.75", half 24" x 24" x 26", full standard 24"w x 48"l x 26"h, long standard 24" x 72", double standard 24" x 96" (a full row on its own), and tall standard 24" x 48" x 37.75". Every case in the system is a multiple or fraction of the same footprint, so a truck pack is just math.
How big are cable trunks and workboxes?
Cable is the heavy stuff. CLE puts case weights anywhere from 25 pounds to hundreds, "the heaviest cases tend to be cabling." From Christie's sheet, their wide cable case runs 32" x 48" x 37.75" and weighs 234 lbs; a standard 24" x 48" x 26" two-way cable case is 109 lbs. Their utility workbox is 24" x 32" x 52", and the double workbox is a full-row 24" x 96" x 37.75" at 160 lbs empty. Calzone's 45" x 22.5" x 32" trunk is the classic half-pack cable trunk footprint on the 90-inch side.
The reference sheet
- Quarter pack: 22.5" x 22.5", roughly 30" tall with casters (Brady)
- Third pack: 30" x 30" (CLE)
- Half pack: 45" x 22.5" to 45" x 30" (Calzone, CLE)
- 96-inch grid: 24" x 48" standard, 24" x 72" long, 24" x 96" double (Christie Lites)
- Common heights: 22.5" and 29" (Kent Custom), 26" and 37.75" (Christie)
What about the cases that match nothing?
Every tour has them: the custom console case, the vendor one-off, the workbox somebody built in 1998. Roadcases.com's buying guide recommends starting from standard sizes like a quarter or half truck pack for exactly this reason, but real inventories are never that clean.
That is the case for measuring instead of guessing. In Truck Packer, the Cargo Measure feature lets you capture a case's real dimensions with your phone, then drop it into a 3D model of your actual truck next to everything else on the manifest. The standard footprints above get you a clean grid on paper; modeling the pack tells you whether the odd cases break it before the loaders find out at midnight.
