Six feet across
A 72-inch reel is as tall as a person when it stands on its rim. Okonite's reel table shows how many traverses a single flange size can have: its 72 x 36 x 36 wood reel is 41½ inches overall and 335 pounds, its 72 x 42 x 36 is 47½ inches and 385 pounds, and its 72 x 48 x 36 is 54½ inches and 397 pounds. Prysmian's 72-inch wood reel, with the same 72 x 36 x 36 dimensions, weighs 616 pounds, almost twice Okonite's, which says a lot about how differently mills build the same size. Southwire's A-99 nailed reel, just under the class at 68 x 38 x 36 inches and 44 inches overall, weighs about 536 pounds.
The top of take-back ranges
Seventy-two inches is the upper limit of some manufacturer programmes. Service Wire's reel return, for example, takes back its own-label nailed wood reels from 30 to 72 inches, in full truckloads, provided at least 75 percent of the staves are intact, there is no rot and the arbor hole is undamaged. Sonoco's EcoReel table lists up to 22 reels of 72 x 36 x 36 per truck. A yard of mixed-brand 72-inch reels, though, rarely fits any single programme, and that is where a general pickup helps.
Sources in this market
Reels this size carry heavy feeders, medium-voltage and some high-voltage cable, and large communications trunk cable. They come from utility work, substation construction, large campus builds, industrial plants and the biggest commercial sites. Industrial sites along the Delaware in Delaware County and Gloucester County use cable of this weight too.
Handling
A 72-inch reel needs a forklift rated for the load with forks long enough to carry the reel's weight well inside the traverse, or a reel trailer. On a truck it rides on its rims, chocked and strapped, and only a couple fit side by side across the bed. Never leave one standing unchocked, and keep people clear of the downhill side.
Wide traverse, different uses
The 48-inch traverse version is very wide, almost as wide as it is tall at 54½ inches overall. That makes it suited to winding hose, rope or long cable, and less suited to furniture. The 36-inch traverse version makes a large, tall outdoor table at about 41 inches high, which is bar height.
Reuse and recycling
Sound 72-inch reels are wanted by rewinders and heavy-cable users, especially in matched sets. Damaged ones are taken apart for timber and steel. Because each reel takes so much truck space, a single 72-inch reel on its own is usually collected when a truck is already nearby.
Seventy-two-inch reels in a pickup request
When listing 72-inch reels, give three things beyond the count: the traverse (36, 42 or 48 inches makes a big difference to truck space), whether they have tie rods or arbor plates, and how they are standing. Reels stood on their rims in a row on gravel are quick to load. Reels lying flat, stacked two high, need a bigger forklift and more time, and the lower ones are often damaged. Reels half-buried in weeds at the back of a lot need clearing first. A photograph of the row answers all of this at once.
Weight against the published table
The gap between Okonite's 335-pound and Prysmian's 616-pound reels of the same nominal size is the best argument for weighing caution: the mill, the timber and the build vary.
A reel taller than most people
At six feet across, a 72-inch reel standing on its rim is taller than most of the people moving it. That changes how a crew works: nobody stands on the downhill side, chocks go in before straps come off, and loads are moved slowly with a spotter. At a building site with overhead lines or low branches, check clearances before lifting a reel this size onto a truck.
Seventy-two-inch reels outside the trades
Large garden designers, wedding barns and festival builders occasionally want one or two of these as a centrepiece, a stage riser or a giant table. They are delivered on a flatbed and placed with a forklift or crane.
Stability on soft ground
Gravel, mud and lawn let rims sink unevenly, tipping heavy drums sideways. Lay plywood sheets or mats first.
Questions
Are 72-inch reels returnable?
Wooden ones are usually one-way, but makers stencil large reels more often. Check both flanges for a name or number.
How heavy is a 72-inch reel?
From about 335 to over 600 pounds empty, going by the published examples. Assume the heavy end until you know the build.
Last reviewed 2026-11-09.
