Hey there, I’m Jake, and I’ve been working as a truck mounted aerial work platform (let’s just call them TM AWPs) supplier for the last 12 years. I’ve lost count of how many times a new customer will hit me up, super excited to get their first or next unit, and then hit me with: “Wait, where am I even gonna park this bad boy? My yard’s only got so much space.” That question’s way more important than most folks realize—skimp on storage, and you’re either squeezing a unit so tight it gets banged up, or leaving it exposed to weather that’ll eat into its lifespan faster than a lawnmower on overgrown grass. Let’s break this down like I would with a guy who’s just wrapped up loading a jobsite and is chugging his third coffee, no jargon, no nonsense. Truck Mounted Aerial Work Platform
First off, let’s get one thing straight: TM AWPs aren’t your average pickup truck. They’re a whole combo: the chassis from a standard work truck, plus the boom, the turret, the hydraulic guts, and all the safety gear. So storage doesn’t just mean “a spot to park it”—it means space to pull it in and out without scraping, room to do basic checks (like topping off hydraulic fluid or replacing a worn tire), and enough clearance so that when you’re storing it, it doesn’t get damaged by other equipment. I’ve seen a customer with a 40-foot trailer storage spot try to cram a 50-foot TM AWP once. He ended up scratching the boom real bad, and that cost him $1,800 in repairs and a missed weekend on a window installation job. That’s the kind of avoidable mistake we’re talking about here.
Let’s start with the basics: the physical footprint of the unit, because that’s non-negotiable. Not all TM AWPs are made equal, obviously—you’ve got compact ones for electrical work in suburban neighborhoods, and then the massive 100+ foot units for bridge maintenance or wind turbine upkeep. Let’s run through the three most common categories so you can see where your unit fits.
First, compact TM AWPs—think the 30 to 50 foot working height ones. These are the workhorses for small electrical companies, tree trimming crews, or interior maintenance. Most of these are built on a 12,000 to 14,000 GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) chassis, right? Their overall length when stowed? That’s usually between 25 and 35 feet. Width? Standard work truck width, so 8.5 feet max—same as any semi-trailer, that’s a federal road limit in the US, so you can’t make them wider. Height when stowed? This is the sneaky part a lot of new guys miss. Compact units usually tuck their boom down so they fit under 13.5 feet, which is the clear height for most overpasses, but when you’re storing it, do you have a garage or barn door that’s tall enough? I had a customer last month with a 12-foot barn door who thought his 40-foot compact unit would fit. Nope—he had to leave it parked outside one rainy night, and rust started forming on the boom’s hydraulic rams within a week. Total storage fail.
Next up, mid-sized TM AWPs, the 50 to 80 foot working height ones. These are the most popular with general contractors, right? They’re big enough to reach the top of a 7-story building, but still maneuverable enough to get down small side streets in residential areas. Stowed length here jumps to 35 to 45 feet. Width still sticks to that 8.5 feet road limit, but height gets a little trickier. Most mid-sized units sit at 13.5 to 15 feet when stowed. So if you’re storing them in a covered spot, you need a door that’s at least 16 feet tall—because you’ve got to lift the boom slightly to get it in, and you don’t want it scraping the top. I’ve also seen guys try to store these in tandem with another piece of equipment—like a dump truck—and forget that the TM AWP has to swing its outriggers when it sets up on a jobsite. Wait, right! Storage isn’t just for when it’s parked and stowed—you’ve got to have enough open space around it when it’s set up for daily checks, too? No, wait, let’s separate storage for long-term (like when it’s not in use for a week or more) vs daily parking after a job. For daily parking, if you’re just pulling into a yard, you need 3 to 5 feet of clearance on each side so you don’t bang into a lawnmower or a stack of lumber. For long-term covered storage, that clearance goes up to 2 feet on each side at minimum, plus enough length to pull it in without backing into a wall—another 5 to 7 feet of extra length, just to be safe.
Then we’ve got the big boys: the 80 to 120+ foot working height TM AWPs. These are the ones used for big construction projects, bridge inspections, or wind farm maintenance. Their stowed length? 45 to 60 feet. Width still 8.5 feet, but height when stowed is usually 15 to 18 feet. These things weigh 30,000 pounds or more, so they’re almost never going into a standard garage. Most folks store them in an open yard, but you need a covered awning or a metal shelter for them—exposure to snow, ice, and UV rays will crack the hydraulic hoses and rust the steel boom way faster than if they’re covered. I had a construction client a few years ago who stored his 100-foot unit open to the elements during a Michigan winter. By spring, he had to replace 12 hydraulic hoses and the entire turret seal, which cost him $7,000—way more than a $2,000 metal shelter would’ve cost him.
But wait, it’s not just about space for the unit itself. You’ve got to account for the outriggers, too—because when you’re doing routine maintenance, or even pulling it out of storage, you need room to extend those suckers. Outriggers are those legs that drop down to keep the unit stable when it’s lifting someone up 80 feet. Most TM AWPs have outriggers that extend 3 to 5 feet beyond the width of the truck chassis. So if your unit is 8.5 feet wide on the road, its outriggers will make the total width on the ground 14 to 18 feet. When you’re storing it in a tight yard, you can’t have another piece of equipment parked so close that when you lower the outriggers, they’ll hit it. That’s why I always tell customers to add 6 to 10 feet of extra space on each side of the unit’s stowed width, just for the outriggers. If you skip that, you’re gonna scratch the paint on the outriggers, which not only looks bad but can lead to corrosion if the paint chips.
Another thing I see guys sleep on is weight capacity of the storage spot. TM AWPs are heavy, man. The compact ones are around 12,000 to 18,000 pounds, mid-sized are 20,000 to 30,000 pounds, and those 100+ foot ones are 35,000 to 50,000 pounds. If you’re storing it on a concrete pad, that’s fine—standard concrete can hold way more than that. But if you’re storing it on a gravel lot, you need to make sure the ground is compacted enough so it doesn’t sink. I had a customer in Texas who stored his mid-sized TM AWP on loose gravel. After a rainstorm, the truck’s front wheels sank 6 inches into the mud, and it took a tow truck 3 hours to pull it out—delay that cost him a $5,000 jobsite fee. Lesson there: compacted ground, no exceptions. If you’re worried about sinking, you can put a heavy-duty plywood pad or a metal mat under the tires—cheap insurance.
Now, let’s talk about location-specific stuff, because storage isn’t one-size-fits-all. If you’re in a place that gets tons of rain, like the Pacific Northwest, you can’t just leave the unit parked outside without a cover. The hydraulic valves get water in them, the electrical connections corrode, and the boom’s steel starts rusting within months. If you’re in a place that gets snow and ice, like the Midwest or Northeast, you need a way to clear snow off the unit after a storm—so your storage spot needs access for a snowplow, or enough space to use a shovel or a leaf blower to get snow off the boom. I’ve had customers in Minnesota who stored their units in a barn, but the barn door was too narrow to get the unit in during a snowstorm, so they had to park it outside and deal with a foot of snow on the boom—cost them 2 days of work while they cleared it off.
What about if you’re storing it on a jobsite, not a permanent yard? That’s another common scenario. A lot of contractors will park their TM AWP on the jobsite when it’s not in use overnight, instead of driving it back to a yard. For that, you need a flat, level spot that’s at least twice the stowed length of the unit, plus enough space to set up safety barriers around it. OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) has rules about TM AWP storage on jobsites, by the way—you can’t park it so close to power lines that the boom could hit them, and you have to make sure the outriggers have stable ground to set on. I always tell contractors to check their local OSHA guidelines, but the basic rule is: give yourself 10 feet of clearance from any obstacles, especially overhead ones like power lines or building edges.
Wait, also—accessibility. That’s a big one I almost forgot. If you’re storing the unit, you need to be able to pull it out quickly when a job comes up at 6 a.m. You don’t want to be moving a stack of roofing shingles or a pallet of bricks at 5:30 a.m. just to get the TM AWP out. So your storage spot needs a clear path, no obstacles, wide enough for the unit to turn around. Most TM AWPs can turn in a 40-foot radius, so the path from the storage spot to the main road needs to be at least that wide. I had a customer in Atlanta who parked his 50-foot mid-sized unit in a spot with a 35-foot driveway. When he tried to pull out for a jobsite in downtown Atlanta, he couldn’t turn the boom without hitting a fence, so he had to delay the job by 3 hours—lost him a $10,000 contract because the client went with someone who showed up on time. That’s the kind of small detail that makes or breaks your business.
Let’s do a quick real-world example, so this isn’t just numbers on a page. Let’s say you’re a small electrical company in Chicago, and you bought a 40-foot working height compact TM AWP. What’s your storage requirements? Stowed length is 32 feet, width is 8.5 feet, height is 13 feet. So for daily parking in your shop yard: you need a spot that’s at least 35 feet long (5 feet extra to pull in) and 15 feet wide (6.5 feet extra for outriggers), with a door height of at least 14 feet if you’re storing it in a garage. If you’re storing it long-term for a week, add another 2 feet of clearance on all sides and make sure the ground is compacted concrete or gravel. Easy enough, right? No fancy math, just a little common sense.
Now, if you’re a general contractor in Dallas with a 70-foot mid-sized TM AWP: stowed length is 40 feet, width is 8.5 feet, height is 14 feet. Storage needs: 45 feet long, 16 feet wide, door height of 15 feet. If you’re storing it open, get a metal shelter that covers the whole unit, because Dallas gets brutal UV rays that crack the hydraulic hoses. That’s a $1,500 investment that’ll save you thousands in repairs.
And if you’re a big construction firm in Houston with a 100-foot 1200-series TM AWP: stowed length is 55 feet, width is 8.5 feet, height is 17 feet. You’re not fitting this in a standard garage. You need a storage yard spot that’s at least 60 feet long, 18 feet wide, with compacted ground, and a metal awning or shelter to keep the sun and rain off. Also, make sure you have a path to the main road that’s at least 45 feet wide, so you can turn that big unit around without scraping the boom.
Wait, one last thing: maintenance access. Storage isn’t just about fitting the unit in a spot. You need room to do basic checks every month—like inspecting the hydraulic fluid, checking the tires, testing the emergency brakes, and tightening the bolts on the turret. If your storage spot is so tight that you can’t walk around the whole unit, you’re skipping those checks, which leads to breakdowns on jobsites. I had a customer who stored his compact TM AWP so close to a wall that he couldn’t reach the hydraulic fluid reservoir. When he showed up to a job, the fluid was low, the boom wouldn’t lift all the way, and he had to rent a smaller unit at the last minute—cost him $2,000, plus the client was mad and didn’t hire him back.
So putting all this together, the storage requirement for a TM AWP isn’t just “enough space to park it.” It’s:
- Stowed length + 5-7 extra feet to pull in safely
- Stowed width + 6-10 extra feet for outriggers and clearance
- Stowed height + 1-2 extra feet for door/awning clearance
- Compacted, level ground to support the unit’s weight
- Unobstructed access path to get in and out quickly
- Weather protection (covered or sheltered) if storing long-term in harsh conditions
And before you go buy a unit, do yourself a favor: measure your storage spot, write down the unit’s specs (we provide all that when you order, by the way), and double-check. Don’t be the guy who squeezes a unit into a spot that’s too small, ends up with thousands in repairs, and loses a job.
If you’re in the market for a TM AWP and want to walk through your exact storage needs, hit us up. We’ve helped hundreds of clients figure out their perfect spot, and we can give you all the specs you need, no pressure, no fine print. We’ve got units for every job, from small electrical work to big construction projects, and we’re here to make sure you don’t run into those silly, avoidable storage mistakes I talked about today.
Uper Of Truck Mounted Aerial Work Platform References:
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). "Safety Standards for Mobile Elevated Work Platforms (MEWPs)". 29 CFR 1926 Subpart L.
- Truck Mounted Aerial Work Platform Manufacturers Association (TAWPMA). "2024 Model Specification Guide for Compact, Mid-Size, and Heavy-Duty TM AWPs".
- Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). "State Legal Limits for Oversized Commercial Vehicles: Width, Height, and Length". 2023 Edition.
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). "Hazard Prevention for Aerial Work Platforms: Storage and Maintenance Guidelines". 2022 Report.
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