weights

[82355]

Cargill here in Albion has separate weigh in and weigh out scales. The weigh in has a display with probably 5" tall numbers on it. I weighed my school bus there the other night. 19,000 something unloaded, and 26,000 something loaded.

Martin

 

[Greg72]

I don't think corner weights are excessive...... (guess I'm in denial too)

Especially when building a truck from scratch, this kind of information can be invaluable. It would be nice to know where the weight is ending up on the truck. Since I have options to relocate the fuel tank and batteries and some flexibility with the spare tire location, I could dramatically shift weight around.

Obviously when tuning shocks/struts you need accurate unsprung weight which is easy to get with 4-corner scales.

Heck, you can even use the scales to accurately figure out the CG of the truck, though I've heard it's still pretty complicated to do.

In case you haven't guessed from my comments, the purchase of 4-corner scales is on my shopping list, probably sometime in 2013. I suppose depending on where you live you could charge a nominal fee to weigh cars for friends and local racers to help offset the acquisition costs of the scales....


-G

 

[Fordum]

C'mon guys. Am I the only engineer on here???

I weighed my old Jeep back in high school with a bathroom scale! Been so long I forget the exact setup, but it was simple.

As I vaguely remember, I used an 11 foot 4X4. Put the tire 1 foot from the end, scales 10 feet away, small block under the short end.

Zeroed the scales with just the wood first, then eased the tire up on the beam. Multiply the reading by 10.
150lbs equals 1500lbs.

Mark the beam so each tire is in exactly the same place, make some small ramps so it rolls up smoothly, and you're in business.
An aluminum I beam would do better, less flex. You have to be sure the beam does not touch the ground.
And, you might have to adjust the length of the beam for different weight trucks.

Most scales will go up to 250lbs, which would equal 2500lbs per wheel, or 10,000lbs per truck, so most of your K5s would work fine.

Might not be accurate down to the pound, but should be close enough. Plus if you were wanting to check how each wheel relates to the others, that should be fine, since all of them would be the same amount off.

Just a thought.........

 

[ktmoutfront]

I always did tongue weights on trailers that way. It's just time consuming doing 4 corners. And the other tires need to be at the same level when on the beam. Setting all of them on beams, then jacking each corner onto the weight beam would be even more accurate.

Then adding up the 4 corner weights and check the truck weight would give you an error percentage.

 

[DEMON44]

DOTs always have wheel scales. they scale roadside all the time around here.

 

[blazinzuk]

C'mon guys. Am I the only engineer on here???

I weighed my old Jeep back in high school with a bathroom scale! Been so long I forget the exact setup, but it was simple.

As I vaguely remember, I used an 11 foot 4X4. Put the tire 1 foot from the end, scales 10 feet away, small block under the short end.

Zeroed the scales with just the wood first, then eased the tire up on the beam. Multiply the reading by 10.
150lbs equals 1500lbs.

Mark the beam so each tire is in exactly the same place, make some small ramps so it rolls up smoothly, and you're in business.
An aluminum I beam would do better, less flex. You have to be sure the beam does not touch the ground.
And, you might have to adjust the length of the beam for different weight trucks.

Most scales will go up to 250lbs, which would equal 2500lbs per wheel, or 10,000lbs per truck, so most of your K5s would work fine.

Might not be accurate down to the pound, but should be close enough. Plus if you were wanting to check how each wheel relates to the others, that should be fine, since all of them would be the same amount off.

Just a thought.........

J no your not the only that knows how to do that. I wanna be a cool kid though

 

[blazinzuk]

I always did tongue weights on trailers that way. It's just time consuming doing 4 corners. And the other tires need to be at the same level when on the beam. Setting all of them on beams, then jacking each corner onto the weight beam would be even more accurate.

Then adding up the 4 corner weights and check the truck weight would give you an error percentage.

Thats how I have heard doing it.

 

[kennyw]

When I was in high school, we weighed my '72 F250 crewcab by tracing the contact patch of the tire onto a piece of paper. Then, measured the air pressure in the tire. Then with simple math you can take the surface area of the contact patch and convert it into weight.

SA*PSI=Weight

I verified our calculations at the local grain elevator and we were within 5% accuracy since we could not account for the surface area lost in the tread.