Wheel Weights with Bathroom Scale

[Pete Dumbleton]

Here's a great method of weighing one's small trailer using a bathroom scale and some leverage, posted by one of the Yahoo Scampers.

One change I would make is to call the Gross Weight Total Weight because my understanding is the Gross Weight is only that weight on the axles (Tongue weight being on the tow vehicle), however that may differ between trailer manufacturers; I base my understanding on the fact that the trailer GVWR usually seems to be the same as the GAWR) -- Also, the distances should be measured from the center of the grease cap and there would be more accuracy if the small pivot piece on the left end of A was triangular





With larger trailers, one should be careful to keep A very long in order to not overload the scale.

[Roy in TO]

With larger trailers, one should be careful to keep A very long in order to not overload the scale.

Thanks Pete,

But shouldn't that be the other way around?

Keep "A" short and "B" long?

Thinking of how a pry bar works, the closer the wheel is to the scale, the more weight it would put onto it.

[Dave Fish]

Here is one I found for tongue weight. Same principle. I think that "B" in Pete's example will be the total distance between the two support points. The idea below is to offset the leverage point to reduce the weight to the range that the scale can handle, then adjust back the correct weight.

http://www.rverscorner.com/tongueweight.html

I tried weighing my tongue to determine the impact of putting weight on the back. I got very inconsistent results so I gave up.

Dave

[Frederick L. Simson]

But shouldn't that be the other way around?

Keep "A" short and "B" long?

That is how it is done in a mechanical scale.

[Dan Meyer]

I understand that gross weight is the total of axle weight plus tongue weight.

-- Dan Meyer

[Pete Dumbleton]

Roy, you're right -- The arm to the scale should be the long one!

[CD Smith]

For my bathroom scale the ratio would be about 6:1