Corner scales/weight device?

[matt rule]

Hi guys,

 

apologies if this isn’t in the right place. 
 

the car is in the dyno Thursday Friday. Really really excited.

 

wanted to know if the club or any members have access to any corner weight systems.

 

thanks

matt

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

We don't have any "nationally", but one or two Local Areas over the years have acquired them.

[matt rule]

6 hours ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman said:

We don't have any "nationally", but one or two Local Areas over the years have acquired them.

Thanks Dave. Fingers crossed someone will let me hire them for a little bit.

[Davep1]

OK, Dont laugh, but I have reasonably succesfully used heavy duty bathroom scales (that go up to 250Kg). 

I weigh each corner at a time, ensuring its all completely level (use wooden height adjusters / planks on the 3 wheels not being weighed).

 

Real cheapscate solution (scales are £20 from amazon).

 

Happy to be ridiculed, but for a rough guide I have found it pretty good...

 

(Waits for incoming.....!)

 

 

[stephenh]

trouble with the bathroom scales method is that unless you have 4 identical ones, you are very unlikely to get a true and accurate reading. you'd be surprised how much difference it makes if one corner is just millimeters lowered or raised, so using 3 planks under wheels, and the scales under the fourth, if the planks aren't exactly the same thickness as the scales your result is going to be inaccurate. Even then, are you measuring the thickness of the scales compressed or uncompressed? and how do you work out the compressed thickness before you've got it all set up on the scales and planks?

2 sets of scales and 2 identical bits of plank might work ok, doing one end at a time, but even then, as you adjust one corner, it alters the weight on the diametrically opposite corner, so you'd constantly be having to swap form one end to the other!

[Alex Gaskin]

37 minutes ago, Davep1 said:

OK, Dont laugh, but I have reasonably succesfully used heavy duty bathroom scales (that go up to 250Kg). 

I weigh each corner at a time, ensuring its all completely level (use wooden height adjusters / planks on the 3 wheels not being weighed).

 

Real cheapscate solution (scales are £20 from amazon).

 

Happy to be ridiculed, but for a rough guide I have found it pretty good...

 

(Waits for incoming.....!)

 

 

Never overlook the humble bathroom scale!

My dad has used a set of old school analogue scale to do corner weighting for as long as I can remember, and it seems to have been working pretty well all these years! He has some 'fancy' wooden frames built around them, even has little holes so you can turn the zero-ing wheel!

[eggontoast]

If 250kg scales are £20 each, why not just get 4x? Set up on a flat, level surface and use some planks to aid roll on/off so as not to damage the edges.

[eggontoast]

Thought about this again last night.
I haven't used corner scales but believe they give a central display for easy of readability. Some cheap scales of sufficient capacity also have remote displays, so you won't have to scrabble about as much trying to read numbers past tyres e.g. these. They won't do the basic calculations such as weight distribution, though.

[Mark (smokey mow)]

2 hours ago, eggontoast said:

They won't do the basic calculations such as weight distribution, though.

That can be done quite easily with a simple excel spreadsheet.

 

if getting digital scales, make sure they stay on rather than switching off after a couple of minutes as a lot of the battery powered ones do.

[Howard]

On 28/11/2023 at 18:54, Alex Gaskin said:

Never overlook the humble bathroom scale!

My dad has used a set of old school analogue scale to do corner weighting for as long as I can remember, and it seems to have been working pretty well all these years! He has some 'fancy' wooden frames built around them, even has little holes so you can turn the zero-ing wheel!

 

I have 8 scales, 2 per wheel as individually they don't go high enough. I made a box/tray for each pair for convenience and a small plank over each pair to spread the load. As Stephen mentioned, it's best to do all at once rather than one wheel at a time. More accurate and more convenient.  It works well and is perfectly acceptable for our needs.  Years ago, after I'd set the car up in this way I had the car dynoed at Northampton Motorsport and Troy offered to check the geo whilst it was there. He found the corner weights were so close they didn't need changing.

 

[Andrzej]

4 hours ago, eggontoast said:

Thought about this again last night.
I haven't used corner scales but believe they give a central display for easy of readability. Some cheap scales of sufficient capacity also have remote displays, so you won't have to scrabble about as much trying to read numbers past tyres e.g. these. They won't do the basic calculations such as weight distribution, though.

 

 

I used sth similar, and only one scale with 3 stands ( identical as scale height) under rest of the wheels, then scale under second wheel, under next etc. 

There are many calculators online for example:

https://www.gtsparkplugs.com/Corner_Weights.html

 

Next time I would just buy 4 of those scales (used one are close to 20-25 in GBP currency) , online  calculator and voila. If someone wish , those have fine-regulation of level and height to compensate if there is not  ideal floor level. 

 

(as for bathroom scale should be one without auto power off.)