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Old 06-10-2016, 12:39 PM   #1
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Measuring your vehicle weight

How many of you purchased your own hitch scale? Or do you just use big rig scales?

I know there are some camper weighing people (see COCamping thread). But thats a 1 off.

I just don't know if I want to pony up $130 for hitch scale, who has? And it doesn't give details on totals etc.
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Old 06-10-2016, 03:15 PM   #2
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1st thing to do would be to load the trailer as you would for camping and go to a cat scale . Weigh the truck separately then hooked to the trailer. From there you will see wherected your weights are at. If close to overloaded then the tongue scale may help, so you can adjust weights to stay under being overloaded
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Old 06-21-2016, 06:10 AM   #3
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I have been calling around locally to try and find a hitch scale and no one seems to have one to use. My tongue weight I'm sure is going to shock me...
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Old 06-21-2016, 11:43 AM   #4
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If you just want hitch weight try this method using a bathroom scale.

https://www.etrailer.com/faq-how-to-...ue-weight.aspx
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Old 06-21-2016, 01:46 PM   #5
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Thanks Russ, I'll look into that more.
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Old 06-21-2016, 05:36 PM   #6
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4 corner weighing is the best, but you can get 95% there with axle weights....
For $10 for first weigh and a $1 or so within 24 hours, you can get all the weights you want at a cat scale and it looks like you have about 15 of them in Utah
https://catscale.com/cat-scale-locator/map/

weigh your truck and rv getting the 3 weights (steer, drive, and trailer)
then weigh just your truck and the difference between your drive weights is your pin weight...

from those 5 figures, you can get your gvwr, your gcwr, your pin weight etc...
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Old 07-13-2016, 06:01 PM   #7
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Just a follow up on this, I tried the bathroom scale method but my tongue weight was way too much to measure on a bathroom scale with the RZR loaded on the deck.

Ended up buying a hitch scale and glad I did. I was at 1900lbs! Took a lot of rearranging of the trailer etc to get it to 1650lbs before our trip. The drive home we got it down to 1400lbs. Back to the drawing board on this one. The front toy haulers are great but the tongue weight shoots up fast!

When I get some time off work I'll be spending some time on the cat scales!
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Old 07-18-2016, 08:13 PM   #8
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I used a CAT scale to weigh the truck and trailer hitched up at $10.00. Not wanting to pay a second weigh fee, I went home, unhooked and went to our local bulk materials yard and weighed the truck for free. A little bit of math and I came in right around 3000-lb hitch weight....
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Old 07-19-2016, 04:53 AM   #9
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You can also chat with the scale operator about a reweigh. They usually discount subsequent weighs. As I recall $10 for first, $4 for second and third.

Did you weigh what you thought?

The scaled are usually 3 plates. Put the axles on one, put the tongue on second, truck on 3rd. Usually good to go when they are slow.
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Old 07-19-2016, 06:21 AM   #10
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3000 lb pin weight ?!?

WOW - I don't think our 40 foot redwood had that much pin wgt on our 350... but, I was the wgt gestapo as my wife called me when I told her not to pack so much
I would suspect you are exceeding your rear axle GAWR if that's true...

Oh, and with the cat scales, a reweigh within 24 hours is only a dollar at everyone I've been to.
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Old 07-19-2016, 08:36 PM   #11
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Yes, I am a bit over on my GCVW by about 300 pounds, but under on my GCVW by about 800 pounds. My numbers are as follows:

steer...5140
drive...6740
trailer..10860
gross...22740
truck with me in it...8800

after a bit of math....3080 pin weight...

I knew the Rushmore was a bit heavy, but I might need to move some stuff around as I do have a bunch of heavy stuff in the front storage area. What is funny, the door sticker has a front axle of 6000 and a rear axle of 7000...but the sticker of 11500 is what I need to go by.
I know my next truck will be a dually
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Old 07-20-2016, 06:30 AM   #12
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If a CAT scale is not close at hand, you can also try a moving and storage facility. They need to weigh in before and after loading. Kloke in Manassas, Va charged me $10 for first weigh and free for second weigh. Just hang onto the receipt.
They did look at me funny when my first weigh was in April when we had stripped our 5th wheel to the bare bones (truck and trailer 16160lbs) and then back on July 1, (gross 18800lbs). I felt ALOT better knowing what I was working with.
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Old 07-20-2016, 07:13 AM   #13
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gossamar - just wondering as to how you came up with your pin wgt ?

I've always used
(truck and trailer drive axle weight) minus (the truck only drive axle weight)

so it takes two weigh(ings) ...
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Old 07-25-2016, 08:54 PM   #14
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I added the steer and drive axles together for the truck which equal 11,880....subtract the 8800 pound truck with me in it...weighed at local bulk yard less than a day later...gives you 3080 pin weight....
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Old 07-26-2016, 04:58 AM   #15
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Gotcha ---
yours just seemed high as compared to my previous fat pig Redwood 38GK

We had a SRW F-350 that really squatted in the rear from it's pin wgt.
the rear axle weight (RAWR= 7000) is where most of that weight is and where most of our problems are
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Old 07-27-2016, 08:01 PM   #16
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John, what problems were you having with the F350?? Back when my Rushmore was built, I believe they were still sharing the frames with the Redwoods as my frame has a Redwood sticker on it, but I also remembered that I had a bunch of water in the tanks too, which could have inflated the number a bit.
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Old 07-27-2016, 08:04 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johnboytoo View Post
Gotcha ---
yours just seemed high as compared to my previous fat pig Redwood 38GK

We had a SRW F-350 that really squatted in the rear from it's pin wgt.
the rear axle weight (RAWR= 7000) is where most of that weight is and where most of our problems are
John if had bought a GA YOU wouldn't have had that problem
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Old 07-28-2016, 04:37 AM   #18
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Pulled and stopped fine, issues only in that the load on the rear axle was @ 6900 lbs or so and the short wheelbase rear just squatted more than I liked.
So put some bags with wireless in cab controller to level it out... and even though the GVWR and GCWR were ok, I still went to the dmv and they rated it at 13,500 GVWR rather than the 11500 it came at...

and WW... No gooberment motors for ME
I liked the softer ride when NOT towing - the bags muscled up when needed !
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