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Topic: Coach weighing (Read 812 times) previous topic - next topic

Coach weighing

Thought this may be of interest to the group. 


Escapees RV Club
 Smartweigh is now available at Rainbow's End Monday-Friday, 8am-10am. If you are in or going to be around the Livingston, TX area and want to get your RV weighed call our headquarters office at 888-757-2582 to get signed up or just send an email to registration@escapees.com!
We are only strangers until we meet; however, some of us are stranger than others

Re: Coach weighing

Reply #1 –
For those interested in what each corner of the vehicle weighs, a true weight for that corner or side may be a little hard to determine. In stock car racing we have screw jacks on each coil spring. The airbags in a motorhome do the same thing. For example, by adding or subtracting air pressure on say the left rear, you change the weight on the diagonal corner (known as wedging). Naturally, the total weight stays the same. If the vehicle has a front or rear sway bar, the wedging can pre-load the sway bar and change the handling even more.
Pierce and Gaylie Stewart
'93 U300/36 WTBI
Detroit 6V-92TA Jake
1140 watts on the roof
SBFD (ret)

Re: Coach weighing

Reply #2 –
How many scales does Smartweigh use? Is there some system to correct the "wedging" variations?

I tried to get corner weights on a Cat scale. I weighed the front and rear axles, then tried to do the same drill with the driver side wheels off to the left of the scale pads. If I could measure weights on one side only on a level surface, I could calculate corners. The drive was constructed so there was not enough room to get the driver side tires off the scale platforms.

We have successfully gotten axle and toad weights in a single pass through Cat scales several times. The weights have been consistent. I would like to see how we are balanced side to side.
J D Stevens
1997 U295 CAI 36' Build #5085
2002 Subaru Outback
Motorcade 16869
Bellville, TX

Re: Coach weighing

Reply #3 –
Hmm...

Knowing the pressure in each airbag one might be able to calculate each wheel loading.  This would be similar to measuring the pressure in a hydraulic jacking system to measure load.  How about a load cell at each corner?  Link it to the Silverleaf and it will give us something else to watch when we get bored driving. (Did I say that?)

Keith
Keith, Joyce & Smokey the Australian Cattle Dog
1995 U320 SE Extreme 40' WTBI Build # 4780, with a Honda CR-V hopefully still following behind.
Motorcade # 17030
FMCA # F422159

Re: Coach weighing

Reply #4 –
The best way is portable platform scales that  and that is exactly what www.escapees.com/smartweigh/ offers.  But remember that these are not certified scales!  Once your RV is weighed, you will be provided with the needed resources to allow you to understand your weight-control options and help you make the necessary changes to correct any weight or loading issues.

And Keith, there are devices out there that can be attached to your rig to give you the weights of each axle while going down the road.  Air-Weigh
1994 U225
build #4514