Weighing your TC for an accurate measurement?

Escapees runs a program they call SmartWeigh that uses 4 calibrated scales to give you individual weight for each axle position, which can be useful to adjust tire air pressure from side to side, instead of using the same amount of air pressure for both sides of an axle.

It's worth reading about, which you can do here:

https://www.escapees.com/education/smartweigh/

Very educational and thought provoking. Still, it's not cheap, and it's only done in a few places. You would probably be better off finding a CAT scale. Their scales are certified accurate.

https://catscale.com/how-to-weigh/

Good educational page, and they've even got a link to a video showing how it's done

:h
Umm My response was using Cat scale with multiple pads verse moving around on a single scale that much simpler. Whether you trust or not and accuracy?
Other than that not sure now what you are asking...

EDIT/////; ohhhh- OPs question was a take off from another post about payload....

AnEv942 wrote:
:h
Umm My response was using Cat scale with multiple pads verse moving around on a single scale that much simpler. Whether you trust or not and accuracy?
Other than that not sure now what you are asking...

Yep, we have weighed our truck, TC and trailer several times that way at truck stops. Just get each axle on a separate scale pad, then you get weights for each axle. Sometimes its free, sometimes one dollar and sometimes $7.

It does depend on the type of scale.

The CAT scales are very good. They have to be because if a trucker gets an overweight ticket (and they are expensive) after checking at the CAT scale, they will come back and be all over the scale owner. If anything, they may show you slightly heavier than you actually are (if they show a trucker they are right at the limit but actually 500lb below...no risk of a ticket)

Public scales...depends.
- Stationary scales used for enforcement will be very accurate also and they will be calibrated regularly. They need this in case a ticket is fought to prove to the court that the scale numbers are accurate. The only concern is...the calibration typically is based on commercial trucks. A little truck camper may not be outside the calibration parameters.
- Weigh-In-Motion...depends greatly on why it was put in place. High speed ones can have quite a bit of variation, Type II can have +-30% axle and +-15% GVW and still be in spc. You likely won't have access to the data from these anyway. These are used for statistical purposes not enforcement. The low speed ones fairly accurate but not enough to get detect 50-100lb overweight situation. Type III WIM are +-6% for GVW but an axle can be +-15%. Also they are really intended for commercial trucks. The validation doesn't include passenger vehicles, so take it with a grain of salt.

sbryan@vtbryans.com wrote:
Weigh the truck without the camper, then with it.

Ditto. Pretty simple.

I weighed my truck when I was enroute to pick up my camper.
7800 lbs

One the way home with the camper, I weighed again, 11920 lbs.

I'm over the GVWR of my truck.......!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh well.

I use 3 free Oregon (ODOT) scales often, and get remarkable consistency across all 3. The only oddity is when I weight the front axle (for example), I get 4600, but when I weight each front tire, they sum to maybe 4400, about 200 lighter. I still plan to compare with a CAT scale.

My F350 NL weights can be found here. The individual tire weights were adjusted up to match the actual axle weights.

--SiletzSpey

Unload the TC on the scale. The truckers LOVE it when you do that. Yes, I am being sarcastic about that. NO, do not unload your camper on the scales! A little math solves a lot of bruises.

Around here the truckers LOVE it when an RV tries to use *their* scales. Honking and fists out the window and words I can't repeat here... Just showing their appreciation.

mkirsch wrote:
Unload the TC on the scale. The truckers LOVE it when you do that.

Around here the truckers LOVE it when an RV tries to use *their* scales. Honking and fists out the window and words I can't repeat here... Just showing their appreciation.

Yup,time is money to the truckers,it doesn't take much to lose another load which is very costly to the trucker..Been there done that.

I have a grain scale,maybe 100 yards away as the crow flies from the house, that I use when it is not in use.I have never weighed any TC or other RV except my 21 ft C prior to just recently, out of curiosity mostly.I even weigh my car and ATV's just for old times sake.

Never really cared what they weighed,I just adapted to what I had and went from there with the mods of my choice.

It is an estimate at best,in my opinion and why the rear axle weights differ so much from user to user with the same truck camper.

XYZ truck camper owner with a ABC truck may weigh his trucks axles when empty. Then slide the camper in for loaded axle weights. This gives him a dry weight camper number.
Another same truck and same camper owner may weigh his trucks front and rear axles....then load the camper on the truck and load the truck and camper with all his necessary junk then weigh the axles again. There can be a big difference in gross and gross axle weights. Plus we all don't carry the same necessary junk in our truck or our campers.

I see a lot of RV folks give their vehicles a estimated weight from a brochure or the vehicles mfg website ie; "my trucks weight is 7159 lbs". A actual scale reading will read even numbers in 20 lb increments.
And we see lots of rounded off numbers to the nearest 500 lbs such as 6000 or 6500 or 7000 lbs.

New DOT scales are no longer in 20 lb increments, but I do not know their accuracy. These were my latest empty truck weights -

Front axle:


Rear axle: