Weighing your rv

[Hammerboy]

I hear it said a lot that when you weigh your unit you should weigh each wheel vs just the axles and that makes perfect sense. With that being said how do you do that? Is this possible at the cat scales? Those of you that did it how do you do it?

Dan

[Pirate1]

When in FL I contacted local DOT office and asked for free weighing. They were more than happy to help. Their cruisers carry portable scales in the trunk.

In TN, I called local trooper office and asked if I could weigh off-side at local I-81 scale. They told me to come by on a specific Saturday and I was able to run through several times to get side to side weights.

I bought a portable scale and weighed several years later and found that my weights didn't really change than much to change the air pressures.

I would recommend a 4 corner weight once. If you can't, I really don't think you will find much air pressure difference on the axle. If in doubt, raise your air pressure 10 or 15 lbs until you can get 4 corner weight.

You really are/should only worry that one tire will be under inflated for the weight on the axle.

[wa8yxm]

There are 3 kinds of scales
Bridge scales (These are raised above ground. Most CAT scales are like this

Flat scales (Level with the ground beside them, This is what you need

And portable scales (Weighmasters carry them so do the folks from RV Safety dot com (you will need to play with that a bit or Aweigh we go.

Now in the first too types there are single scales and segmented sub types.

IF you choose to make an appointment with Aweigh we go via the RV safety web site,,, They will find a spot, take you to it and use their scales. they do a bunch of research and only charge a modest fee, I think I paid 40 bucks, well worth it in my opionion but if you are willing to do the research a flat scale at a facility is usually cheaper

Bridge scales CAN NOT BE USED, most CAT scales are bridge type (Above ground)

How to weigh on a segmente4d scale

Park so each axle is on a segment, Get weight #1

Now drive around and park so one SIDE is on solid ground and the other side is on the scale.. Again one sebment per wheel (not tire, but wheel)

For axel weights.. The first pass is it
For side to side (Wheel weights) teh second pass is the side you weighed
The other side is 1st-2nd pass

and it is that easy

IE: if Axle weighs 1600 pounds and the 2nd pass that side is 850 pounds the other end of that axle is clearly the "Missing" 750 pounds.

[fj12ryder]

^^^^^You'd use a Sherline scale like I have. 🙂 It would be about the only way I know to do it. I weighed all the tires on my triple axle. Most were close in weight but I had 2 tires that were nearly 600 lbs. different from the rest.

[myredracer]

Unless you suspect one of the pair of tires on a side might be close to it's load capacity rating, I'd just go for side to side weights. More likely to have the pair of tires on a side to carry more weight than the other side due to a slide and what's in it. Commercial highway scales can be a good place to get weighed if you're there when not busy. Curious -I wonder how you would get individual tire weights if you had a triple axle trailer...?

[Hammerboy]

That's a bummer, I guess that I will have to do the traditional CAT scale meathode until I find a way to do individual weighing of wheels

[stripit]

Ohio_Engineer wrote:
CAT official policy is to not allow one side weighing.

I talked to the Cat scale rep back when I was weighing RV's by wheel position when traveling fulltime. The rep said the CAT scale is not designed for anything other than having the vehicle flat with both side wheels on the scale. Having it off center like some are suggesting will not give a real weight number. And if a big semi truck was to try that side stepping it would break the scale inner workings and support beams.

[Ohio_Engineer]

CAT official policy is to not allow one side weighing.

[PghBob]

In addition to Escapees, most larger RV club rallies will have someone there to do four corner weighing. I don't believe you have to sign up for the rally, since getting weighed is a paid for option. We had ours weighed at an FMCA rally in Gillette Wyoming a couple of years ago.

[Ivylog]

If you can get one side off the scale (Not likely at most scales) weigh one side marking where the outside of the tires are on the scale. Turn around and weigh the other side getting as close as possible to your marks. It does not take much leaning of the RV to one side to throw off your weights.

Moving companies, quarries, feed/grain operations, and land fills usually have scales. In OR they leave the scales on when not checking weights and I've found they are easy to get off to one side and usually have room to turn around.

[Old-Biscuit]

Just load up and go to CAT Scale

Get truck/trailer combo weights
Truck Front & Rear Axles
Trailer axles total

Then go drop 5th wheel and go get truck weighed

Costs $10/412 for 1st weighing and ZERO for re-weigh with in 24 hrs.

Individual wheel weights great.....but not worth the hassle at a regular scale

The two weigh tickets will give you really good info
Wet pin weight
Trailer total axle weight
Trailer total (wet pin Plus axles)
Truck total
Truck F/R/ axles and how much trailer adds to them

[stripit]

aslakson wrote:
The Escapees club has a couple of 4-wheel weigh stations at some of their parks, and has a traveling unit that goes to many of their rallies. What we've done is find a scale that's not too busy and flat to the ground. First drive thru and get a total rig weight and individual axle weights, then drive thru again, offset enough that only the wheels on one side get weighed. A little math will then give you the individual wheel weights.

al

Sounds like a great idea, except it is extremely hard to get repeatable numbers. Each time you side step the scale to reweigh if you move the rig a few inches from where you weighed the last time the numbers will change. Those platform scales are not designed to be side stepped that way. Much better to find a guy with the individule scales and weigh correctly at each tire location, 4 corner weigh.

[fj12ryder]

I've only noticed a few CAT scales, but the ones I've seen wouldn't have room to only weigh one side. The ones I've seen have a framework that goes from one side to the other that has the microphone/speaker mounted on it. I suppose you could back in but that looks like it would get really complicated.

I bought a Shurline scale to do mine. Works a treat.

[Thom02099]

Another place to consider is a landscaping supply company, one of those places that sells rock/soil/mulch/etc in bulk weight. Their scales are usually very open so you could accomplish that offset thing you want to do. I did this locally (not the offset) in multiple passes/weights on a day when they were not busy. They didn't charge me anything at all, but you can bet that I will be using them always for my landscaping projects business.

[jplante4]

Most CAT scales have enough room on the side for you to take a second pass with just one side on the scale. The console is even set up for this, asking if the weighing is the initial weight or a re-weigh. I think the re-weigh option is for truckers that reposition the trailer axles and try again, but it will work for a second pass of a motor home as well.