There was a mobile dyno at the Kim Harmon Scrotium 500(Road Atlanta Lemons race) that was doing corner weighting for $15. Seemed pretty fair to me.
There was a mobile dyno at the Kim Harmon Scrotium 500(Road Atlanta Lemons race) that was doing corner weighting for $15. Seemed pretty fair to me.
In reply to buzzboy :
That's a great price. I should check when the next lemons race is there, theyll probably be back.
As for the low buck, DIY approach. I did find a video of a guy doing it probably the simplest way possible.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=071xPmVgE0E
And a dirt cheap price for some 400lb scales.
https://m.ebay.com/itm/180kg-400lb-Bluetooth-Body-Fat-Scale-Bluetooth-Bathroom-Scale-For-IOS-Android-US/221873532670?hash=item33a8b16efe:g:ZuMAAOSww9xZIqF0
I think 12 scales would weigh my (guessing) 3700 lb car, with some cushion to spare. (I know, it's a pig.) 8 in the front, 4 in the rear?
That would cost 50 bucks for the scales, plus some scrap wood I have lying around. That seems to be about as low buck as possible if i wanted to try it myself.
No idea how the tempered glass construction of those scales would hold up. I imagine the failure would be spectacular to watch if it didn't.
At that price, it's cheap enough to try it for the fun (and challenge) of it and see what happens.
One question - if you aren't in a position to do anything about the weighing results, that is to 'corner weight' the car, why bother? idle curiosity? If they saw a possibility of more mechanical work to do the corner weighting they might be more reasonable.
You could always tell someone there that you are simply curious and want a quick reading on corner weights and how about if you bring it in at closing some day with $50 and a case of beer for the guy doing the weighing, could they sneak it on the scales. Be prepared to jump in the car when they do it or have suitable ballast at hand.
The last time I had a car corner balanced, it was $200 for the balance and alignment.
As one who owns a set of "racing" scales and has corner weighted all of my race car for the past 15 years I can say that unless you can either adjust your ride height via threaded sleeves on your struts/shocks or some other method you're not going gain much of anything.
Knowing what the car weights is nice but you don't need 4 wheel scales. A truck stop can do that.
That being said I am open to doing "corner weighing" for fellow racers. I've done it for a couple of Lemons teams who had installed threaded sleeves on their shocks and struts.
FYI I live in the Chicago area.
After years of begging others for corner scales, I finally bought my own. They work great, are cheap and you'll use them the rest of your life.
I really wanted to know the numbers to see where I'm at and where there is improvement left. I've removed a good bit of weight so far, and still have plans for another 200lbs or so out of the nose.
I'm definitely not building a serious racing car, but I would like to know where I'm at and what benefits future improvements will earn.
The car is a vintage Charger, and I imagine the original weight distribution had to of been close to 60/40. I'd like to see what my current improvements have done, and how much I'll lose after planned modifications.
I'm certainly not taking full advantage of the numbers, but I would like to know them.
Four regular bathroom scales, four five foot lengths of 2 x 10, four blocks the same height as the scales, and four pads to sit the car on. Use the two x 10s to make a bridge from the scale to the block on eack corner and felt pen a line exactly 4 feet from the center of the scale. Test with a heavy weight but you should be able to adjust the line by sliding the plank a bit until the weight sitting on the line registers exactly one quarter of actual weight when sitting on the scale. So then you can roll the car on and off the plank at the bridge and read the weights on each scale, and multiply by four. So a 200 pound scale will weigh an 800 pound corner fairly accurately.
FYI: When I looked into the DIY bathroom scale method, I did find some potential gotchas for those attempting this path. I did not ever follow through, but still may, here's what I found...
1. Many digital scales turn on and off automatically. On with intermittent pressure, off after 10-30 seconds.
2. Most auto-tare, or zero out after being kicked on. Any static weight will not register.
3. Some will err and not operate with static weight applied during startup, at all.
4. When I compared 3 scales in a store, same brand and model, they all were slightly different heights, so all would need to be measured (under weight!) and then leveled.
5. Many digital scales have other small usability issues to lookout for in addition. Bad lcd placement, glass tops, inaccurate/inconsistent at end of range, and generally crappy chineese interfaces. Try one in person, or pick one with reviews, or these may bite you.
With these facts in mind, the wrong scales, can present a maddening situation, if you care for any precision. My next plan was to try to make a list of rated scales that can turn on without resetting zero, and can be used while the car is already positioned. So far my list is empty.
My car is also only 1750lbs wet, so I was hoping to get away with one per tire, your situation will likely differ, but just require doubling, or a careful bridge situation (as detailed above) to divide weight.
Edit: If you have the cash, it appears Loosecannon's solution is the 'easy button' for weighing all 4 corners at once, almost as cheap as 4 bath scales.
1. Many digital scales turn on and off automatically. On with intermittent pressure, off after 10-30 seconds.
This was my one bogey, I resorted to taking a picture to capture the two numbers. I would look for big-boy analog scales if doing it over.
I would say that this will never work if you are trying to corner balance a car, but if you just need a good guess at weight so that you can order springs or want to know the approximate front/rear balance, it will do the job.
If you do try the two scale method, get hold of a couple of hockey pucks and screw them on to the board that you are using to span the two scales. Do so such that they land in the middle of each scale as a point load. Gave a more repeatable reading.
I tried the bathroom scale thing and ran into the exact problems listed above. I also used the wheel load device from Speedway Motors https://www.speedwaymotors.com/DECO-Hydraulic-Wheel-Load-Checker-0-1000-Pounds,32635.html and it is a complete waste on money. I went to my first event in Lincoln and had used this device to weigh all 4 corners and it was wildly inaccurate and I was 250 pounds over what they told me
This is excellent info guys, I really appreciate it!
I haven't pulled the trigger on buying scales or fabbing a solution yet. Most of the local speed shops are off for the holidays, but I'll update the thread with whatever I end up doing.
Those 660 dollar proforms are very tempting for the low cost, and Amazon's liberal return policy in case there's any issues. That's amazing value for money.
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