cheap scale?

carl

carl

True Classic
I'm always curious about measuring the weight of my Fiats, especially ones I have removed a lot of parts on. Easy enough to put a scale under each wheel, one at a time and add up the readings but your typical bathroom scale won't take that kind of weight. Not looking for those super expensive four pad sets that racers use. What floor scales out there could take around 500lbs and not cost more than my car did?

And yes I can go to the local recycle center when they don't have 20 trucks lined up to get weighed and check out the weight but that place is almost always too busy.
 
This one says it holds up to 661lbs. And with a brand name like "dissylove", it has to be high quality. :)

Would you need to have a little platform of similar height under the other three wheels to keep the car level? Or is that over thinking it?
 
The height is not too tall to make much of a difference in any weight indication. Build an incline to it to prevent any side loading. Cheap enough to take the risk. Looks like hours of fum seeing how a driver and passenger affect the values.
 
Dino55 said:
The height is not too tall to make much of a difference in any weight indication. Build an incline to it to prevent any side loading.
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Then buy two of them to weigh each end of the car at once. Should prevent any side loading or incline issues.

Give them to the wife for her birthday. Tell her there is one for each foot. Then duck......
 
The weight of a 74 X1/9 was specified as 2,010 lbs with all fluids full. I never did confirm that number, but for the first decade or so of owning the car, I keep a list of the weight of things removed from and added to the car. As I recall, it was not very hard to pull over 100 lbs out. I think the biggest weight reduction was getting rid of the steel wheels, steel spacers, and tire tubes. The stock exhaust was quite heavy compared to the replacement, and of course a bunch of smog equipment including a pretty heavy air pump. I think the dual DCNFs also turned out lighter than the stock intake system due to the stock manifold and air cleaner. Wish I could find that list but I might be willing to spend a few bucks on a cheap scale and see what it really weighs.
 
Thanks guys. Now I really wish I had weighed each item I took off Fatrat but such is life. The binnacle around the gauges is probably the heaviest item on an X. I have several friends in the area with stock Xs to get a baseline weight.

Now I know what to do to kill the winter months, weigh every damn X part I have laying around and then go to Todd R's house and weigh his large collection of parts....can't weight...get it, weight....
 
By the way, has anyone done corner weighting on an X? I just assumed a 600lb scale would be enough.
 
Here are Madd Matt's measurements of my K20 X with AC. 660 should be enough capacity, but just.
IMG01353-20110712-0929.jpg
 
carl said:
I just assumed a 600lb scale would be enough.
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No.....might be just enough for the FatRat....but a late model A/C X1/9 would likely be close to 650 lbs on each rear wheel. Thus the 660 lb scale I linked to would ...just work. Should also be just barely enough for the front of a 124 spider.

Hope someone here takes a $66 punt and tries them.....
 
rx1900 said:
but a late model A/C X1/9 would likely be close to 650 lbs on each rear wheel. Thus the 660 lb scale I linked to would ...just work. Should also be just barely enough for the front of a 124 spider.

Hope someone here takes a $66 punt and tries them.....
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Beg to differ, my K20 rear weights were below that, and my car is no stripper model. K20 drivetrain is supposedly heavier than the stock 1.5.
 
Darned good point Pete !!!

I was assuming a stock late X would weigh in around at least 2200 lbs. With an oft-quoted 59% rear weight bias that would be 649 lbs on each rear wheel. With likely the right rear being a bit more. Thus my suggestion that a 600 lb scale would likely not be quite enough for most folks. Sure would be interesting to weigh each corner of a few X's and see for sure.

Yeah....I'm kinda surprised your K20 X came in that low. Yeah.....supposedly the K20 drivetrain is about 50 lbs heavier than the Fiat 1500. Likely ( ??? ) in your case this is negated by a lighter exhaust system, AFM, air filter box, ignition, removal of injector fan motor, etc...

Do you still have a rear bumper, jack, tool kit, trunk carpet, insulation panels, etc ? Perhaps that is a factor too ?
 
rx1900 said:
Do you still have a rear bumper, jack, tool kit, trunk carpet, insulation panels, etc ? Perhaps that is a factor too ?
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Yup, all of that with the exception of the 1 lb tool kit. And these scales go to 661, not 600, so I think there is plenty of margin.
 
Here's a link to a "Livestock Scale Kit" with 5000 lb capacity for $135.99. It contains 4 load cells, a display, & miscellaneous gadgetry. Perhaps instead of putting all 4 load cells under a common platform and summing the outputs, you could put one under each wheel and switch each one on or off for weights at the corners.

I don't know if it would work like that, but it's an idea.
 
carl said:
I'm always curious about measuring the weight of my Fiats, especially ones I have removed a lot of parts on. Easy enough to put a scale under each wheel, one at a time and add up the readings but your typical bathroom scale won't take that kind of weight. Not looking for those super expensive four pad sets that racers use. What floor scales out there could take around 500lbs and not cost more than my car did?

And yes I can go to the local recycle center when they don't have 20 trucks lined up to get weighed and check out the weight but that place is almost always too busy.
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If there's one near you, $12.00 https://catscale.com/

Moving companies often need to weigh trucks and trailers, maybe call some near you and ask them if any weighing facilities are nearby. Maybe the local UHaul Truck Center might have a lead as well.
 
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I was also wondering if the limit of these scales would be enough for the rear weights. With it getting toward the limits of the scale's capacity it might not be very accurate. I've often noticed that some of the "cost friendly" items such as these tend to greatly exaggerate their specifications, so I'd expect the scales are not really 660 lb capacity - at least not at anything near their claimed accuracy. But they really don't need to be extremely accurate in this case I suppose. I think it would be a bit of a gamble that these will work or not as intended. But the price is certainly WAY better than the car weighing scales.

My brother has a set of the real cornering scales left over from his racing days and I plan to do some measuring of the final weights when my projects are done. I've never been one to do any "before" recording of things for my projects; no photos or detailed lists or logging of parts, just tear into it and celebrate my vision when it's done. But I imagine trying to weigh every little part that comes off a car might not end up with anything close to the actual final weight? Seems there's way too much room for error. However that may depend on how extensive your modifications are.
 
Russe11 said:
Here's a link to a "Livestock Scale Kit" with 5000 lb capacity for $135.99.
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That may be a much better option. Having a sensor under each wheel is a bonus, the capacity is enough to weigh other vehicles besides your stripped down X, and the price is better than buying multiples of the other single scale. It would be perfect if it could read each sensor's weight, but having the total weight it still good.
 
Dan Sarandrea (Phila) said:
If there's one near you, $12.00 https://catscale.com/
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I remember when there was no charge for using truck scales. They were just sitting there unattended and anyone could drive up and use it.
I've often wondered if a large truck scale would be accurate at such low weights like the X. But it might be, especially newer ones that benefit from the latest technologies and haven't been abused for ages. I saw something online where a big bodybuilder guy stepped on a truck scale to record his body weight (I think it was something around 300 lb), so it seems they can record small weights - but who knows if it's accurate. However I'm sure it should be good for a car around 1500+ lb.
 
Guess I need to do some Amazon shopping. This certainly seems the way to go with one of the above items.
 
One thought with the last one suggested by "Russe11" (livestock scale) is you might be able to unplug all but one corner at a time in rotation to get individual corner weights, in addition to the total weight. Although not as convenient as the fancy (and expensive) racecar ones dedicated to do this, it wouldn't be that difficult for someone that only occasionally uses it. And it will still be much easier to plug/unplug cables than move one small single scale around to each corner of the car. For the money I think it's the best option so far. Won't be difficult to make platforms to mount on the four sensors. You can even design them to incorporate loading ramps, roll-off platforms for making adjustments, and leveling feet. Some random examples:

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