Corner weights?

carl

True Classic
Has anyone weighed each corner of an X and if so, what were the weights at each wheel?
 
I have on my H production SCCA car. The alignment documents went with the car when I sold it.
The car weighed 1900#. With driver, it was 2100#. My car had a fuel cell in the front trunk. With half a tank of gas, the goal is something like this:
675, 675, 375, 375.
With stock tank location and driver, it is hard to get even front corner weights unless you have 4 coilovers...
 
Actually, the reason I asked is I still want to keep tab on the weight of my X and remember the method of using two bathroom type scales at each corner and before I grab a pair of scales off Amazon I wanted to know what weight range I was dealing with.
 
Pete posted a picture of the scale readout for his K20 X in your previous thread on the topic. Not a complete Fiat package, but very similar.

Hey Jim. Sorry to waylay this thread...but if you would be so kind...how did you post that link so it went directly to Pete's post in that thread ?? Anytime I try to do that - by "Copy" and "Paste" - it just seems to "Paste" to the start of the whole thread. And I then have to say " go to the 9th post on the 3rd page" or something. I must be missing a step or something...

Sorry to trouble you by asking. And on behalf of everyone...many thanks to you and Mark and the rest of the mods for all your work here !!!
 
Hey Jim. Sorry to waylay this thread...but if you would be so kind...how did you post that link so it went directly to Pete's post in that thread ?? Anytime I try to do that - by "Copy" and "Paste" - it just seems to "Paste" to the start of the whole thread. And I then have to say " go to the 9th post on the 3rd page" or something. I must be missing a step or something...

Sorry to trouble you by asking. And on behalf of everyone...many thanks to you and Mark and the rest of the mods for all your work here !!!
No problem, look in the upper right corner of any post and you will see each post has a number. (i.e. your post was #5) That number is a link to the specific response, so that "number" link is what you should copy/paste for direct access. Make sense?
 
Aha !!!! Yes..if i left click on that little #5 on my post.....then the blue shaded bar at the top of the screen now changes a bit. And if I THEN "Copy" and "Paste" like this:
...it should then produce a link right to it.

Hope that worked ! And who says you cant teach an old dog new tricks ?

Edit - yup that works !!! Thanks again Jim. Doug
 
Aha !!!! Yes..if i left click on that little #5 on my post.....then the blue shaded bar at the top of the screen now changes a bit. And if I THEN "Copy" and "Paste" like this:
And even simpler, right-click on the little #5 and select "copy link address", then paste the link wherever it needs to go.
 
Actually, the reason I asked is I still want to keep tab on the weight of my X and remember the method of using two bathroom type scales at each corner and before I grab a pair of scales off Amazon I wanted to know what weight range I was dealing with.

I do corner weights regularly but haven't weighed my X1/9 since it was retired from competition years ago, so I don't have the corner weights.

Regardless; the car should weight between 2000 and 2200 lbs or so. Divide that by 4 wheels. So 500 lbs/wheel. Then factor in the weight distribution and the max weight on the rear wheels would be 2200 lbs x .56 = 1232 lbs./2 = 616 lbs. on each rear wheel.

Of course the actual numbers will vary but that's the range of weight you will be dealing with.
 
before I grab a pair of scales off Amazon I wanted to know what weight range I was dealing with
Carl, there was a discussion about this a while back. And someone posted about some very affordable "livestock" scales that would make excellent car scales. I'm sure you might have been in that discussion also. Is that what you are thinking of getting?
 
I was going to try the double bathroom or postal scale method on each wheel. Trying to keep this cheap as super accuracy is not critical. Just wondered how much weight I removed (and added with the rollboar).
 
Any reason why this would not work for my purposes?

That's the one I was referring to in my prior post (#10). They are offered in different weight limits, a higher one might be better (1000 total isn't enough for even a stripped X). I seem to recall they were available for even less than that? Maybe search a bit to see what you can find. Shouldn't be too difficult to attach some pads to set the tires on each sensor.
 
My understanding is the four sensors are rated for a total of 1000 lb, not each one, therefore each sensor's capacity is 250 lb. So you'd have to somehow fit all four under one tire. The prior discussion showed ones like this but rated for 2000 and 3000 lb.
 
If you're going to do one wheel at a time you have to make sure that all the wheels are at the same height when you weigh the car. You probably knew that. :) With that scale you'll need to make some stands for the other three wheels.
I made up a liquid level to get everything level when I do set-ups. I used a length of clear plastic tubing and a couple of one foot rulers tie wrapped to either end. Then I fill it up with rubbing alcohol and a bit of food coloring. Alcohol works better than water because of the surface tension of water thing. You could use a laser level for the same purpose, I suppose, but I am always put off by the width of the laser beam. AlI the ones I have are too wide for me. I would suggest using the flooring tiles and grease "slider" on top of the scale platform so you don't get a side load on the scale when you put the car's weight down on it. Actually it's best to have platforms to bounce the car on to make sure it settles down after it's been in the air. Then roll the car onto the scale.
Also, the driver's weight, gas, etc are important. I use bar bell weights in the driver's seat and measure with full, half, and close to empty gas when I do set-ups.
 
Yes, the entire scale assembly would go under each wheel, one at a time. This is not for weight balancing as for a race car, just trying to come up with a simple and not too expensive scale... normal type livestock scales are rather pricey and even this is really more than I want to spend.
 
Got pictures of the corner scale of the LeMons car.. not able to find them at the moment. Numbers about 500 pounds rear, about 300 pounds front comes to mind. Total weight with driver about 1700 pounds with low fuel. Keep in mind this is very bare bones exxe with a cage.

If the car is corner weighted, the platform used to weigh the car must be level, slight variations can easily alter the measured weight of each corner. It does depend on how accurate the measurement needs to be. What takes a significant amount of time to set up the chassis alignment rig has to do with leveling all four corner scale pads.


Bernice
 
I was going to try the double bathroom or postal scale method on each wheel. Trying to keep this cheap as super accuracy is not critical. Just wondered how much weight I removed (and added with the rollboar).
Just bring the car to Hagerstown. I have a two ton scale you could use as well as multiple 600lbs scales we could put under each wheel.
 
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