Weighing tongue weight at home.

[jmc]

I've been using the foot on the jack - seems fine.

My scale is so old, it only goes to 250 pounds!

 

[jmc]

Something else that might work is to use your rear bumper height as scale.

Say you want a 600# tongue weight. Measure your unhitched bumper height with three 200# people standing on the bumper. Then lean a yardstick against the bumper, hitch up, and drive your tractor on until the bumper sags to that 600# height.

I wouldn't extrapolate the 600# height to a much heavier tongue weight, in case your rear spring rate is non-linear. And next time, your bed should have the same loading as when you took the 600# measurement, if your accomplices aren't handy.

 

[fried1765]

My scale is so old, it only goes to 250 pounds!

A 250 pound scale will work fine.
Just need to pick a lever arm length/ratio that will work for you.
I can measure my desired 1,400 lb tongue load with my 250 lb. scale.
I then screw a wheel chock to the trailer deck, for next time loading.

 

[bcp]

If you carry many different loads...

Ball Mount Archives - Weigh Safe

www.weigh-safe.com

Bruce

 

[orezok]

Or for a few bucks you can build your own tongue (or other item) scale. Buy the cheapest 2 ton jack you can find. Drill a hole at the base of the cylinder. Most have a flat spot that is perfect. Thread it and install a pressure gauge. On mine I measured the ram size and calculated that I needed to multiply the gauge reading by .7 to get the actual weight.

 

[jmc]

orezok, good idea but what if that ram has a larger piston inside?

 

[bcp]

orezok, good idea but what if that ram has a larger piston inside?

All you would have to do is put a known weight on it to get the correction factor.

Bruce

 

[tshep]

If you carry many different loads...

Ball Mount Archives - Weigh Safe

www.weigh-safe.com

Bruce

I may have done a $100 worth of work getting there...

 

[newbury]

That must have been a BIG freaking bird house! What's he trying to attract, Pterosaurs?

Reminds me of my Dad.
He went to the hardware store to get 100' of 12/3 wire for his birdhouse. They thought he was crazy,
His bird house was about 24'x8' and housed pigeons, ducks, a few chickens. and peacocks.

Never could tell what "two eggs" for breakfast meant - could be from two pigeon eggs to 2 peacock eggs.

I may have done a $100 worth of work getting there...

Yeah I fiddled around with 2x4's and bathroom scales till I finally bought a Sherline Trailer Tongue Weight Scale.
Propride link has them on sale for $130.

 

[orezok]

orezok, good idea but what if that ram has a larger piston inside?

You measure the size of the ram bore and calculate the square inches. Dia. x Dia. x.7854 gives you area. In my case that was .7 in so I multiply the gauge pressure by .7 to get actual load. PSI x area