Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkoPolo
Bruce and Keith,
No, I have not weighed my rig yet. Honestly don't know where or how to do this!
So....where does one weigh ones "rig"? Do you weigh the whole shebang or do you weigh the truck and trailer separately? How do you find the hitch weight? And how much does this cost?
Mark
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Mark -
Weighing is easy and cheap. Although there are other alternatives, a good place to get this done is on a commercial scale called a CAT SCALE, which is often located at a truck stop. You can't miss it - look for the BIG yellow cat logo on one of the signs. The scale has a segmented concrete weighing platform, divided into three (sometimes four) concrete segments. You just drive onto the platform, putting the front wheels of your tow vehicle on the forward-most segment, the rear wheels of your tow vehicle on the second segment, and the trailer wheels on the third segment. All three will be weighed simultaneously, and the weights printed out. Cost is $9 or $10. Find a scale, and instructions on how to use it, at
http://catscale.com/. There is one right in Greeley, and two others on I-25 near you.
Before you drive onto the platform, you should park and go inside to the CAT SCALE weight counter. Explain to the attendent (usually a cute young girl!) that you want to weigh your trailer and tow vehicle, and she will tell you to drive onto the platform, roll down your window, and wave when you are ready. The reason you need to do this is that the platform is equipped with an intercom and a push button to signal her, but they are both so high off the ground that you can't reach them when you are in your car. (They are set up for weighing big semi-trailer rigs). She will tell you by intercom when the weighing is done - you pull off the platform, go inside, and she will hand you the printed record.
fter you have weighed but are still on the platform, you can, if you like, get out of the car, crank down the tongue jack, disconnect the TM, and weigh again for only a couple bucks more. This gives you the total gross weight of the TM - the number that you compare to the "tow rating" of your tow vehicle. Or do it a third time, this time with the spring bars relaxed so that full TM tongue weight is on the hitch with no weight distribution. This allows you to see how much the front wheels are unweighted by the addition of the trailer on the hitch, and how much it is reduced when you crank up the springbars. Naturally, if you are going to do mutiple weighings, you need to tell the attendant beforehand.
On this forum, we have discussed weighing quite a few times. Here is one.
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ad.php?t=10958
Final answer? Just do it!
Bill