Tounge Weight with Bathroom Scale

afob3 Fri Aug 26, 2011 11:27 pm

I have seen this method before for measuring tounge weight and hadn't really done it because I never had a reason to think about it until we bought this TT. I can't believe how easy it was to do and would really recomend it to anyone that tows. In fact, it took more time to gather up the materials from the garage than it did to set it up and get the numbers.

How to measure tounge weight with bathroom scale.

Once I got it setup and started lowering the jack onto the board you could see the dial spin up. As I cranked the jack up, it settled in to a weight and stayed put even with a few extra cranks on the handle. The TT was dead level front to back at this point.

Tounge weight is less than we thought.
Weight without the WD hitch is 735.
The weight of my WDH also counts as load on the truck so I attached the ball right to the coupler and added my bars and it jumped up to 780. Brochure tounge weight is 600 lbs so you can see how battery, propane, etc. really add up.

Subtracting that 780 and the weight of my family leaves me with only 130 lbs of payload on the truck. I'm sure the action of the WDH moves some of that weight back to the TT. I'm happy to actualy know I'm under the payload now that I have measured it.

If you have never measured it, give it a shot. It is so easy to do it would make no sense not to.

I'd invite you to post your results here so we can see how far real life numbers vary from brochure numbers.

afob3 Fri Aug 26, 2011 11:30 pm

This post from an airstream forum I found when researching this bathroom scale method was very good advice....

Lessons learned:

1. If you are using the scales out of the ensuite, those would be the formerly all white ones, consider wrapping them in something to protect them from scratches and put something under them so dirt does not get caught up in the no slip pad on the bottom.

2. If you are using those same scales, before you put them back, clean them and then clean them some more, remove as many of the "oops" as you can, and get them back into the exact same spot BEFORE your spouse (wife) comes home. Particularly if said spouse has a known "everything must be clean and orderly" fetish.

3. It is not advisable, when said spouse goes to use the weigh scales and notices they have been used in a manner that does not fit with her Clean Homes and Orderly Gardens weigh scale usage criteria, to suggest that perhaps the scuff marks are because she's maybe gained a few pounds and is now putting a tad more stress on the old scales. Other no-no comments would be how surprised you are that they've survived as long as they have, or musta been when her mom/sister etc was out visiting.

4. It is important to note here that it is almost impossible to dodge a set of weigh scales coming at high velocity in the limited confines of the ensuite after any of the statements in #3 are vocalized. It doesn't matter how fast you think you are. There's a unique ricochet effect that comes into play that said spouse seems to be well versed in - I think they learned that in HomeEc in school. It can be deadly!

5. Be prepared to purchase a new set of weigh scales and there's always the probability of wall repair (glancing blow) and bruising. As for eardrums, I'm told that eventually they may heal.

Solution: Borrow your neighbours. Don't tell him why. Let him live with the consequences. It's one way to get even for all those tools he's borrowed and "forgotten" to return.