Scales and Load Weight Question

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Gary L
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Post by Gary L » Tue. Oct. 14, 2008 2:21 pm

Just wondering about weighing practices at the place I pick up my coal from. They have a drive on scale but only large enough for a single vehicle.

I go with a trailer attached. First they weigh the empty truck and then I drive forward and the still attached trailer gets weighed. Both empty weights are recorded.

Same proceedure on the way out with both loaded. This seems to be the only way they could do it short of disconnecting the trailer twice.

Here is the question I wonder about.

If I paid for my load and drove down the road a ways to a place that has a scale long enough to weigh both at once, will the numbers be close if both scales are accurate?

In one thought I feel as though the weight of the trailer tong adds to the truck weight but then another thought tells me the actual weight I am paying for is the difference between empty and full and one washes the other.

Any thought here?

Gary

 
Linc
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Post by Linc » Tue. Oct. 14, 2008 3:49 pm

I would think that it would be a wash. There may be a difference in scale weights but it depends on the scales. Net weight of the load should be within a few pounds of each other. That type of scale does not have to weigh to the exact amount to be considered calibrated. It can be + or - a few pounds.


 
zeeklu
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Post by zeeklu » Tue. Oct. 14, 2008 4:17 pm

The weight should be the same.The state police in most states use portable scales and weigh one axle at a time .The weight of the tounge will add to the weight of the truck but subtract from the weight of the trailer. If you disconnected the truck and weighed it and the weighed the trailer with the tounge laying on the scale and added them up it would be the same.The only way it would be different is if you weighed the trailer with the tounge off the scale. Chris
Last edited by zeeklu on Tue. Oct. 14, 2008 4:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Tue. Oct. 14, 2008 4:20 pm

It should be the same weight, those scales aren't perfect and they are allowed a percentage to be a off. I don't know what it is offhand. I know when I was a weightmaster I could just about nail the weight of person on it. :lol: All your weight is going to the wheels and each wheel is putting X amount of pressure on the ground. That's not going to change on flat ground. They weigh your truck and the trailer and add them together for the the tare weight. Once loaded the two new weights are again added for the gross.

Gross - Tare = Net weight

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