Ball weight

Cheers for that. Will do

Jeez, Roughasguts, that's a bit ...er...rough! But I think I know what you're trying to say, though I can't be as concise as you :-).

1 Get your old bathroom scales.

2 Get a strong bit of wood, say 50 x 75, about 1.5 metre long and another chock of wood as thick as the scales, and two bits of dowel about 100mm long.

3 You'll need another bit of wood (a prop) that you can stick in the hitch to carry the weight youo're wanting to measure. Ideally the bottom end should be rounded.

4Park the van and chock the wheels so it wont move at all, or jam the park brake on hard.

5 Place a piece of dowel about in the middle of the scales. Lay one end of the 50x75 at right angles to the dowel and at the other end place the chock with the other piece of dowel parallel to the first with your 50x75 resting on top like a bridge on dowel rollers. If you make the dowels 1200mm apart things get easier than random distances

6 Make a pencil mark on the 50x75 bridge two thirds away from the dowel on the scales, one third away from the dowel on the chock. If the dowels are 1200 apart, then the mark will be 800 from the dowel on the scales and 400 from the one on the chock. This 2/3 - 1/3 thing is quite important to get an accurate result.

7 Stand your prop with the rounded end on the mark, hold it in place so it supports its own weight and try to zero the scales. If you can't zero them, record the reading. It will only be a kilo or two.

8 Move the whole contraption so that the mark you have just made is vertically under the hitch on the van.

9 Get your prop with the rounded end and place that rounded end on the mark and lower the hitch onto the prop. Note the reading.

10 Subtract the reading you got in step 7 from what you got in step 9. (If you were able to zero the scales in step 7, then you won't be subtracting anything)

11 Multiply the result from step 10 by 3. That is the ball weight.

OR

Go to a caravan dealer and try to bludge a ballweight scale from them

OR

If you know the ballweight is not more than your bathroom scales can cope with, put the prop directly on the scales without the "bridge and dowels" contraption.

Cheers

Frank

Jeez frank, while i understand einsteins theory of relativity you lost me at about no 5 in your reply. A while ago they invented some bridge thing that weighs things, lets call it a weigh bridge, that should work and help him. Sorry about taking the mickey out of you but bugger me, i could not help it. cheers mm

He he he my way works fine I checked the tow ball weight of me Windsor rapid with the bathroom scales, the tow ball weight came in exactly as placarded 124 KG

That's for a 1540 KG van so as you can see it's less than 10% of the total weight that some use as a guide line.

Cheers

Yeah, guys, I expected as much and I'm fine with it :-)

It's just a beam with a couple of pivots and the load applied 1/3 from the fixed (chock) end.

Maybe that's what I should have said!!!!!!

But I described it for anyone who wants to give it a go. You only need to do it if the weight you want to measure exceeds the capacity of the scales.

The dowels and rounded end of the prop are there to ensure reasonably accurate results.

Cheers

Agreed there MM it took me ten times the time to read Franks reply, think about the shopping list of timbers exact measurements of stuff I would need! as it took me to actually weigh the thing.

Don't have to make things complicated, this only took me 90 seconds to get the 2 planks of wood, scales and then read the weight.

Cheers.

hi guys, my van was plated at 240 kg ball, weigh bridged it at 120 kg, had to move water tanks and things to get things right, bought a tow weight indicator and it works fine. cheers mm