I Invented a Better Way to Weigh Your Car. And it's Cheaper, Too.
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- Опубліковано 9 чер 2024
- Vehicle corner weight scales are expensive. Hundreds or thousands of dollars. What if you just want to know about how much your car weighs, or what your weight balance is?
I explore three ways to check your corner weights. One very cheap, one very meh, and one that I think is a better overall design.
The wheel dolly I used: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01...
Cheaper HF dollies: www.harborfreight.com/1250-lb...
The load cells kit I used: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...
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This channel is like if Engineering Explained actually wrenched instead of just theoretical whiteboard stuff sponsored by whatever car company wants to advertise through him.
Engineering Accomplished
@@SuperfastMatt shots fired
Then again, there's a reason he daily-drives a Model S, and it ain't wrenching ability lmao.
@Zulu his videos are ads, sure, but they are actually decently informative. He's not overdramatic or incompetent, he really knows wtf he's talking about AFAICT. Worst thing he is is a little annoying.
Didn't he have a supercharged S2000?
"I should patent this! .... Naw F that." 😂 More people should think like you
Not sure how it works, but hopefully that doesn't leave the opportunity for some other a-hole to patent it and gain exclusive rights.
@@benargee, it does leave it open for that, but unless he plans to market it, it's likely not worth his time and legal fees.
@@benargee nope, it's public knowledge now. Someone could make one and patent specifics on it, but what Matt should is now free to anyone.
@@TheSnivilous that's not how patents work unfortunate
@@jaykoerner how so? think what ivs meant was that i can build my own since this video exists publicly online, not like im selling it or have to deal with lawyers, which is different from a company patenting something they discovered, requiring competitors to make something slightly different after reverse engineering whatever it is for it to be mass produced millions of times
just bolting the load cells and replacing the feet with casters..." f*ck thats easy...". well done!
It's nice that you weighed your options before settling on a final design. Nice work!
I see what you did there
Hahahahah dad
There's so much more to take away seeing the failures as well as the successes.
Quickly becoming my favorite UA-cam channel
Yeah! well edited, not too much bullshit or too little content. And these more frequent uploads are badass. He really deserves more subs
Right?
The better version of rich rebuilds 😂
@@boredvideos1 so agree. Just found this myself. The engineering comedy is so spot on. "Cows and shit" lol. The ingenuity of this guy is crazy good. Bet Tesla hated to see him go? (Guessing he left Tesla as an engineer?) Anyway, props!
Matt never fails to put out the best content on all of UA-cam. Here's to hoping he gets a zillion followers so he can quit his day job.
Thanks! You totally saved my thousands. I had the rollers already and your rig worked well enough for my needs.
This is awesome, I'm running into the same problem with my build. My solution was to call up one of the performance race shops and ask how much they'd charge to weigh it on a slow day. A bit cheaper, but less elegant and it only works once.
I just go to the truck scales or any recycling center for the full weight... to get corner weight not so easy
The best engineering solutions are almost always the simple ones 10/10.
Yes. That's why engineering.
I just go to the city dump, pull halfway on the scales, then fully on, then half way off the other end. The guy there is good with it on the rare occasions when I do it and gives me all three numbers.
Fantstic. I may have said this before but I have no idea why you don't have more subscribers. Paul, Scotland
I like your setup, I did my own setup a while ago but I just used a 500kg load cell on my engine crane and then wrapped a sling around the hub through the wheel and jacked it up untill I was able to slide a sheet of paper underneath it and for what I was doing at the time it worked pretty well and now I have a scale for weighing engines etc..
God damn I love your content. As a mechanic who hates engineers, I'd buy this engineer a beer.
It's the engineers who don't work on cars that you've got to watch out for
i found this channel too early now i have to subscribe and wait like smuck for update on the jag
"I should patent this!"...
"Nah, f**k that"
high quality content, great video cutting skills, interesting content. All hail the algorithm. Also I do love the casual swearing
I like that I get more positive comments on the casual swearing than negative. Because I'm sure as shit not gonna stop.
@@SuperfastMatt warning! Contains swearing -just like real life
You, Sir, are a smart man! Thanks for showing us the process, along with the failiures!
In the early 1980s I worked on a Ralt RT4 and we used a very simple lever hooked to an old dial type tension wrench to lift the wheel.
We would have a piece of paper under the tyre, when you could just move the paper you would read the scale.
It gave surprisingly repeatable results.
Been using the animal scale system for years weighing my Tesla builds with harbor freight 4 wheeled roller dollies replacing the wheels with the load cells. I like this much better, in fact I just order the amazon setup you have to switch them out. Great job on giving me an upgrade. Thank you.
I was on the exact path you were on I was just starting out, trying to figure out how to divide the scale into four individual scales and platforms and stuff
Your solution is so simple
Thank you very much you saved me so much time
I really appreciate seeing the failure attempt. I went down a similar route looking at load cells and live stock scales before eventually caving and buying a proper set of corner scales. You touched on the garage being not level but you might surprised how unlevel it can be. My garage drops almost 3/4in of my car's wheel base.
Which is why Matt's solution is actually better, unless you can adjust the height of a real set of corner scales by 3/4"
I admire your ability to know when to quit on a design and start over fresh.
I love how you show the failures. We learn more from then than the successes. Keep up the awesome work
I've just found your channel and watched 3 of your videos. Subbed and thumbs up!
Ouch! Thanks for sharing that “learning experience”. Great recovery. Well done!
Simply awesome -- I have wanted something like this for years (about a decade actually) and here you go bringing something that not only works well as a scale but honestly can do double duty. I tried making a similar lever system to what you did and gave up on accuracy plus my version was outright dangerous.
5-10 bucks at a truck scale is what I ended up doing -- but that involves driving to a truck scale... Highly recommended if your car is say, moving but has its own pitfalls. For one, truck scales are fairly accurate but only in a relative sense. Like relative to the humidity and temperature that day for example. Still, this is better. You can calibrate this easily by simply standing on it. It's portable and has the aforementioned double duty as a useful tool in your shop when you're not weighing stuff.
Kudos man, love your channel. Plus your video editing skill ... dude. Thanks for sharing.
Well done! Love the problem solving and I will probably copy your design if my car ever has wheels on it again. Thanks a lot!
Friggin genius as usual with this guy
Tutorial on how you made your badass chair? :D
Thanks Matt, definitely stealing this! Also, loved your book 📚
What book?
I do a lot of work with load cells. This is very good!!! Well done.
Thanks!
I have an even cheaper way in the form of taking a singular price of metal to a scrap yard. And weighing on the way out.
I used to run around with some dirt trackers. Big believers in wedge effects- I believe "boogering the wedge" is about getting it wrong. Don't quote me on that, but that was what I got from it, listening while I laid under the car draining hot rear end oil out of the quick change so we could change the ratio between heats. The notebook our "crewchief" kept on all those "little arcane details" was always kept locked up when not directly in use. I really like your work around- it could catch on, especially if you could figure a way to put the readouts on a phone app for comparison. I am a plumber and merely have typing skills and a cousin to fix the damn thing when I press the wrong button! FR
That makes more sense that boogering would be getting it wrong. I heard it a few times long ago but don't remember the context so that might be true.
@@SuperfastMatt It was a "bizzy minute"- a 15 minute feature while we were in the pit from a 2nd place finish! They wanted a little lower axle so the 25 gal fuel cell of methanol would finish the race. The track had started wet and dried up, "boogering the wedge" all up- the car wasn't handling like it started. Bill dug out his "top secret" notebook and started telling people what to do- they were using the large equivilant of a hanging fishing scale to '"read" the wedge. I guess it worked- Randy won the 25 lap feature going away- the engine was up to black smoke by the last lap so the joy was limited. Those were the days, my friend! I did like your answer to the scales problem- all it lacked was a simo four wheel set up and a screen to read it all on and I thought about all the home automation deals that the cell phone reads and reports. The Jag ought to get you another trip to Leno's- I'm jealous! FR
I'm liking these vlogs. & the humour.
Great video. Learned something, was entertained and laughed a bunch. Perfect.
Great inventive idea!!! Well done! And thanks for sharing!
Nice work Matt. Love it.
I love this! I have been thinking about getting some rough weight measurements of my car.
1.4k thumbs up, zero thumb down, that's a new record
Dude. Cool.
Thanks for the inspiration and keep on trucking!
the easiest way would be to go where they weigh trucks, front tires on the scale, rear off, then rear on front off. you have your weight ratio. and for sanity check, weigh the whole thing, see if the numbers match. those things are cheap to use, in my area, (Greece) the normal charge is a couple to 5 bucks average.
Omg I love this video. So many laughs and super informative.
That was awesome. Subscribed!
Glad I subscribed, keep the useful content coming!
Very nice design!
Just use 2 bathroom scales adjoined and with a piece of wood across them, put a block of wood under each of the 3 remaining wheels that's the same height as the scales+wood and weigh one corner at a time swapping the siamese scale/wood hybrid to each wheel in turn and using the resulting free wooden block to replace the scales on the corner you just did. Simples! Accurate and VERY cheap. This would give you the ability to go to (in your scales case) 800lbs per corner.
good idea - there are scales available for reasonable money now that go to 550 lbs so two of those together gives you 1100 lbs per corner that would be sufficient for many normal cars and overkill for most race cars. cheapest corner weight setup on amazon is like 850 bucks. You could do a total 4 wheel setup with a pair of scales at each wheel for half of that or less. Or make only 2 for half as much money
Damn you, in the most positive way. I've made the purchases and stealing the design now with that lack of patent.
Seriously, kick ass and I can't wait to make one now.
_FMG_
Or, if you don't need super accurate 4 corner weights, go to your local CAT scale for tractor trailers. For a vehicle that you have to trailer, just weigh with and without the vehicle. $13.50 per weigh, goes down to a few bucks if you weigh again within a short time frame
Excellent idea. If I ever race car I will this.
looking for an easy out to measure wheel weights on my Travel Trailer/Truck. I like this!
Building anticipation: Next build accomplished! You're actually very amusing in a British kind of way. (That's a compliment in my books)
We had a really old scale set that used bathroom dial style scales for cornerweight setup when I was a kid similar to the first setup. From what I remember a total pain. Mainly when things move or you roll the car on and off the scales after making changes.
Damn those calculators! But also, thank you for publishing this!
This is awesome. I think with 2 scales doing one axle at a time you will get a very good reading.lifting the front then the rear as the effect between left and right would be far more than front and rear as very little inaccuracy would be presnet when the other axle is used as a falcum
Well done Matt!! 🖒🖒🖒
Genious Matt!
Dude is a hero
That's a really damn good idea that i might borrow if i ever get around to having money to build my restomod.
I thought there was better content than this.....but I was wrong....this is way better....you are a master of the kiss method
very cool. thanks
Well, if I ever need to figure out corner weights I'm all set now. Thanks.
Very smart man!
4 bathroom scales and a jack... work just fine for these needs.
Man, discussing about dealing with model 3 battery pack (BMS and hardware stuff like chasis related) could help humanity a lot
You could have just gone to a truck stop. They generally have scales that will give you a total weight, front weight and rear weight for like $15.
Also, seeing as how cattle can weight 2,000lbs each, the agricultural load sensors should be rated for about 2,000 lbs for a set of four.
Great idea, great video
Thanks!
That's actually very clever.
Very interesting! Subbed!
I’d love a in-depth how to video on build this super cool I’d love to make one
nice idea.
good job!
Or...for front/rear weights, go to local scrapyard, truckstop, feedlot, etc and give them $5.
For all 4 corners, make friends with your local Highway Patrol, they have individual wheel scales.
Love the design and would be a sharp competitor in the market with more accurate scales. The only flaw with it is with normal scales you can use hub stands to dial in the alignment at the same time. But for 99% of people your solution is more than adequate
This is the kind of thing you see and think 'how does this not already exist?'.
Amazing!
Genius idea Matt! I'd say "post links", but we would probably buy out all of the ebay ag sellers in a hot minute. "Livestock scale kit" is all you need in a Google search people. You could get a SET of decent dollies and the scale kit for one of them and still be under $1500. 👍
I added links in the description.
And they are already sold out
I vote we just weigh them by measuring water displacement.
Would be an amazing precursor to a rust reformation playlist xD
Great info Matt. What did the subframe with power unit weigh? Cheers
outstanding
This exact method was detailed in Race Magazine close to 10 years ago.
I love it - "thankfully i spent a lot of money on college to learn math more thankfully i have a calculator that makes all that math i learned unnecessary"
My friend and I are writing a book, "Great ideas for someone else to patent" Sounds like you should be a co-author.
The idea is brilliant, but what's also brilliant is just how far the beam deforms with the cheap way around 2:27 :P
Beautiful video 😂
It would be awesome to have a set of these in my garage.
Thats an awesome idea. Im sure this is a sellable idea.
This one ist Genius
Great
Just put all four bathroom scales on one corner to quadrupel your measuring range. ;)
Sick vid 👌
"I should patten this... Nah, fuck that." = Based as fuck
hmmmm that first idea might actually work for my mini truck wiki says that model is 1500 to 2200 pounds but im assuming the 2200 is the superchaged van or dump truck
Having built a similar device using the same load cell kit and a harbor freight daytona dolly jack i can confirm it works great.
Just make sure to not use the little metal spacers the instruction manual says you must use. Its lying to you
supernicematt
As another engineer that actually makes stuff in real life I salute you. And also a fellow "I should patent this... Nah. Fuck that" individual. Lmao.
i like problems and getting to the solutions. I am weird. a good problem makes me happy. Happier than a solution looking for a problem.....
@5:27 Why not just rotate the platform with load cells 90 degrees (about a vertical axis) and then roll the car onto the platform? - no jacking required.
there are cheap (150ish) scales shaped like a small plank where you just drive on. for caravan weight control
I envy you having a concrete floor to do this. I need something exactly like this... just for beehives. Shouldn't be so different right?