Help! Vehicle Weigh Stations in Los Angeles

[carguy502]

OK, folks. In the beginning steps of rebuilding/restoring/restomodding my car, I would like to establish a baseline for as many aspects of my vehicle as I can, vehicle weight among them. There is a DMV weigh station close to me, but they want 57 dollars to weigh my car. That seems a bit obscene to me, but it has been a while since I've weighed a vehicle. Do I have any options outside of a DMV weigh station?

Thanks,
Don

[moreHP]

Look for a truck stop with a public scale.

[Ron.in.SoCal]

Hey CG - where in LA are you? I know of a public scale in Chatsworth. It's on Plummer street I believe. It's been many years, but they charged me $10 to weigh my Harley.

Try this as well:

http://www.google.com/search?q=public+scales+in+los+angeles&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=

Good luck Sir!

[jknight16]

Just be aware that truck stop scales will only be accurate to within 50 or 100lbs, can't remember which. My buddy is a trucker and clued me in on that detail. Given the weight they're working with, that 50-100lbs is a pretty narrow margin of error. For our little ol' coupes and sedans, it's a much more significant MOE.

[Blown73]

Do you have any animal feed stores? They typically will have a scale, but a store such as that might be pretty rare in LA.....

Also, farm scales (also probably rare in LA) are free if you go there at night :)

[David Pozzi]

Tell the truck scale guy you don't want a Certified weight, it's cheaper. Google "cat" scales &'see what shows up. Most accurate is going to be from a racers set of scales.

[79-TA]

You might also try the local dump. Depending on the person running the gate and scale, they may or may not charge you.

I really suggest making friends with someone who just has scales, or maybe has a friend who has a friend with scales.

[carguy502]

Thaks to the guys who posted back...

There are so many possibilities I had not thought of. I have some calls to make now, but do any of you know of a shop that might have scales to get a more accurate number and possibly weight distribution?

[moreHP]

I just thought of another....recycle places that take metal scrap. There is one by me that you drive in and they weigh you, then weigh you again after you unload. I would assume those scales would be pretty accurate.

[Johnnyb59]

Alameda and Randolph

[Trevon]

There are some places like recycling centers/dumps that may have a free scale.

[THE TECH]

Alameda and Randolph

We use this one all the time.

Also, you may wanna try contacting performance shops that do suspension setups that are used to corner weighing cars.

[spacepirate]

Try this method. We used it on a Science show one time for weighing Suburbans and it was really close to the actual weigh.

http://www.rockcastle.org/activities/weighcar/weighcar.html

[Steve1968LS2]

There is a public scale in Placentia on Kraemer that charges $10 for a "curiosity weight" ... Schoor Metal I think??

[THE TECH]

There is a public scale in Placentia on Kraemer that charges $10 for a "curiosity weight" ... Schoor Metal I think??

Yup, that one too! Schorr Metals.

[novaderrik]

use the principle of leverage and use your bathroom scale.. google it, the info is out there.

[carguy502]

use the principle of leverage and use your bathroom scale.. google it, the info is out there.

Well now, that is just bat**** crazy. I would have never thought to do that. Have yo done this before? My only thought is that you would need to buy 4 bathroom sacles to pull this off and while it should be repeatable/reusable, why not spend the money on actually taking it somewhere to weigh it, be it the $57 truck scale or perhaps $100 dollars for a quick weigh at a chassis/suspension shop, both of which should remove the possibility of user error?

[novaderrik]

Well now, that is just bat**** crazy. I would have never thought to do that. Have yo done this before? My only thought is that you would need to buy 4 bathroom sacles to pull this off and while it should be repeatable/reusable, why not spend the money on actually taking it somewhere to weigh it, be it the $57 truck scale or perhaps $100 dollars for a quick weigh at a chassis/suspension shop, both of which should remove the possibility of user error?

never personally done it, but i did some reading and almost did it about a month ago.. you can use one scale, but you need 3 platforms to put all 4 tires up to the same level and just move the scale from corner to corner.
you just need to use a some boards and leverage to get the amount of weight on the scale down below the max weight for the scale- usually around 300 pounds. a 4:1 ratio should be good for a 4000 pound car..

[carguy502]

Problem solved! I was helping out with LA Invasion this weekend at the speedway in Fontana and finally got to lay down some passes. While I was getting teched, I noticed a scale. I drove up and presto: 1969 Nova with 3/4 tank of gas ( Approx 12 gallons X 6 lbs per gallon = 84lbs of gas) without driver is 3260 pounds. With driver and what i'll say is a 20 pound racing helmet (lol) is was 3460. A little portly, IMHO, but we can do something about that.

It should also be noted that the driver is in process of shedding his unsprung weight, so that will help out as well.

Any other suggestions on where to drop weight? On the car?