anyone have free time this weekend and want to do something for me?

[TheGr8Schlotzky]

Re: anyone have free time this weekend and want to do something for me?

Alright, I did the test again, this time on a Lincoln LS. After measuring and calculating, I came up with an answer of 4,803.6lbs +-250lbs. Interestingly enough, the GVWR on the door sticker was 4,839lbs; well in the margin of error. However, considering the car was basically empty, it should scale in to closer to it's curb weight of 3,693lbs.

I used more water this time and conducted it inside the garage. The dry space inside the wet area was very oddly shaped, but the error should mostly account for that. An estimation of 77% tred-to-ground contact gets us at 3,698lbs, which is quite close, but again, a ridiculous assumption to make, and not very close to the previous magic number of 63% (granted this test was better conducted).

[cam98aro]

Re: anyone have free time this weekend and want to do something for me?

Alright, I did the test again, this time on a Lincoln LS. After measuring and calculating, I came up with an answer of 4,803.6lbs +-250lbs. Interestingly enough, the GVWR on the door sticker was 4,839lbs; well in the margin of error. However, considering the car was basically empty, it should scale in to closer to it's curb weight of 3,693lbs.

I used more water this time and conducted it inside the garage. The dry space inside the wet area was very oddly shaped, but the error should mostly account for that. An estimation of 77% tred-to-ground contact gets us at 3,698lbs, which is quite close, but again, a ridiculous assumption to make, and not very close to the previous magic number of 63% (granted this test was better conducted).

haha, awesome, i guess it could be fairly accurate in perfect conditions, but it seems like for the every day person it is accurate within 1000-5000 pounds :banana:

[TheGr8Schlotzky]

Re: anyone have free time this weekend and want to do something for me?

Within 5% my ***. haha.

[t-topV6]

Re: anyone have free time this weekend and want to do something for me?

hmm, very interesting and kinda cool how close it is in near-perfect conditions. It does make sense, but it seems way to easy to screw up, and the slightest mistake could result in a half ton difference.

[T-Mill]

Re: anyone have free time this weekend and want to do something for me?

I wish I had some spare time to mess with this bc at school we have a program that will calculate surface area of a scanned image, much more accurately than if you took measurements by hand...

If I get some free time, possibly next week, I may try this... I have some photosensitive sheets that are used to make stencils (kind of like stiff silk-screens) that I could use that would give me a perfect image of the tire print, and then use the software to calculate surface area... I also think I could get access to a scale so I could compare the calculated weight to the actual weight, not just the theoretical weight...

[Mighty Thor]

Re: anyone have free time this weekend and want to do something for me?

I've heard of this before. They use this method to figure out the weight of dinosaurs and other extinct animals. But the margin of error is much greater than that.

For one thing tires can play a huge factor.

Second, the weather can affect the psi of the tire. It can make the air inside of it dense or less dense.

[cam98aro]

Re: anyone have free time this weekend and want to do something for me?

hmm, very interesting and kinda cool how close it is in near-perfect conditions. It does make sense, but it seems way to easy to screw up, and the slightest mistake could result in a half ton difference.

yeah, it seems really easy to make a small mistake, but have it turn into a huge number at the end

I wish I had some spare time to mess with this bc at school we have a program that will calculate surface area of a scanned image, much more accurately than if you took measurements by hand...

If I get some free time, possibly next week, I may try this... I have some photosensitive sheets that are used to make stencils (kind of like stiff silk-screens) that I could use that would give me a perfect image of the tire print, and then use the software to calculate surface area... I also think I could get access to a scale so I could compare the calculated weight to the actual weight, not just the theoretical weight...

that would be awesome :rock: