Rent Or Buy Balancing Scales - Where?

[jyl]

Can anyone in the SF Bay Area point me to a source to rent digital scales suitable for corner balancing a 911? Or, if no-one rents this stuff, to buy affordable scales?

So far I've only found one place that rents "20lb-20,000lb" scales for $250/3 days - I wonder how accurate they are for weights of only about 600-800lbs.

I got a $550-720 quote to align and corner balance my car. Since I'm likely going to do a few "phases" of suspension mods, I'm alarmed at the idea of repeated trips to the mechanic at >$500 a pop.

I am, therefore, starting to research the feasibility of doing the alignment, height setting, and corner balance on my own. I've started reading old threads on the topic and found various methods for doing the alignment using the SmartRacing tool, other types of levels, lasers, string, etc. that are all fairly affordable. But I haven't found an affordable source for the scales.

Any ideas?

[TimT]

Pegasus, Racers Parts Whole Sale, Hoerr, Coleman, Maybe Pelican sell scales.

probably $1000 and up, Id be ready to pay about $1500 for scales.

Why not befriend someone who has already made the investment?

[jyl]

Ah, yes . . . any BBS member in the SF Bay Area who wants to privately rent his/her scales to me for a week or so?

By the way, I was reading the threads by Will, Chuck, Bill, Thom, etc on corner balancing formulae and now my head hurts. That is why I am asking to rent our friendly BBS member's scales for a week rather than a day.

[Chuck Moreland]

Speedway racing has a single wheel load checker for about $150. Not as good as 4 digital scales, but priced right for the home shop.

[Bob D]

You might look at this option:

http://www.madone.net/html/odering.html

Not as sexy as digital but not bad for home use and more accurate than an individual wheel checker.

[cowtown]

Krause Tires in Castro Valley will do an align/corner for about $250-300 if I'm remembering correctly. Brandon (son of the owner) knows Porsches and holds a few track records himself.

There is also the "lever" system of using batroom scales and some physics to to a corner balance on the cheap. A search will tell you about this method.

Good luck!

[Joe911]

I use the Speedway wheel load checker and it seem to be consistent within 5-15 lbs on retest and my overall total of 2200 lbs is just about what it should be. It does take two people.

[nestorjw]

S Car Go Racing in San Rafael can have it done for a good price. I had mine done there.

[Jack Olsen]

Work out a deal with Thom (Widebody911) on this board. He has scales, and lives in that area.

[jyl]

Great idea - I'll PM Thom. Thanks, Jack.

Hey, what does "kegerator" mean?

[Jack Olsen]

[304065]

Jack, is that C02 or Nitrogen in the kegerator? I hear for Guinness you are supposed to use N2, if you use C02 it will taste funny. Bonus, you could also operate an air impact wrench and air jacks on the pit wall!

Hey Tim, do you have a set of scales? And how many McSorley's Ales would be required for you to demonstrate their use? I'm probably going to invest, and I mean invest, in a set of Longacre digitals, but would like to learn how to use them.

[KTL]

The scales that Thom (widebody911) has are the Ruggles S'cales.

http://www.tgsi.com/scales.html

I believe Thom had good results with them other than the included cheapo bathrooms scales breaking. I know of at least one place that sells them- Pegasus Racing in Wisconsin:

http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/

One thing to keep in mind with the Speedway Load Checker

Speeway Load Checker Tool

is that the tip of the scale does not want to fit under the rim of a 16x6 Fuchs wheel. I got my scale from Nick Hromyak who lent it to Thom, and I believe Thom welded a seat on the tip of the scale. This seat is better than the original pointy tip of the scale. It still doesn't fit well on the 16x6. I dunno about 15 in. Fuchs, but I do know that the tool will fit under the lip of the 16x7 and larger 911 Fuchs (but probably not a 951 16x7 Fuchs since its face is just like a 16x6). So if you're gonna get a Speedway Load Checker, make sure you've got wheels with which to use it. Chuck says it works great with his Cookie cutters. I'm going to use it with a set of 16x8 phone dials on the rear and 911 16x7 Fuchs on the front. As soon as I get some tires for the phone dials................

[Chuck Moreland]

I used the load checker in the hub of the cookies, not the rim. It does want to slide off the rim and scratch it too.

I modified the unit to be short enough to insert into the hub.

[Joe911]

Same mod as Chuck - the checker slides right inside the center hole.

[Brent 930]

I just got my load checker from Speedway that Sherwood recomended and like it alot. It's kinda hard to do the test and look at the gauge at the same time but I managed. What I confirmed is the balance is in the ball park after I screwed around with the height adjust of both front and back. Still need a 4 wheel alignment again and will call it good.

Thanks,

Brent

[john_colasante]

Given that a new set of digital scales goes for about $1200, and given that they sell for about $1200 used - it seems to be you could buy a set, use them for awhile, and sell them on eBay for about the same or maybe even more if you find a good deal.

[afterburn 549]

Please tell me whats wrong with bathroom scales, 4 for the rear tires ,,3 for the front....lay a 2x6 acrooss them to dist. the weight..yes you will have to add the nu up but it works for me!!
You can get new ones at wallmarshey pretty cheap.

[widebody911]

I have a set of Ruggles scales and they seem to work fine. I wrote a cgi app to use with them that handles the complex mathematics invoved

Here's the results from the last time I balanced my car:

http://vintagebus.com/cgi-bin/balance.cgi?name=Thom&car=77+911+cab&notes=235lbs+ballast%2C+half-tank%2C+no+tools+or+spare&LF=552&RF=532&LR=884&RR=872

Can't wait to try balancing the car in the new shop with the lift; trying to drive up on these dang ramps was tedious!

Here's a pic of my car up on the scales:



Jack, I'm way ahead of you:

[Brent 930]

Widebody, I got approx. the same weight percentage front to back at 38/62% and was wondering if this is close to ideal? My passenger side (with me in the drivers side) was a little lighter like yours too. Is this typical?

Thanks