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Registered
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 895
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Corner Balance with DOT
Turns out I am remotely located from the nearest shop that has corner balance scales. So, I contacted my local Department of Transportation Commercial Division. These are the guys that go around in their vans and do spot checks on trucks and vehicles. They agreed to let me use their scales in their parking lot. I knew I was close, but the car had settled some after the last professional corner balance.
I disconnected the front and rear swaybars prior to arriving. I also picked up two 80lb bags of concrete to simulate my weight. We found a nice flat spot in their parking lot and rolled the car onto the scales. Their scales are analog and the tick marks were at 50lbs. I was a little concerned, but just interpolated between the lines. After a few adjustments to the front right corner, I was dialed in. I used the info from this corner balance scale to do my own math by hand. http://www.rennlight.com/cgi-bin/balance.cgi My results were as follows, with my 160 lbs and a full tank of gas included:  It might not be perfect to the pound, but it was free and not that much trouble. If you needed to mess with the rears, it might be asking a lot to do it in the DOT parking lot. Hope this helps someone out there... Matt
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Matt 72 911T Targa - Sold Hang up the cell phone. Put down the Latte. Ignore the kids in the back seat. Use your blinker when you want to change lanes. AND DRIVE YOUR Fu@#!NG CAR!! |
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02-15-2006, 09:08 AM
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Registered
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: So. Calif.
Posts: 19,910
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"We found a nice flat spot in their parking lot"
Matt, Nice use of available resources. It would have been more accurate to do this on a very flat DOT parking lot. A liquid level gauge and some thin flooring tiles (about $15) would have rendered the DOT lot (or at least 4 asphalt patches) into a veritible surface plate. How close were the side-to-side ride heights? Sherwood |
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02-15-2006, 09:48 AM
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Registered
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 895
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corner heights as balanced are:
LF 24 7/8 RF 24 3/4 LR 24.0 RR 23 7/8 thanks for the suggestion about the level and tiles. i was trying to make as little impact as possible on their operations (krispy kreme right around the corner...) they set up the scales for me so all i had to do was drive on and do my thing. i'm not a hardcore racer, and i know you get what you pay for. i can accept that. it all goes out of whack when my wife rides along, anyway...
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Matt 72 911T Targa - Sold Hang up the cell phone. Put down the Latte. Ignore the kids in the back seat. Use your blinker when you want to change lanes. AND DRIVE YOUR Fu@#!NG CAR!! |
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02-15-2006, 10:03 AM
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