Re: Need the weight of my boat. How to get it.
A couple of comments and suggestions:<br /><br />First - you may be able to find the specified wt. for your boat and motor from the company that made the boat. Make sure any wt. you get is for the hull and the motor. Sometimes the manufacturer only give hull wts. You'll then have to figure out the wt. of the motor -either from the motor mfgr. or some other way.<br /><br />However, printed info may or may not be accurate and definitely won't be accurate given the stuff (fuel, equipment, etc.) that you normally carry in the boat. So....<br /><br />I recommend you actually weigh it. There are two ways.<br /><br />#1- weigh the boat and trailer and subtract the weight of the trailer. The trailer *should* have a spec. plate on it which gives the serial number, load restrictions, wt. of the trailer, etc. Or you can compare it to a similar trailer for which you can get the wt.<br /><br />#2 - if you don't know the weight of the trailer or don't trust it, you'll have to weigh the boat and trailer, then take the boat off and go weigh the trailer separately.<br /><br />While you're doing all this messing around at the weigh scale, you can also accurately check the tongue wt. of your rig. <br /><br />The way I did all this was to:<br /><br />- Drive truck onto scale w/ the loaded trailer connected, but with the trailer sitting off of the scale. Have them get a wt. for the truck in that position (wt. #1). <br /><br />- Pulled forward and weighed the car + loaded trailer (wt #2). <br /><br />- Backed the trailer off the scale, disconnected the trailer, and weighed the truck by itself (wt. #3). <br /><br />1-3 = tongue wt. <br /><br />2-3 = wt. of boat and trailer<br /><br />Then when you get a wt. for the truck+ empty trailer (#4) you can subtract 2-4 = wt. of boat alone.<br /><br />This takes some time and a few bucks for scale fees, but you you get a lot of useful info:<br /><br />actual wt. of your vehicle<br />Gross wt of vehicle plus loaded trailer<br />actual tongue wt.<br />Gross wt. of trailer plus boat<br />actual measured wt. of trailer<br />actual measured wt. of boat as you normally load it. <br /><br />I'm lucky because there's a couple of truck scales right near where I work. I don't know how I'd find them if I didn't drive past them every day. Maybe check the yellow pages - or call a truck (e.g. semi truck) repair shop and ask?<br /><br />HTH
