Continuing with our latest trend of reviewing and analyzing these DIY scale kit videos, today we tackle the Build Your Own Wheel Weigher Scale conundrum. Now technically we don’t really offer a scale kit that is specifically designed to build your race car scale or wheel weigher kit. However, you can modify and design your DIY scales however you see fit, as the man in the video demonstrates.
RACE CAR SCALES COSTS
I agree with him regarding the overall cost of race car scales and the functionality. These scales do tend to cost somewhere in the $1000 range and then just go up from there. And, as usual the less expensive scales don’t tend to be as good of quality as the Longacre and Intercomp brands.
And, if you don’t need all the cross weight and wedge info, a simpler scale could be a good choice. We used to offer a brand of scales called Siltec and they had some really high capacity shipping scales that would be great for this type of basic weighing application. But, the reliability of those didn’t seem that great and to my knowledge they aren’t even available anymore.
So getting back to the video. Bathroom scales can work for some low budget & light weight applications but they have their limits. I’m not a fan of the bar laying across the bathroom scale and then back to the back of the car and then all the 1/3 and 2/3 math that he keeps talking about. Plus, the bar is flexing and could possibly touch the garage floor at some point.
BUILD YOUR OWN SCALE KIT SAVES YOU MONEY?
I have to say this, with all due respect… with all this testing and building and re-building that he does, how much time and effort was eventually put into this total project? Your time has value as well. We see that he bought the scale kit online too, so once you add the cost of the scale kit and the cost of the bathroom scales, and the cost of the wood, and the amount of his time he puts into all this…. The man probably could have bought a lower cost set of wheel weighers online and had a proven product.
At the end, we still don’t really know if he has a truly working & accurate scale or not. He hasn’t designed the scale in the conventional way it was designed to be used where you place four shear beam load cells under a platform. I’m guessing he setup the scale system and calibrated it using a known weight. He doesn’t really mention that part.
CONCLUSION
My conclusion on this build your own scale review is that your time is valuable as well. This man in the video is probably a really smart guy. But I happen to think that his time is a valuable thing. I think that gets overlooked sometimes in scenarios like this. Some folks don’t really consider their time when they are trying to get a “money saving deal” like this Build Your Own Wheel Weigher Scale. But, I can’t help it when I watch videos like this one. He seems proud of the final product he created. He may be right, it could be a nice product. But, I would like to see a real certified 1000 lb test weight picked up by this device and see how accurate it weighs just to be certain since he didn’t build this exactly the way it was intended.