trailer tongue-weight scale experience

[avramd]

Does anyone here have any positive or negative recommendations for any particular tongue-weight scales?

I'm thinking of buying the Sherline Tongue Weight Scale.

In reading its manual, there are several usage/ownership responsibilities; "don't store it below freezing (32º)," "don't lay it on its side," "don't lift it by its piston," etc. I don't love the idea of not being able to keep it in my unheated garage w/ all the rest of my towing/trailer gear. The up-side of this style is that you can swap in a different gauge (up to 5000 lb) - so it seems to me I could use it to weigh my whole trailer with boat by going around to each corner, and adding them up.

On the other hand, a company called Weigh Safe has these integrated scale hitches.

The online manual for these only mentions a single ownership responsibility, and it's a no-brainer (don't use it w/out the securing pin in place). It seems pretty convenient to not have an extra step, you just use it like any other hitch, except you immediately know your tongue weight.

Both options are not cheap, so I don't love the idea of buying both. I wish I knew where there was an active weigh station near me, I'd probably only ever weigh my boat once. But it does also seem pretty useful to be able to weight it whenever I want, so that I can learn how much impact gear actually has.

[Panope]

I have no experience with those dedicated tongue-weight scales, but I am sure they will work just fine.

You might consider a hanging type scale as it might be useable for a greater variety of jobs.

Weighing the whole boat (one corner at a time)will require access to a strong overhead structure, but the tongue can be weighed using a timber across two saw horses

I weighed a 2,200 pound boat (no trailer) using my carport structure and one of these : https://www.amazon.com/2000LBS-Precisio ... 8584&psc=1 Boat had to be completely suspended (hanging) from three points. Care was taken to keep the boat level as the scale was relocated to each point.

[avramd]

Oops - I didn't originally dig into the negative reviews on the Sherline hydraulic scale since there were so few of them.

It turns out then 1 star reviews are quite consistent - highly inconsistent measurements, very tricky return policy, and not available via Amazon Prime, so you are at their mercy re: return policy.

Someone suggested buying through etrailer.com - I'm going to look into that.

You might consider a hanging type scale as it might be useable for a greater variety of jobs

Thanks for the suggestion - oof, that seems like quite a bit of work that would be markedly simpler with a compression scale. Hopefully eTrailer represents the Sherline scales well.

[BeauV]

Oops - I didn't originally dig into the negative reviews on the Sherline hydraulic scale since there were so few of them.

It turns out then 1 star reviews are quite consistent - highly inconsistent measurements, very tricky return policy, and not available via Amazon Prime, so you are at their mercy re: return policy.

Someone suggested buying through etrailer.com - I'm going to look into that.

You might consider a hanging type scale as it might be useable for a greater variety of jobs

Thanks for the suggestion - oof, that seems like quite a bit of work that would be markedly simpler with a compression scale. Hopefully eTrailer represents the Sherline scales well.

We've often measured tougue weight using an engine lift and a simple hanging scale. It seems to work well. Sorry about big picture - I just googled the term.