I'm glad mynguy could find that bathroom scale process. I haven't done it that way.
Building on Herk's post, here is what I do for the scales. The CAT instructions aren't really clear about how to use the weight sheets...
As for weighing, you don't really need to do all of this but, if you do just the first set of weights outlined below, you are ahead of most campers (who aren't on this forum, of course). If you do all of these, then you can look at all sorts of other comparisons with these weights. You could even go further and start weighing individual wheel loads if you wanted to.
It depends somewhat on the scale because some have one platform while others are up to three. Besides CAT, moving companies, grain elevators and truck stops also have public scales available.
With a CAT scale, the front platform will weigh your TV's steer axle, the middle the TV's drive axle and hitch weight and the third the trailer axles.
Remember that the scale operator can help you with questions you may have once there.
Hitch up your loaded TT to your truck, load your family into the TV as if you were going on a trip, fill with gas and go to the scales.
1)
With trailer hitched to truck (and WDH hooked up) you want to get
front TV axle (Front gross axle weight - FGAW) and
rear TV axle (Rear gross axle weight - RGAW) and
total combined weight of TV and TT (Gross combined weight (GCW)). This is easy with a three-part CAT scale. Just put an axle on each platform. The printout separates the three and also includes the total. These numbers are important to compare to their respective ratings to make sure you are not overweight the limits of your truck.
2)
With trailer hitched to truck (and WDH NOT hooked up). Weigh again with the trailer hitched to truck but unhook the spring bars of your WDH. If you compare the numbers with the first set of weights above, you can see how much weight you are distributing with your WDH to the front TV axles and to the TT’s axles.
3)
Loaded truck weight (and, subsequently, trailer weight and trailer tongue weight). Weigh the loaded truck without the trailer but with family still aboard truck. Get front TV axle and rear TV axle. Add both to get the loaded
gross vehicle weight (GVW loaded).
A) This will also give you the trailer weight with the following calculation using the combined weight from weight set #1: Trailer weight = Total combined weight of TV and TT (GCW) – loaded truck weight (GVW loaded)
B) This will also give you the trailer tongue weight (TW) with the following calculation using the FGAW and RGAW from weight set #2: Tongue weight = (set 2 FGAW + set 2 RGAW) - Loaded truck weight
You need to use the front and rear axle weights as measured without the spring bars so that you are not measuring the effect of the WDH.
4)
Unloaded Truck weight (and, subsequently, payload weight). Last (and you might want to come back for this after dropping off your family and trailer) weigh the unloaded truck (no family or other cargo) to get the truck weight.
A) Your payload can be calculated by subtracting the two truck weights:
Payload = Loaded Truck Weight – Truck Weight
This is good to compare to the payload capacity of your TV as many vehicle's run up against this number.