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Real weight of boat


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If anyone is curious. 

My 2010 23 LSV 

7/8 tank of fuel.  Cover. 2 batts. Exhaust. Wakeboard surfboard. 4 tower speakers bimini 10 life vests few towels 2 amps 3 cover poles.

5240lbs.  Far cry from the 3900 “dry weight”

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Did you remember to drain your ballast tanks? ;)

Seriously. that is hard to believe.  I weighed my 2014 23LSV before I bought it.  Boat, trailer, two batteries 1/3 tank of fuel, not much else was 6060 pounds.

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10 hours ago, RyanB said:

Did you remember to drain your ballast tanks? ;)

Seriously. that is hard to believe.  I weighed my 2014 23LSV before I bought it.  Boat, trailer, two batteries 1/3 tank of fuel, not much else was 6060 pounds.

Assuming he had a true 7/8 of a tank and you had a true 1/3 of a tank of fuel (and you tank is 56 gallons), your boat would have weight 195lbs more with 7/8 of a tank.  So call it 6250.  Now if the ballast didn't drain as well as it should, anchor in the boat perhaps, etc, that weight could add up as well.  

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11 hours ago, RyanB said:

Did you remember to drain your ballast tanks? ;)

Seriously. that is hard to believe.  I weighed my 2014 23LSV before I bought it.  Boat, trailer, two batteries 1/3 tank of fuel, not much else was 6060 pounds.

The place I go to is a metal recycler. I was able to get my whole rig on the scale. And go back the same day. Actually within 30 min. 

It wouldn’t behoove them to have the scales read high as they’d have to pay out more. 

34 minutes ago, Nitrousbird said:

Now if the ballast didn't drain as well as it should, anchor in the boat perhaps, etc, that weight could add up as well.  

That’s a good point too.  All tanks read empty. I ran the pumps. I also have bags.  Which could have had SOME in there. In the end. My intent was to get a real world weight for hoist purpose. 

If I recall correctly, the dry weight of these does NOT include the tower? Wedge? Obviously the batts and audio components too. 

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1 hour ago, Nitrousbird said:

Assuming he had a true 7/8 of a tank and you had a true 1/3 of a tank of fuel (and you tank is 56 gallons), your boat would have weight 195lbs more with 7/8 of a tank.  So call it 6250.  Now if the ballast didn't drain as well as it should, anchor in the boat perhaps, etc, that weight could add up as well.  

My weight wasn’t just just the boat. It was the  tandem axle trailer too. 

And, not that it matters, but I think the fuel tank on my boat is 68 gallons. 

My weight came from a CAT scale at a local truck stop. Did it before I bought the boat. Came from the dealer, drove across the scale, unhitched so only the boat/trailer were on the scale, and weighed it.  

Edited by RyanB
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13 minutes ago, RyanB said:

My weight wasn’t just just the boat. It was the trailer too. 

And, not that it matters, but I think the fuel tank on my boat is 68 gallons. 

May weight came from a CAT scale at a local truck stop. 

You’re right your tank is larger. So how did you determine the weight? Not trying to be combative just trying to figure this out. 

I would venture to guess your weight was a bit low. Reason being is your dry weight is listed as 4500. Subtract the 6060 measured weight. That’s 1560. That’s probably pretty close to a tandem axel trailer.  That wouldn’t account your fuel (1/3 of 68=23x6=138lbs) two batts (100lbs)and any unaccounted miscellaneous equipment. That’s about 6300.  If my swag is right. Lol. 

But I guess the trailer could be light at 1300. But I sorta doubt it considering all the stuff on these trailers.  That’s the one thing I didn’t do. I should have unhitched the trailer empty just to know as well. :blush:

But that means in the end we’re kinda swagging at your boat weights because we’re including the trailer.  That’s why I back to back full on rig without then with boat. Same day. Same scale. 30 min apart. I wanted to know what I had to lift. 

Edited by Ryan1776
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1 minute ago, Ryan1776 said:

You’re right your tank is larger. So how did you determine the weight? Not trying to be combative just trying to figure this out. 

I would venture to guess your weight was a bit low. Reason being is your dry weight is listed as 4500. Subtract the 6060 measured weight. That’s 1560. That’s probably pretty close to a tandem axel trailer.  That wouldn’t account your fuel (1/3 of 68=23x6=138lbs) two batts (100lbs)and any unaccounted miscellaneous equipment. That’s about 6300.  If my swag is right. Lol. 

But I guess the trailer could be light at 1300. But I sorta doubt it considering all the stuff on these trailers.  That’s the one thing I didn’t do. I should have unhitched the trailer empty just to know as well. :blush:

Good question.  There is either a HUGE amount of variation in the weight of these boats, or one of our weights is way off.

We literally picked the boat and trailer, new from the dealer, up, and drove it across the street to the truck stop.  Drove the trailer across the scale so that the two trailer axles were centered on the scale and the tongue jack was just on the edge of the scale, and unhooked the trailer from the tow vehicle so that only the boat/trailer were on the scale.

The boat was brand new from the dealer, so nothing but OEM equipment.  Had enough fuel in it to do a lake test.  The way I remember it was about 1/3 of a tank, but I could be high on that.  The boat and trailer weighed 6060 pounds as it sat on the scale.

The BoatMate trailer that came with my boat only has a 7000 pound GVWR (I think it is under built but that is another story).  My trailer has two 3700 pound axles, so there isn't much wiggle room there.  If my boat alone was 6000 + pounds, I would be significantly overweight on the trailer every time we went down the road.

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3 hours ago, RyanB said:

We literally picked the boat and trailer, new from the dealer, up, and drove it across the street to the truck stop.  Drove the trailer across the scale so that the two trailer axles were centered on the scale and the tongue jack was just on the edge of the scale, and unhooked the trailer from the tow vehicle so that only the boat/trailer were on the scale.

Exactly how I would have done it too. 

 

3 hours ago, RyanB said:

The boat was brand new from the dealer, so nothing but OEM equipment.  Had enough fuel in it to do a lake test.  The way I remember it was about 1/3 of a tank, but I could be high on that.  The boat and trailer weighed 6060 pounds as it sat on the scale

So that brings up the question you posed at the beginning. How accurate is the published weight. 

I mean. How much do you think that trailer weights? Gotta be over 1000lbs. I did a quick search and it seems tandem axel boat trailers are at least 1300-1500lbs 

The math works out in such a way that your total weight affords zero extra weight with a 1500lb trailer and only 200 at say 1300, not much margin for error.

4500dry plus 120 for fuel 100 for batts  4720  plus 1300 for trailer-6020.

If I take my total weight boat trailer and Jeep I was at 11,580. So subtract my boat weight measured at 5420=6340. 

Subtract 1500(guess) for my trailer. Nets me 4840 for my 2010 Jeep grand. With me and 1/2tank and random sh*t in the car. 

Chrysler shows my Jeep curb weight at 4735. That points to my trailer being a bit lighter than 1500. I’m 190lbs plus whatever crap in jeep as mentioned.  So the math does work. In the end variances of 100-150lbs is probably reasonable to assume.  

(Edit. I did this on my phone. Over 30 min between grilling and chasing my 16 month old. Just giving myself an out of this wasn’t  Coherent) :lol:

Edited by Ryan1776
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I think the real question is: how is the published weight established?

I suspect that the dry weight is not actually weighed on any given boat, and it isn't an average weight over some ensemble of measurements.  I could believe that it is a sum of expected weights of all of the components in the boat done on a spreadsheet using CAD estimates (or another manufacturer's estimates, such as engine and transmission).  The highest weight in the boat is the hull itself, and the components are not weighed during construction.  They spray resin until it is "good enough," which is probably always more than the original CAD estimation (although I'm sure they know how many boats they get from a barrel of resin, and thus the mean weight of resin per boat).  It would not surprise me to learn that every hull coming off the line is 10% to 15% heavier than the design weight.  And everything they put in the boat adds up, all the way to the bucket of fasteners they dump in the bilge during final inspection (just kidding).  

But dry weight is just that, probably all the way down to engine and transmission oil.  Start adding from there, and you can easily build up several hundred pounds of invisible weight.  Even a damp carpet could easily hide 20 pounds of water, and you'd never even notice.  How about the wires feeding the amps and speakers?  Probably another 30 pounds.  Even the cover is probably 20 pounds.  Changed the prop for surfing?  You might need to add a few pounds for the extra diameter or blade thickness.  The list is actually quite long.

In other words, take the "dry weight" from the manufacturer as an absolute minimum, not as an estimate of reality, and certainly not as the maximum curb weight with all the stuff you need to make it actually go.  But you guys who have weighed your boats already knew that.  It's the invisible stuff that is shocking.

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22 hours ago, justgary said:

I think the real question is: how is the published weight established?

I suspect that the dry weight is not actually weighed on any given boat, and it isn't an average weight over some ensemble of measurements.  I could believe that it is a sum of expected weights of all of the components in the boat done on a spreadsheet using CAD estimates (or another manufacturer's estimates, such as engine and transmission).  The highest weight in the boat is the hull itself, and the components are not weighed during construction.  They spray resin until it is "good enough," which is probably always more than the original CAD estimation (although I'm sure they know how many boats they get from a barrel of resin, and thus the mean weight of resin per boat).  It would not surprise me to learn that every hull coming off the line is 10% to 15% heavier than the design weight.  And everything they put in the boat adds up, all the way to the bucket of fasteners they dump in the bilge during final inspection (just kidding).  

But dry weight is just that, probably all the way down to engine and transmission oil.  Start adding from there, and you can easily build up several hundred pounds of invisible weight.  Even a damp carpet could easily hide 20 pounds of water, and you'd never even notice.  How about the wires feeding the amps and speakers?  Probably another 30 pounds.  Even the cover is probably 20 pounds.  Changed the prop for surfing?  You might need to add a few pounds for the extra diameter or blade thickness.  The list is actually quite long.

In other words, take the "dry weight" from the manufacturer as an absolute minimum, not as an estimate of reality, and certainly not as the maximum curb weight with all the stuff you need to make it actually go.  But you guys who have weighed your boats already knew that.  It's the invisible stuff that is shocking.

I totally agree with all this. I never thought about the extra resin and glass that is probably utilized above and beyond "design". Excellent point, and would add up for sure!  
Can you/someone confirm that the tower and wedge were not included on the dry weight of these boats? I feel as thought I read that on here before. Which surprised me. But since it is an "option" it is not included. 

 

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