How accurately does your yard's scale weigh?

Okay, in keeping with my thread about whether it's cheating to throw refrigerator drawers that you left behind in with your next load of shred, what about yard scales?

Bugs me when I pull onto the scale and the readout bobs between two weights that are 20 pounds apart. Does my loaded truck weigh 8320 or does it weigh 8340? When I leave and it bobs between 7640 and 7660, what was the real weight? With a 20 pound variance in either direction on both ends of the transaction I could be underpaid (or overpaid!) by up to 40 pounds.

I'd feel more comfortable if we weighed in and out and there were digits other than zeroes at the end of the weight figures.

That threw me. too. I quit going to one yard cause I didn't believe the truck could weigh an even hundred pounds - both in and out - which meant the load was also an even hundred pounds.

well, when i get off the scale and head for the window, and it bobs between 220 and 240, I am good when it hits 220. forget the couple bucks, I feel better all day ;-)

The scale at one yard I use dose that also but when I look at the pay ticket it always has the higher weight.

I know for a fact that the yard I use here is right on, no bobbing around. Although a few around here that I have read about on here like to keep the scale inside, thus allowing them to say whatever they want. And I have weighed about 10 lbs of copper at home took it to one yard and they show it at 6.5, but that's a different story. Just goes to show that you need to be safe and have a good idea in small amounts before you take everything in.

There's one yard here that I'm sure the weights are far lighter than they should be, I've felt very strongly about this at least twice, but, you can't see their readout there at all. Can't see it at the other one either, but theirs always comes out more than I figured it would

Take your truck (loaded or empty) to the nearest grain elevator and weigh the truck there, that's a certified scale you can use for comparison.

I've never tried that Mech, does it bother them to weigh you? does it cost anything to use it?

its frustrating. atleast every 1 out of 5 times i go i seem to have 420 lbs light iron, and 60lbs HMS... i just wish they weighed the exact amount and didnt round down. but heck they pay so d*** well 215/ton compared to 145/ton 2 towns over.

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Originally Posted by Bear

I've never tried that Mech, does it bother them to weigh you? does it cost anything to use it?

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Around here they charge $ 5.00 to weigh but then you have a cert. weigh for proof if your having trouble with the yard. We had a yard up here about a year or two ago that had jimmied their scale and somehow the weights were way off. Someone had complained to our weights-measurement dept. of the state and they made a surprise inspection. They found the way the scale had been tampered with and when the yard owner blew them some crap, they padlocked their gates. The gates remained locked till they paid a $10,000 fine.

Rounding up or down to the closest 20 pounds on the big scale seems to be an industry standard as far as I can tell. I trust my yard and just make a game of it when I'm sitting there watching the numbers and waiting for the green light. I will wiggle a bit in the seat if it's bouncing around to try and get the high number.

ferrous to the 20lbs, non ferrous to the 1lb

but all that means is that its not worth it for me to bring in a load until its quite large. that way i only lose out a much smaller margin of my material.
instead of losing 20lbs from rounding every day, i lose 20lbs from rounding once a week.

My scale is an old fashioned dial type scale whith 20lb increments. With a close look at the dial I split the lines and pay on ten pound increments. If anyone has a question about their weight I invite them into the scale house to read their own weights.

All truck scales usually weigh by 20 lb increments. I am a truck driver and any scale I've ever been to does it this way. My yard scale does the 20 lb dance every time. The scale operator times it to hit the lower weight. When I have time I am going to a certified scale and will weigh and compare. I was very suspicious for a while when I first got my new trailer, not knowing how much she'd hold. I simply walked on the scale, asked to see the readout counsel. I weigh 200 lbs on the dot ( most days). It read 200 lbs.

Now, whether they can manually tinker with it, or punch in whatever # they want when your sitting on the scale is another chapter.

In the UK every scale that is used to weigh a product with the customer present must have a display the customer can see. At places like supermarkets, this means the scales have a display on the front of the scale for the operator and a display on the rear of the display for the customer. At scrap yards the display is placed in a prominent position where the customer can see it.

There is no way round this, unless the operator wants to be caught breaking the Weights and Measures Act, and you don't want to be caught doing that.

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Originally Posted by wayne

...There is no way round this, unless the operator wants to be caught breaking the Weights and Measures Act, and you don't want to be caught doing that.

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Same in the US. That's why I never buy anything by the pound. I don't have a certified scale.

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Originally Posted by Mick

Same in the US. That's why I never buy anything by the pound. I don't have a certified scale.

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That's the law here too Mick? I was thinking it darned well should be. I have at least 3 yards here, and not one of them has a visible readout of the weight, not on the truck scale anyway

Can't see it here! Scale looks like rounds 10 lbs. I would always look at starting truck weight and compare it to other trips I have made.

I can't see it, I go elsewhere. If that makes me a jerk so be it. I don't have time to play games when I go to the yard. I got things to do, time is money and all that. I want to get in, get weighed, unload, weigh out, repeat for copper/alum/etc. and get on my way. Not sit an play around while you try an con me outta .50 worth of bloody shred. If your a yard that does that..well I won't be one of the ones you rip off, at lest not twice. An if it happens at all I will make sure everyone I know hears about it. Of course if ya treat me right like my regular yard, I'll brag to everyone about how your the awesomesauce of the scrapping world. :)

Thats just how I roll and I won't apologize for it. Treat me right and we're good, try an screw me over, an I'll be sure everyone hears about it.

Sirscrapalot - Doesn't tolerate fools, idiots, or shady businesses.

The truck scale doesn't have a visible readout when your on the scale for steel. But the women inside punch it automatically into the computer for an automated printout.

any truck scale will have a allowed +/- weight wise. Its very difficult to get an accurate weight on trucks down to the pound that can come across weighing 20 tons or more.

Most scales you will find that they will be +/- 10-50 pounds depending on age. The scale at my yard is brand spanking new. Last one got hit by lighting. The old one was +/- 20 pounds and the new one is +/- 10 pounds.

Just keep a record of your weight. Remember that gas / other things can add or subtract weight depending on how full or empty your tank might be.


Even super accurate scales will be +/- a specific ammount of weight to account for humidity, temp, and other atmospheric conditions.

there are a few yards around me that screw people around with their scales. i took a whole bunch of parts from work in, 2500# worth, and the only yard here that i could get rid of them at without pulling them apart was shady as the day is long, weighed my stuff where i couldnt see the readout, and if it didnt weigh 2860 i would have been really upset. either way im not going back there. im with sirscrapalot, even if they give me the low side of it im out maybe a buck on average, not worth the headache especialy when you have a good yard to go to. start complaining about something that minor and they might not be so friendly next go round. off by a hundred pounds or the non ferus scale off by 20, that would have me upset.

My yard goes by 20s to, I just figured that the loaded weight and tare weight were rounded the same way, I didn't see the post about the trays but I don't see anything wrong with throwing them in, I'm all the time throwing in shrouds, carpet, dash pads seats, heck anything that came out of a car into another car, it's just part of breaking down sometimes you miss some things in your clean up nothing wrong with throwing it in the next car, fridge, computer case or whatever your breaking down, just my opinion

I have no idea how scales work or are calibrated but I always wonder about the smaller, second yard I use. Sometimes things just seem wayyyyyy off. I took a fridge in the other day and it was heavy as heck and they said it only weighed 127 lbs. no friggin way that was accurate but what can I do?

hmm the yard i got to for cars doesn"T bounce at all the litle itron /steel bs does and i have tare weight on copper /aluminum/acr stuff so it"s nbot measrued with truck

not that it matters i pre weigh on my scal;es vs theirs