Exact Weight

[Marauderer]

Has anyone weighed your stock marauder 300B? I need the exact weight - not just published for when I get my GtechPro - Competition tomorrow!!!!!! I can then establish a baseline for any and all future mods. Give me numbers over "feelings" any day!

Also, has anyone seen the 18" wheels that weigh just 13 lbs? I was told that for each lb. you take off a wheel , it's like taking 4 lbs. off the car. Anyone ever heard of this?

Wow, 10 lbs. per wheel, plus the brake rotor upgrade, should shed a few pounds.

Anyone know if you can get our factory spec tires in a lighter weight?

[MI2QWK4U]

If you want an exact weight on your ride, clean out the change from the ashtray, fill up your tank, and head to a recycling/scrap center. There are a couple here in south east Michigan, the places they take the scrap aluminum or newspapers to. They have a large drive on scale they weigh the scrap trucks and containers on for a before/after number that tells them how much scrap they have in them. Nice thing is...slip the guy a $20 for his lunch and time, and bingo...you drive up and he weighs your ride for you. I havent done it with the Marauder yet, but have done it with my Mustangs before. Just a thought....

[Dr Caleb]

Good plan Mi2QWK! It'll get the weight of the car +driver. But Maraudererer will have to keep track of his own weight as well as the weight of his mods!

I hadn't heard about wheel weight, but it makes sense. Angular momentum is a much larger force than mass. I hear a collective 'Huh?'.

A spining wheel gains momentum (centifical force caused by rotation and mass). The faster it goes, the more 'angular momentum' it has, and the harder it is to move. The less mass it has to start with, the less angular momentum at the finish. This is part of the reason why 'Z' speed rated tires don't explode at high speeds (heat being the other). It's also the principal behind gyroscopes.

The mass of the car, however, doesn't change - it's the same at any speed.

[Marauderer]

Well, I took my car to a gravel pit and weighed it on the scales. I had the operator zero it out first, drove on and got a reading of 4,080 lbs. I then took out 17 lbs. of junk I had in the trunk and minus the 5 gallons of gas (6x5 =30lbs) for a grand total of 4,033 lbs. from the factory. This might be slightly higher than pure stock as I had it undercoated, which is something that I can't live without here in the Twin Cities.

For anyone else that is interested, I remembered the gravel pit from my Brick Mason days. Just look for any place near you that sells sand or gravel. You can also try your local dump, if they go by weight and have scales. Another member also suggested a scrap yard and I have a buddy that pulled into an actual weigh station once and didn't get any hassle.

Also, the spare tire, jack, and hardware weigh 42 lbs. just in case you wanted to know.

[Marauderer]

2003 Mercury Marauder (Trinity)

4165 Wet Weight
123.5 Gas Weight
4041.5 Dry Weight
42 Minus Jack and Spare
3999.5 Adjusted Dry Weight
215 Driver Weight
45.5 7 gallons of gas
4260 Race Weight

Notes
Gas weighs 5.8 - 6.5 lbs. per gallon

[Zack]

Go to a truck weigh station on a day with light traffic. Ive done this many times before with other cars.

[engine23ccvfd]

I am surprised gas is lighter than water which is 7.x LBS a gallon...

Why is there such a large variation in the weight of gas? Is super heavier than regual unleaded or are we talking diesel verse unleaded?

[Marauderman]

I thought water weighted 8.434 Lbs from my firefighting days--oh well--thats what I always used in my calculations --

[engine23ccvfd]

Just looked up water and you are correct it is 8.345 lbs per gallon which means my pumper carries 10,431 lbs of water...no wonder it is faster than an MM when empty:)

Dont know where I got the 7.x figure? Couls local water be lightr/heavier by region? Probably but not by a 1lbs I would think!