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I got my Cabela's fish scale last week and it's about time I weighed some car things. 
So today I grabbed some convenient wheels, one tire, and one combo to see what they really weighed. Some day I'll do a more thorough job of weighing more stuff. But for now here are some figures in pounds/ounces:
Festiva 12 X 4" steelies.......................................... ..................10/1 (ten pounds, one ounce)
Festiva 12 X 4.5" steelies (yes! I had one after all!)......................10/7
Festiva 12 X 4.5" alloy............................................. .................10/5
Aspire 13 X 4.5" steelie (I weighed two of them)............................13/14 & 13/15
Aspire 13 X 4.5" alloy............................................. ...................13/2
Festiva alloy with newish tread 165/70-12 Nankang radial................23/14
Honda VX 13 X 5" alloy (with wheel weights & center cap)................9/5
Sava "Effecta" 135/80-13 radial tire (brand new never mounted)........10/8
The Savas were bought from Tires-easy and are now all gone. I hope to make them into "temporary spares" when I mount them on 4.5" wide wheels.
The VX had one small and one tiny wheel weight, Figure maybe .75 oz total extra?
Here's a link to the Cabela's fish scale I bought:
(Method: I didn't just hold this in my hand. I clamped a furring strip of wood onto my porch rail for stability and the fish scale slipped onto the furring strip just fine. This ensured there was no wobbling or other unsteadiness upon weighing each item. I also made sure the weighed item was not touching the porch rail. My results should be pretty consistent, methinks.)
To sum up a couple of interesting and maybe surprising findings, the lightest Festiva wheel you could have is the 12 X 4" steel wheel. It is four ounces lighter than the alloy and six ounces lighter than the wider steelie.
The 13 X 4.5" Aspire alloy is only about twelve ounces lighter than the same size steelie. I was planning on using a couple of my Aspire alloys to make "temp spares" with the skinny Sava tire, but maybe I'll have to weigh some other steel wheels in that size to see if I can find one as light or lighter than the alloy. If I used the Sava on the Aspire alloy the resulting combo would weight 23 pounds and ten ounces. (Compare that with an estimated weight of my 175/70 Falkens (15#) on my 13 X 5.5" Estrellas (12.5#) of 27.5 pounds.)
The Honda VX wheel is darned light! Probably still one or two ounces over the often heard "nine pounds" though.
Finally, my old method of weighing wheels and tires may not be too bad. I would use my bathroom scale and weight myself, then pick up the tire or wheel or combo and step back on, subtracting my weight to get the target weight. Not half bad, according to the fish scale. Probably within a pound at least.
Karl
So today I grabbed some convenient wheels, one tire, and one combo to see what they really weighed. Some day I'll do a more thorough job of weighing more stuff. But for now here are some figures in pounds/ounces:Festiva 12 X 4" steelies.......................................... ..................10/1 (ten pounds, one ounce)
Festiva 12 X 4.5" steelies (yes! I had one after all!)......................10/7
Festiva 12 X 4.5" alloy............................................. .................10/5
Aspire 13 X 4.5" steelie (I weighed two of them)............................13/14 & 13/15
Aspire 13 X 4.5" alloy............................................. ...................13/2
Festiva alloy with newish tread 165/70-12 Nankang radial................23/14
Honda VX 13 X 5" alloy (with wheel weights & center cap)................9/5
Sava "Effecta" 135/80-13 radial tire (brand new never mounted)........10/8
The Savas were bought from Tires-easy and are now all gone. I hope to make them into "temporary spares" when I mount them on 4.5" wide wheels.
The VX had one small and one tiny wheel weight, Figure maybe .75 oz total extra?
Here's a link to the Cabela's fish scale I bought:
(Method: I didn't just hold this in my hand. I clamped a furring strip of wood onto my porch rail for stability and the fish scale slipped onto the furring strip just fine. This ensured there was no wobbling or other unsteadiness upon weighing each item. I also made sure the weighed item was not touching the porch rail. My results should be pretty consistent, methinks.)
To sum up a couple of interesting and maybe surprising findings, the lightest Festiva wheel you could have is the 12 X 4" steel wheel. It is four ounces lighter than the alloy and six ounces lighter than the wider steelie.
The 13 X 4.5" Aspire alloy is only about twelve ounces lighter than the same size steelie. I was planning on using a couple of my Aspire alloys to make "temp spares" with the skinny Sava tire, but maybe I'll have to weigh some other steel wheels in that size to see if I can find one as light or lighter than the alloy. If I used the Sava on the Aspire alloy the resulting combo would weight 23 pounds and ten ounces. (Compare that with an estimated weight of my 175/70 Falkens (15#) on my 13 X 5.5" Estrellas (12.5#) of 27.5 pounds.)
The Honda VX wheel is darned light! Probably still one or two ounces over the often heard "nine pounds" though.
Finally, my old method of weighing wheels and tires may not be too bad. I would use my bathroom scale and weight myself, then pick up the tire or wheel or combo and step back on, subtracting my weight to get the target weight. Not half bad, according to the fish scale. Probably within a pound at least.
Karl
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