So true.

"If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent" (essextee) 12/09/2015 at 00:26 • Filed to: None

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Nauraushaun > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 12/09/2015 at 00:38

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I think the idea is that the weight with fluids varies as the amount of fluids vary.

Water weighs about 1kg per litre. Petrol probably weighs more. If your car has 60 litres of fuel in it, you’ve lost 60 kilos. Can you drive it without fuel? No, but at least if you weigh everything with no fuel you can compare vehicles on an even playing field.

Sorry. It’s a good comic, I chuckled.

Urambo Tauro > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 12/09/2015 at 00:44

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Maybe you want to buy a bunch of them to transport across the country via train.

That’s about the ONLY reason ANYONE would care, that I can think of.

Come to think of it, I haven’t seen anyone list dry specs in some time. Do they really still do this nonsense?

Urambo Tauro > Nauraushaun 12/09/2015 at 00:51

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If the car has no fuel, you have to do some math to work out how much fuel is in the car.

Personally, if I have to do any such math, I’d rather subtract it from a full tank. And when I fill my tank, the weight will be reset to the baseline “all-fluids-full” figure.

I was wondering how much my car weighed, but different websites had different specs. So for accuracy’s sake, I went to a CAT truck scale after cleaning out my car. I certainly didn’t want to run my tank out of fuel, so instead of trying to get an empty-tank reading, I topped it off at the gas station literally 300 ft away before weigh-in. Now I know what my car weighs “at-the-ready” (or “curb weight”, if you like).

Boxer_4 > Urambo Tauro 12/09/2015 at 01:05

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Fun fact: the Vega was shipped vertically with fluids. GM had to use all sorts of special tricks to get that to work, including mounting the windshield washer bottle at a 45 degree angle.

Urambo Tauro > Boxer_4 12/09/2015 at 01:07

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Was it really? That’s impressive.

I am then truly at a loss, trying to think of a useful reason to refer to a car’s dry-weight figure. I can say that I, for one, don’t give a flying flip as to how much my car weighs WITHOUT oil, coolant, etc.

Nauraushaun > Urambo Tauro 12/09/2015 at 01:40

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Yes, and that’s nice but it makes it hard to compare to a different car. For example, is my MR2 lighter than a Cayman? Similar cars, but with different size engines and everything that take different amounts of different fluids, it’s hard to make a straight comparison. Maybe his car can hold twice as much oil as mine? Twice as much washer fluid? Does that mean the car is a few kilos heavier? What if he weighs it with no washer fluid and 1/3 the amount of oil it should have? Cheater!

Dry-weight is a straight comparison, a base line.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Nauraushaun 12/09/2015 at 02:31

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But the final act of comparing the cars like that is always going to be actually driving them, where wet weight does matter. Dry weight only means something on paper.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Urambo Tauro 12/09/2015 at 02:32

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Without fluids it’s a paperweight. Can’t drive a paperweight.

That's gonna leave a mark! > Boxer_4 12/09/2015 at 05:54

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Shame they didn’t put all that engineering skill into designing the car.

Svend > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 12/09/2015 at 06:10

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I’ve only ever heard and seen ‘Kerb weight’ (U.S., curb weight), ie the weight of the vehicle with optimal levels of fluids sans occupants.

Though many E.U. countries add 75Kg as an average mass for a driver in with the vehicle for kerb weight.

Aaron M - MasoFiST > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 12/09/2015 at 08:32

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You sometimes see it on motorcycles, but on cars, curb weight is the most popular metric. Curb weight is the weight of a car with all fluids, a full tank of gas, and no cargo/passengers.

wiffleballtony > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 12/09/2015 at 09:21

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It would be considerably less flammable that way.

wkiernan > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 12/09/2015 at 09:44

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Some states (e.g. Florida) charge more to register a heavier car. Do you want to pay higher fees for a full tank of gas? In fact, due to a typo (“2839” instead of “2389”) I paid about $7 more than I should have to register my 2004 Miata.

BigBlock440 > Urambo Tauro 12/09/2015 at 10:41

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Yep, they had extra baffles in the oil pan and other systems that eventually caused issues actually driving the car, but I don’t remember what they were.