My Bell Merlin II weighs two pounds LESS than the advertised weight. However, the comments about scale accuracy below, including my own, have got me thinking I should check my scale. It's a spring-tension scale made for weighing buckets of milk (not something that's done on the newer-style dairy farms that have parlors, yet they still sell these scales in farm stores). For heavy weights I rig it up with a lever system so I can weigh things that are either twice as heavy or four times as heavy as what the scale was designed for, depending on where I position the lever pivots. We have some very accurate scales where I work, and one that I could use as a reference goes up to about 85 pounds and is accurate to within 0.002 pounds over the entire range. It occurred to me I should just load some buckets up with soil or rock, see what they weigh on that scale, seal them with plastic to prevent moisture changes from occurring when taking the material home, and then see what they weigh on my hanging scale in the garage. If i do that, maybe I'll even need to modify what I just said about my Merlin II being lighter than advertised.
Typical… Manufacturers aren’t held accountable for mis-statements in their boat specs. My Hurricane Tampico, perfect in every way, except…weight…is spec’d at 43lbs. and weights about 51. “Oh, that’s because white PVC is thicker than colors and the new seat is much heavier.”, says the factory.
Both my Dagger yaks are heavier than spec’d.
I’d like to see boat makers simply provide a published weight range and maybe mark each boat with it’s weight…they have to weigh to ship it anyway.
"have to weight it to ship it" That might be true, but only the el-cheapo rec kayaks and the whitewater kayaks are shipped with no significant extra weight of packaging. If they do weight them, it would be along with the packaging, not without.
weighing canoes Gotta weigh in. I seem to recall that OT is conistently a little heavier than spec. Nothing against OT, I’d love to have a Penobscot.
That being said, I’ve bought a canoe that was advertised by the company selling it, not the maker, as being a substantially lower weight. The spec sheet that came with the boat and on the maker’s advertisements was correct. The difference was substantial.
How many canoes, will the canoe company that advertises their canoes, as the world's "heaviest" canoes(and they actually are) sell?
How many cars, will the car company that advertises their cars, as having the world's "worst gas mileage"(and they actually do) sell ?
How many tubes of toothpaste, will the toothpaste company that advertises their toothpaste, as the world's "worst tasting"(and it actually is) toothpaste sell?
How many cans of beer, will the beer company that advertises their beer, as the world's "worst tasting"(and it actually is) beer sell?
How many cameras, will the camera company that advertises their cameras, as taking the world's "worst quality"(and they actually are) photos?
Truth in advertising?
You gotta be kiddin'!
They're all selling the "best"!
Show me the money!
