weight on front vs rear axle

You could start by looking at the Gross Axle Weight Ratings (GAWR) on the sticker on the driver's door pillar. Those are for when the car is fully loaded with the maximum allowable cargo. When it's unloaded it is probably more front-heavy than that, because the cargo weight you have control over is more toward the rear, and the weight up front is dominated by the drivetrain.

The relationship between tire pressure and load capacity is more complicated than I thought; I tried to learn some about it here and one reference I found was a Tire Replacement Manual that had some load tables in an appendix.

-Chap

 

I weigh vehicles as part of my job, I'll try to remember to weigh my car on the way home tonight. It is a 2004 but the weights are very near the same across model years I suspect.

 

If Pat doesn't come up with the info, go to any commercial truck scale, or a gravel pit with a scale. You can weigh each axle any way you wish.

Icarus

 

youve got yours set heavy.. mine is a little more rear heavy.

 

According to this review from Motor Trend it is close to 60/40 which is somewhat typical for front wheel drive cars.

2006 Honda Civic Hybrid vs. 2006 Toyota Prius Specs & Pricing Comparison - Motor Trend

kevin

 

780kg front and 540kg rear with 200km (8 to 12 litres) of petrol and about 10 to 15kg of stuff in the back.

Total 1320kg

I have a 2004 Australian base model.

 

Japanese 2004 base model, 1250kg
Front: 750kg, Rear: 500kg

Japanese 2004 G Turing JBL model, 1300kg
Front: 770kg, Rear: 530kg

Ken@Japan

 

wow. i'm amazed that i learn something everyday here at priuschat. THANKS!

pat - you're an awesome HD of info. cheers!

 

As I said, I weigh vehicles for a living, well a good part of it anyway, and what I didn't say is one of our weighbridges is 5 minutes from my home.
Ken, where are your weights from?

 

They are from Toyota's specification sheet.

Ken@Japan

 

That's darned close to the 60/40% front-to-rear weight distribution mentioned previously. And since the fuel tank under the front seats has to be close to the CG, it probably doesn't change much with fuel load. However, with passengers in the rear seats and lots of cargo load, the CG will shift rearwards enough to affect handling I would expect.

Has anyone noticed this to any degree?

Ron.

 

The fuel tank under the rear seats.

Ken@Japan

 

Thanks Ken. I stand corrected. I had read somewhere that the tank was under the front seats and hadn't really checked to make sure it was true.