A motor vehicle is made up of many different objects. Each object has it’s own weight and centre of gravity. When all of these objects are combined a single centre of gravity point is created in a 3 dimensional space. This single point represents a position with which when supported would allow the entire vehicle to be fully supported in space. The centre of gravity position between the front and rear axle is simply the weight distribution between the two. To calculate the height of the centre of gravity is a much more difficult task. The procedure consists of four steps:

1.      The front wheels are set on scales and the rear wheels are set at the same height using a spacer.

2.      A reading of the weight is taken from the scales

3.      The rear axle is raised lifting the vehicle to an exact height

4.      A new reading is taken from the scales and the weight difference is calculated

Figure 31 – Calculating the height of the centre of gravity

The information gathered is applied to simple formulae, shown below, and the centre of gravity height is calculated.