A weighbridge isn’t like buying office furniture. It sits outside for a decade, takes daily beatings from overloaded trucks, and if it fails, your operation stops. Yet many buyers focus only on price. Then they learn the hard way.

At Fujian Fangda Weighbridge Manufacturer, we’ve supplied scales to mines, farms, ports, and logistics companies across Africa and beyond. Here are the ten questions we’d ask if we were buying–based on real field data and costly mistakes we’ve seen.

1. What capacity do I really need–today and in 5 years?

A 60-ton scale might fit your current trucks. But overloaded vehicles are common in mining and bulk transport. A truck rated for 60 tons often carries 75.

Data point: Running a scale at 120% of rated capacity cuts its structural life by 40-50%. Add a 20-30% buffer. If your heaviest legal truck is 50 tons, buy 80 tons. For 80ton trucks, go 100 or 120 tons. The upfront difference is $2,000–$4,000. Replacing an undersized scale early costs $15,000–$25,000 plus weeks of downtime.

2. Is the platform long enough for my longest vehicle?

A 12-meter scale won’t fit a 16-meter container trailer. If the truck doesn’t fully sit on the platform, readings are wrong–and drivers learn exactly where to stop to cheat.

Measure your longest vehicle before ordering. We offer custom lengths from 6m to 24m.

3. Steel or concrete? Which structure for my site?

- Steel–easier to ship, install, and relocate. Good for logistics yards, temporary sites, farms.  - Concrete–heavier, more durable under constant impact. Better for mines and ports where trucks run 24/7.

We’ve seen concrete scales last 20+ years in a Zambian mine. Steel scales in the same environment last 1215 years with proper maintenance. Concrete costs more upfront but may be worth it for permanent, highabuse sites.

4. What load cells are inside? IP rating? Stainless?

Load cells are the heart of the scale. Cheap ones fail fast.

Real numbers from our service logs:  

- IP67 painted cells in a dusty mine: fail in 18-24 months.  

- IP68 stainless cells: 6-8 years.  

Price difference per cell: about $30$50. For an 8cell scale, that’s $240-$400 upfront. Over 8 years, it saves $1,500+ in replacements plus avoided downtime.

Ask: “IP68? Stainless? Temperature range -30°C to +70°C?”

5. Can it resist fraud and automate operations?

Manual scales leak money–fake tickets, partial weighing, collusion. One mine we worked with lost 23% of daily throughput to“underweighing.”That was over $500,000 per year.

What stops fraud: RFID or license plate recognition, infrared positioning, cameras that capture the load, automatic barriers. A full unmanned system cuts fraud to near zero. Payback for a busy site is usually 6-12 months.

6. Is it built for my environment–heat, dust, rain, coast?

High heat (60-70°C ground) causes paint to peel and cheap cells to drift. Coastal humidity rusts unprotected steel. Dust kills nonsealed junction boxes.

Our minimum for harsh Africa:  

- 12mm steel deck (not 8mm)  

- IP68 stainless load cells and junction box  

- Three-layer paint (200+ microns) or hot-dip galvanizing for coastal sites

A standard“factory paint” job in a coastal area fails in 12-14 months. Galvanizing adds 810 years.

7. Do you provide foundation drawings and installation support?

A great scale on a bad foundation is a bad scale. Uneven settlement causes load cell damage and drift.

What to ask: “Will you give me a detailed foundation drawing (metric, rebar specs) before I pay? Do you offer remote support via WhatsApp or video during installation?”

Sites that follow our drawing have 80% fewer foundation problems in the first 5 years.

8. How fast can I get spare parts–and tech support?

Ask: “Where do you stock spare parts for my region? How many days to get a load cell or indicator?

Red flag: “We ship from China in 2 weeks.”Reality is often 46 weeks plus customs.

Fangda’s answer: Load cells, junction boxes, indicators in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. Delivery to most of East Africa: 25 days. Remote support included free.

9. Does the software integrate with my ERP or management system?

If you’re still printing paper tickets and retyping numbers into a spreadsheet, you’re wasting hours every day.

Ask: “Can your scale software export data to CSV, or connect directly to my ERP via API? Does it support cloud reporting?”

One logistics company in Kenya cut monthend reconciliation from 3 days to 2 hours after integrating their weighbridge with their ERP.

10. Can you show me real references–a customer in a similar industry or climate?

Any factory can talk. Few can provide a reference you can actually call.

Ask for: A bill of lading to your region. Photos of installed scales in similar conditions. A WhatsApp contact of a customer who’s been using their scale for 3+ years.

We provide all three. Not because we’re perfect–because we’ve been doing this long enough to know that trust is earned.

Bottom line

A weighbridge is a 10-15 year investment. Asking these ten questions before you pay will save you from expensive mistakes. The cheapest quote rarely is the cheapest after you add repairs, downtime, and lost accuracy.

Fujian Fangda Weighbridge Manufacturer –we build scales for real working conditions, and we support them as our business depends on it. Because it does.

Fujian Fangda Weighing Instruments provides a full range of electronic truck scales from 30 tons to 200 tons