Weight Conversion for pannier racks and panniers

[Gkoef]

I have just bought a set of rear Altura pannier bags which can carry a total of 54 litres between them. I have also bought a pannier rack which can carry a max load of 25kg.

How can I convert litres to kg so I know the load is not too heavy for the rack?

[renodesertfox]

Re: Weight Conversion for pannier racks and panniers

Here's my method:

You just need to divide the kilograms by 0.96

gm/cm*³ is the same as kg/l

1 gram = 0.001 kilogram
1 cubic centimeter = 0.001 liter
gm/cm³ = 0.001 kg/ 0.001 liter = kg/liter

So 0.96 kg/l means that 1 liter weighs 0.96 kilograms, or 1 kilogram is 1.04 liters.

Of course, others might say different and that's okay by me...high school math wasn't my strong suit...I can make a killer "Boiler-Maker!"

[cloudswinger]

Re: Weight Conversion for pannier racks and panniers

Liters measure volume, while grams measure weight. So converting requires knowing the weight per volume (aka density) of whatever you're converting. Because 54 liters of air weighs nowhere near 54 liters of water(not counting for the tanks, of course), although they arranged it so that 1 liter of water weighs 1 kilogram(at 4 C, since temperature also makes a difference)

So the panniers are giving you how much space for stuff you have, and the rack is giving how much all your stuff can weigh. I'd just stuff the panniers with all the stuff and weight that.

[Shadow]

Re: Weight Conversion for pannier racks and panniers

Water weighs almost exactly 1KG per Liter. (Technically its 1.000028 KG per Liter). So if you have 54 liters.. You have about 54 Kg + the dry weight of the jugs. If the rack is a 25kg max rating, you will need to get a bigger one or reinforce it to hold the extra weight.

Trivia:

A litre is defined as a special name for a cubic decimetre or 10 centimetres x 10 centimetres x 10 centimetres, (1 L ≡ 1 dm3≡ 1000 cm3). Hence 1 L ≡ 0.001 m3 ≡ 1000 cm3, and 1 m3 (i.e. a cubic metre, which is the S.I. unit for volume) is exactly 1000 L.
From 1901 to 1964, the litre was defined as the volume of one kilogram of pure water at 4 °C and 760 millimetres of mercury pressure. During this time, a litre was about 1.000028 dm3. In 1964 this definition was abandoned in favour of the current one.

What this basically means is that converting liters to kilograms of water is a very handy 1 to 1 ratio.

Amazing what you know from going to college, eh?

Happy camping