I recently added a Geith hydraulic coupler on our Kobelco SK250. It looks like an excellent coupler. I haven't used it in heavy work yet, but I'm positive I'll have noticeable less stability with the coupler weighing 960lbs. It seems to me the logical solution would be to add counterweight. Is there any way to calculate how much weight I'll need, or does someone have a ball park figure? Thanks
Yes you'll probably notice your maximum lift at full reach will be slightly down, but also you might have gained a foot more reach which can be useful. But whether you'll need to go to trouble of extra counterweight you'll have to see, it's never effected any of the machines I've ran with the quick hitch sometimes on, sometimes removed, it's noticeable but not badly so.
I'll have to see how much it affects me. But it wouldn't be much trouble for me to add counterweight, should it help things. I've got access to thick scrap steel plates and know somebody with a CNC plasma cutter who could cut them them to size.
Sometimes the sales technical brochure lists options for extra counterweight pieces, or handbook maybe, would be interesting to see the extra weight offered and where mounted. Probably doesn't show the latter, unless you can find a schematic. If you're working above yourself while sitting on a slope, I wouldn't add to the counterweight though. Just a thought.
My parts book just shows the standard counterweight at 12280 lbs and the long reach counterweight at 15543. I hardly ever have to work above me on a slope, a lot of times below me and had the rear end get light. But it'll be a week before I can try it out.