Old BH Counterweight - How heavy is it?

MossflowerWoods · Mar 27, 2012

Guys,

Can any of you tell me how heavy this old counter weight in the pix might be?

My neighbor got it off of his old backhoe, it has been sitting at the base of a tree in his yard for a long time. That is my size 10 boot for reference.

I grabbed it with my grapple and hauled it home. :thumbsup:

I am considering using it as part of my ballast/tool box I need to build (I need to get to 1100 lbs total.

Thanks in advance,
David

Thanks in advance.
David

SandburRanch · Mar 27, 2012

If it is slightly over 2" thick it may have been designed to be 200 lbs.

With some measurements it can be easily calculated fairly accurately or one can use the displacement approach to total the cubic inches and calculate.

MossflowerWoods · Mar 27, 2012

SandburRanch,

I estimate (I will measure later today) it is closer to 4" thick...

He said his BH got very tippy without it.

Once I measure, whats the math to calc its weight?

Thanks!
David

SandburRanch · Mar 27, 2012

MossflowerWoods said:
SandburRanch,

I estimate (I will measure later today) it is closer to 4" thick...

He said his BH got very tippy without it.

Once I measure, whats the math to calc its weight?

Thanks!
David

Using 40.8 lbs. / 144 cubic inches will be close enough. With the odd shape some guesstimation

of dimensions might be necessary for quick a calculation. Example: square the corners rather than attempting to calculate the radius. The holes would be easy to subtract.

If it's nearer 4" thick that makes it more difficult to handle for a water displacement cubic inch check but that would probably be more accurate. And 4" thick would make it more difficult to get it to scales for a weight too.

LD1 · Mar 27, 2012

I always use steel @ 495lb per cubic foot. and 1728 cubic inches in a cubic foot.

Just guessing but it looks like 24" x 12" x 4". Thats 2/3rds of a cubic foot. 495 x 2/3 is only about 330lbs

Kinda hard to believe that 330lbs makes much differencs on a machine of any size at all.

Was this a front weight? did this instead of a loader?

Smithrr · Mar 27, 2012

MossflowerWoods said:
SandburRanch,

I estimate (I will measure later today) it is closer to 4" thick...

He said his BH got very tippy without it.

Once I measure, whats the math to calc its weight?

Thanks!
David

I used to work in the steel industry and we used .2904 for cold rolled and hot rolled steel and .2933 for stainless steel for the density factor. So width x length x height x .2904.

LD1 is correct in his calculations, this is just easier.