Forklifts, Lift Equipment & Material Handling Vehicles worked example

Counterweight Sizing at 65% counterweight station availability: a worked example

Here is what the math looks like when conditions slip. We hold every other input steady and drop counterweight station availability to 65%, then walk the calculation through step by step. Estimate counterweight sizing or handling capacity for counterweight configurations, castings, or ballast packages in lift-truck planning.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Counterweight packages per cycle: 1 packages / cycle (held at the documented default)
  • Available counterweight handling cycles: 36 cycles (held at the documented default)
  • Counterweight station availability: 65 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 90)
  • Counterweight first-pass acceptance: 97 % (held at the documented default)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Gross counterweight sizing capacity = counterweight packages per cycle × available counterweight handling cycles.
  • Good counterweight sizing capacity works out to 22.7 lb at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Gross counterweight sizing capacity works out to 36 lb at these inputs.
  • Counterweight Sizing downtime loss works out to 12.6 lb at these inputs.
  • Counterweight Sizing reject or rework loss works out to 0.7 lb at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where counterweight station availability sits at 90% and the headline result is 31.43 lb, this scenario comes in 27.78% below the baseline at 22.7 lb.
  • The practical read: the gap between this scenario and the baseline is entirely attributable to counterweight station availability, so recovering it is worth quantifying in dollars before considering equipment or staffing changes. It treats availability and first-pass yield as fixed percentages; real counterweight stations see availability swing with crane and fixture faults, so feed it actual logged uptime rather than a nameplate assumption.

Results at a glance

  • Good counterweight sizing capacity: 22.7 lb (headline result)
  • Gross counterweight sizing capacity: 36 lb
  • Counterweight Sizing downtime loss: 12.6 lb
  • Counterweight Sizing reject or rework loss: 0.7 lb

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Counterweight Sizing calculator, set counterweight station availability to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.