HaleBopper,I have the CGEM 1100. Added to that is the 50MM finderscope supplied with the scope and I also added a William Optics 2" dual speed focuser and a Quartz dielectric diagonal. Not enough to throw the balance off by much at all and it does not add enough weight to it to make a difference. With the Celestron 11" OTA mounted on the CGEM, and the length of the stock CW shaft, the 34 pounds of weights did not balance it because the shaft was too short. I had to add 7.5 pounds of extra weight to the shaft in order to balance the OTA. By extending the shaft and extra 9" I was able to go from 41.5 pounds of weight to 28 pounds and, with the longer shaft and the weights further down it actually improved the dampening when focusing quite a bit. Two of us have done this and both of us have noticed a great improvement. Hope this helps.