The telehandler or telescopic handler is a heavy duty equipment that is popular in both the construction and agriculture businesses. These machinery are rather similar in both function and appearance to the forklift, except it more closely resembles a crane. The telehandler provides increased versatility of a single telescopic boom that can extend forwards and upwards from the vehicle. The operator has the ability to connect various kinds of attachments on the end of the boom. Several of the most popular attachments include: a muck grab, a bucket, a lift table or pallet forks.
A telehandler normally utilizes pallet forks as their most popular attachment to be able to move loads through places which are normally unreachable for a standard forklift. Like for example, telehandlers could transport cargo to and from areas which are not typically accessible by regular forklift units. These devices also have the ability to remove palletized cargo from inside a trailer and position these loads in high areas, such as on rooftops for example. Before, this situation mentioned above will need a crane. Cranes could be pricey to utilize and not always a practical or time-efficient option.
Telehandler's are unique in that their advantage is also their biggest limitation: because the boom extends or raises when the machine is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become somewhat unstable, despite the counterweights on the rear. This translates to the lifting capacity decreasing fast as the working radius increases. The working radius is the distance between the center of the load and the front of the wheels.
For example, a vehicle that has a 5000 lb. capacity with the boom retracted may be able to safely raise just as much as 400 lb. when it is completely extended with a low boom angle. The same unit with a 5000 pound lift capacity that has the boom retracted may be able to easily support as heavy as 10,000 lb. with the boom raised up to 70.
The Matbro Company within Horley, Surrey, England originally pioneered telehandlers. These machines were developed from their articulated cross country forestry forklifts. At first, they had a centrally mounted boom design on the front portion. This placed the driver's cab on the back portion of the equipment, like in the Teleram 40 model. The rigid chassis design with a rear mounted boom and the cab located on the side has since become increasingly more popular.