A telescopic handler or telehandler is a machinery which is popular in the construction and agriculture industries. These machinery are similar in appearance and function to a lift truck or a forklift but are really more like a crane rather than a forklift. The telehandler provides increased versatility of a single telescopic boom that can extend forwards as well as upwards from the vehicle. The operator can connect various types of attachments on the end of the boom. Several of the most popular attachments consist of: a bucket, a muck grab, a lift table or pallet forks.
In order to transport loads through locations that are normally unreachable for a typical forklift. The telehandler utilizes pallet forks as their most common attachment. For instance, telehandlers could transport cargo to and from locations which are not usually reachable by conventional forklift models. These devices can also remove palletized loads from in a trailer and position these loads in high locations, such as on rooftops for instance. Previously, this aforementioned situation will require a crane. Cranes could be expensive to utilize and not always a practical or time-efficient alternative.
One more advantage is also the telehandlers largest limitation: since the boom extends or raises when the equipment is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become quite unstable, despite the rear counterweights. This translates to the lifting capacity decreasing fast as the working radius increases. The working radius is the distance between the front of the wheels and the center of the load.
When it is completely extended with a low boom angle for instance, the telehandler will just have a 400 pound weight capacity, whereas a retracted boom could support weights as much as 5000 pounds. The same model with a 5000 lb. lift capacity which has the boom retracted might be able to easily support as heavy as 10,000 lb. with the boom raised up to 70.
England initially pioneered the telehandler in Horley, Surrey. The Matbro Company developed these machines 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 machinery, like in the Teleram 40 unit. The rigid chassis design with the cab situated on the side and a rear mounted boom has since become more popular.