A telescopic handler or telehandler is a machine which is popular within the agriculture and construction businesses. These machinery are similar in function and appearance to a forklift or a lift truck but are really more similar to a crane rather than a forklift. The telehandler offers increased versatility of a single telescopic boom that can extend upwards as well as forwards from the vehicle. The operator can connect many 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.
To be able to move cargo through areas which are usually not reachable for a standard forklift. The telehandler uses pallet forks as their most popular attachment. For example, telehandlers could move loads to and from locations which are not typically accessible by regular forklift models. These devices also have the ability to remove palletized cargo from inside a trailer and place these loads in high places, such as on rooftops for instance. Previously, this situation mentioned above would need a crane. Cranes could be really expensive to use and not always a time-efficient or practical option.
Another advantage is also the telehandlers largest limitation: as 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 rear counterweights. 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.
Once it is completely extended with a low boom angle for instance, the telehandler will only have a 400 pound weight capacity, while a retracted boom could support weights as much as 5000 pounds. The same model with a 5000 lb. lift capacity that has the boom retracted might be able to easily support as heavy as 10,000 lb. with the boom raised up to 70.
England originally 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 section. This placed the driver's cab on the equipment's rear portion, as in the Teleram 40 unit. The rigid chassis design with a rear mounted boom and the cab situated on the side has ever since become increasingly more popular.