A telescopic handler or telehandler is a machine which is well-known within the construction and agriculture industries. These machines are similar in appearance and function to a lift truck or a forklift but are actually more similar to a crane rather than a forklift. The telehandler offers increased versatility of a single telescopic boom that could extend upwards and forwards from the vehicle. The operator could attach a lot of attachments on the boom's end. Some of the most common attachments comprise: a muck grab, a bucket, pallet forks or a lift table.
A telehandler typically utilizes pallet forks as their most popular attachment to be able to move loads through locations which are usually not reachable for a standard forklift. Like for instance, telehandlers are able to move cargo to and from places which are not normally accessible by regular forklift units. These devices can also remove palletized loads from within a trailer and position these loads in high areas, such as on rooftops for example. Previously, this aforementioned situation would require a crane. Cranes can be pricey to utilize and not always a time-efficient or practical alternative.
Another advantage is also the telehandlers biggest limitation: since the boom raises or extends when the equipment is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become quite unstable, even with the counterweights on the back. This translates to the lifting capacity decreasing quickly as the working radius increases. The working radius is the distance between the front of the wheels and the center of the load.
For instance, a vehicle that has a 5000 lb. capacity with the boom retracted might be able to safely raise just as much as 400 lb. when it is fully extended with a low boom angle. The same unit with a 5000 pound lift capacity that has the boom retracted might be able to easily support as much as 10,000 lb. with the boom raised up to 70.
England first pioneered the telehandler in Horley, Surrey. The Matbro Company developed these machinery from their articulated cross country forestry forklifts. Initially, they had a centrally mounted boom design on the front portion. This positioned the driver's cab on the back portion of the machine, as in the Teleram 40 model. The rigid chassis design with the cab located on the side and a rear mounted boom has ever since become more famous.