A telescopic handler or telehandler is a machine that is popular within the construction and agriculture businesses. These machines 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 provides improved versatility of a single telescopic boom which can extend forwards and upwards from the vehicle. The operator could attach different types of attachments on the end of the boom. Several of the most popular attachments consist of: a bucket, a muck grab, pallet forks or a lift table.
A telehandler typically utilizes pallet forks as their most common attachment in order to transport cargo through areas which are normally unreachable for a conventional forklift. For instance, telehandlers are able to transport loads to and from areas which are not normally accessible by regular forklift models. These devices also have the ability to remove palletized loads from within a trailer and position these loads in high locations, such as on rooftops for instance. Before, this situation mentioned above will need a crane. Cranes could be very pricey to use and not always a time-efficient or practical choice.
Telehandler's are unique in that their advantage is also their biggest limitation: as the boom raises or extends when the machinery is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become quite unbalanced, despite the counterweights on the back. 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.
When it is fully 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 up to 5000 lb. The same unit with a 5000 lb. lift capacity which has the boom retracted might be able to easily support as heavy as 10,000 pounds with the boom raised up to 70.
The Matbro Company in Horley, Surrey, England initially pioneered telehandlers. These equipment were developed 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 machine's back portion, like in the Teleram 40 unit. The rigid chassis design with the cab located on the side and a rear mounted boom has ever since become increasingly more famous.