A telehandler or a telescopic handler is a machine which is popular in the construction and agriculture businesses. These machines 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 which could extend forwards and upwards from the vehicle. The operator has the ability to connect different kinds of attachments on the boom's end. 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 in order to move cargo through locations which are normally not reachable for a conventional forklift. For instance, telehandlers are able to move cargo to and from places which are not normally accessible by standard forklift units. These devices can also remove palletized loads from inside a trailer and place these loads in high places, like on rooftops for example. Previously, this aforementioned situation will require a crane. Cranes can be pricey to use and not always a practical or time-efficient choice.
Another advantage is also the telehandlers biggest limitation: since the boom raises or extends when the machine is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become quite unbalanced, even with the rear counterweights. This translates to the lifting capacity decreasing quickly 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 fully extended with a low boom angle for instance, the telehandler will just have a 400 pound weight capacity, whilst a retracted boom can support weights up to 5000 pounds. The same unit with a 5000 lb. lift capacity which has the boom retracted might be able to easily support as much as 10,000 pounds with the boom raised up to 70.
England initially pioneered the telehandler in Horley, Surrey. The Matbro Company developed these equipment 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 rear part of the machinery, like in the Teleram 40 model. The rigid chassis design with the cab located on the side and a rear mounted boom has since become more popular.