A telescopic handler or telehandler is a machinery that is well-known in the construction and agriculture businesses. These machinery are similar in function and appearance to a forklift or a lift truck but are really more similar to a crane instead of a forklift. The telehandler provides increased versatility of a single telescopic boom which could extend upwards as well as forwards from the vehicle. The operator has the ability to attach various types of attachments on the end of the boom. Several of the most common attachments comprise: a bucket, a muck grab, pallet forks or a lift table.
To be able to move loads through locations which are usually unreachable for a typical forklift. The telehandler utilizes pallet forks as their most common attachment. For instance, telehandlers could transport loads to and from areas which are not typically accessible by regular forklift units. These devices could also remove palletized cargo from inside a trailer and place these loads in high areas, such as on rooftops for instance. Before, this aforementioned situation will need a crane. Cranes can be expensive to utilize and not always a practical or time-efficient choice.
One more advantage is also the telehandlers largest limitation: since 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 unbalanced, 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.
Once it is fully extended with a low boom angle for instance, the telehandler would just have a 400 pound weight capacity, whereas a retracted boom can support weights as much as 5000 lb. 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 lb. 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 placed the driver's cab on the back portion of the machinery, as 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 famous.