The telehandler or telescopic handler is a heavy duty machine that is well-known within both the construction and agriculture businesses. These equipment are quite similar in both appearance and function to the forklift, except it more closely resembles a crane. The telehandler offers increased versatility of a single telescopic boom which could extend upwards and forwards from the vehicle. The operator can attach lots of attachments on the boom's end. Some of the most popular attachments consist of: a bucket, a muck grab, pallet forks or a lift table.
A telehandler normally utilizes pallet forks as their most common attachment to be able to move loads through locations that are usually not reachable for a conventional forklift. Like for instance, telehandlers can transport cargo to and from locations that are not normally reachable by standard forklift units. These devices could also remove palletized cargo from within a trailer and position these loads in high places, like on rooftops for instance. Previously, this situation mentioned above would need a crane. Cranes could be pricey to use and not always a time-efficient or practical choice.
One more advantage is also the telehandlers largest drawback: as the boom extends or raises when the machinery is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become somewhat unbalanced, 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 center of the load and the front of the wheels.
For example, a vehicle which has a 5000 pound capacity with the boom retracted might be able to safely raise only as heavy as 400 pounds when it is completely extended with a low boom angle. The same model with a 5000 pound lift capacity which has the boom retracted may be able to easily support as much as 10,000 pounds with the boom raised up to 70.
The Matbro Company within Horley, Surrey, England first pioneered telehandlers. These equipment were developed 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 machinery's rear portion, like in the Teleram 40 unit. The rigid chassis design with a rear mounted boom and the cab situated on the side has since become more popular.