A telescopic handler or telehandler is a machine that is popular 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 like a crane instead of a forklift. The telehandler offers improved versatility of a single telescopic boom which can extend forwards as well as upwards from the vehicle. The operator can connect lots of attachments on the boom's end. Some of the most popular attachments comprise: a bucket, a muck grab, pallet forks or a lift table.
To be able to transport loads through areas that are normally not reachable for a conventional forklift. The telehandler utilizes pallet forks as their most common attachment. For instance, telehandlers can transport cargo to and from areas that are not normally accessible by conventional forklift units. These devices also have the ability to remove palletized cargo from in a trailer and position these loads in high areas, such as on rooftops for example. Before, this situation mentioned above will require a crane. Cranes can be very expensive 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 extends or raises when the machinery is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become somewhat unstable, 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.
When it is fully extended with a low boom angle for example, the telehandler would only have a 400 pound weight capacity, whereas a retracted boom can support weights as much as 5000 pounds. The same unit with a 5000 lb. lift capacity that has the boom retracted might be able to easily support as much as 10,000 pounds with the boom raised up to 70.
England originally 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 section. This placed the cab of the driver on the back portion of the equipment, as in the Teleram 40 model. The rigid chassis design with a rear mounted boom and the cab situated on the side has ever since become increasingly more famous.