A telehandler or a telescopic handler is a machine which is popular in the construction and agriculture industries. These equipment 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 offers increased versatility of a single telescopic boom which can extend forwards and upwards from the vehicle. The operator has the ability to connect many attachments on the end of the boom. Several of the most common attachments include: a muck grab, a bucket, a lift table or pallet forks.
To be able to move loads through locations which are usually unreachable for a conventional forklift. The telehandler uses pallet forks as their most popular attachment. Like for instance, telehandlers can move loads to and from locations that are not typically accessible by conventional forklift models. These devices also have the ability to remove palletized loads from inside a trailer and position these loads in high areas, like on rooftops for instance. Before, this situation mentioned above would require a crane. Cranes could be very expensive to use and not always a practical or time-efficient option.
Another advantage is also the telehandlers largest drawback: as the boom extends or raises when the equipment is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become quite unstable, despite 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 would just have a 400 pound weight capacity, whilst a retracted boom could support weights up to 5000 lb. 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 lb. with the boom raised up to 70.
The Matbro Company in Horley, Surrey, England initially pioneered telehandlers. These machines were developed from their articulated cross country forestry forklifts. At first, they had a centrally mounted boom design on the front section. This positioned the driver's cab on the back portion of the machinery, as in the Teleram 40 unit. The rigid chassis design with a rear mounted boom and the cab situated on the side has ever since become more and more famous.