A telescopic handler or telehandler is a machinery that is well-known in the construction and agriculture businesses. These machines are similar in function and appearance to a lift truck or a forklift but are really more similar to 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 end of the boom. Several of the most popular attachments include: a muck grab, a bucket, a lift table or pallet forks.
To be able to move loads through areas that are usually not reachable for a conventional forklift. The telehandler uses pallet forks as their most common attachment. For instance, telehandlers are able to transport cargo to and from locations that are not typically reachable by regular forklift units. These devices could also remove palletized loads from within a trailer and position these loads in high places, like on rooftops for example. Previously, this situation mentioned above will require a crane. Cranes could be pricey to utilize and not always a time-efficient or practical alternative.
Telehandler's are unique in that their advantage is also their 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 quite unstable, 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.
When 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 up to 5000 lb. The same unit 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.
England first pioneered the telehandler within Horley, Surrey. The Matbro Company developed these machines 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 machine's rear portion, like in the Teleram 40 unit. The rigid chassis design with the cab situated on the side and a rear mounted boom has since become increasingly more popular.