The telehandler or telescopic handler is a heavy duty equipment which is well-known within both the agriculture and construction industries. These machinery are quite similar in both function and appearance to the lift truck, except it more closely resembles a crane. The telehandler provides increased versatility of a single telescopic boom that could extend forwards and upwards from the vehicle. The operator can attach numerous attachments on the end of the boom. Some of the most common attachments comprise: a bucket, a muck grab, pallet forks or a lift table.
To be able to transport loads through areas that are usually unreachable for a typical forklift. The telehandler utilizes pallet forks as their most popular attachment. For instance, telehandlers are able to move cargo to and from areas which are not typically accessible by standard forklift units. These devices also have the ability to remove palletized cargo from inside a trailer and position these loads in high places, like on rooftops for instance. Previously, this abovementioned situation would need a crane. Cranes could be pricey 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 equipment is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become somewhat unstable, despite the counterweights on the back. This translates to the lifting capacity decreasing fast 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 example, the telehandler will only have a 400 pound weight capacity, whilst a retracted boom can support weights as much as 5000 pounds. The same model with a 5000 lb. lift capacity that has the boom retracted might be able to easily support as heavy as 10,000 pounds with the boom raised up to 70.
The Matbro Company within Horley, Surrey, England first pioneered telehandlers. These machines were developed from their articulated cross country forestry forklifts. Initially, they had a centrally mounted boom design on the front portion. This positioned the driver's cab on the equipment's back portion, as in the Teleram 40 model. The rigid chassis design with the cab situated on the side and a rear mounted boom has ever since become more famous.