The telehandler or telescopic handler is a heavy duty machinery which is well-known within both the agriculture and construction businesses. These machinery are quite similar in both function and appearance to the forklift, except it more closely resembles a crane. The telehandler provides increased versatility of a single telescopic boom which can extend upwards and forwards from the vehicle. The operator has the ability to connect many attachments on the end of the boom. Some of the most popular attachments include: a bucket, a muck grab, pallet forks or a lift table.
A telehandler usually uses pallet forks as their most popular attachment in order to move cargo through places that are usually not reachable for a typical forklift. Like for example, telehandlers are able to move loads to and from locations which are not typically accessible by conventional forklift models. These devices also have the ability to remove palletized cargo from in a trailer and position these loads in high areas, like on rooftops for example. Before, this abovementioned situation would require a crane. Cranes could be pricey to use and not always a time-efficient or practical alternative.
Another advantage is also the telehandlers biggest limitation: since 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, even with 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 front of the wheels and the center of the load.
When it is fully extended with a low boom angle for instance, the telehandler will just have a 400 pound weight capacity, whilst a retracted boom could support weights up to 5000 pounds. The same model with a 5000 lb. lift capacity that has the boom retracted may be able to easily support as heavy 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, like 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.