A telescopic handler or telehandler is a machinery that is popular in the agriculture and construction industries. These equipment 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 provides improved versatility of a single telescopic boom that could extend upwards and forwards from the vehicle. The operator could connect different types of attachments on the end of the boom. Some of the most common attachments consist of: a bucket, a muck grab, a lift table or pallet forks.
A telehandler usually utilizes pallet forks as their most popular attachment in order to transport cargo through areas which are normally unreachable for a typical forklift. Like for instance, telehandlers could move loads to and from places which are not normally reachable by regular forklift units. These devices could also remove palletized cargo from inside a trailer and position these loads in high locations, like on rooftops for example. Previously, this abovementioned situation will require a crane. Cranes can be expensive to utilize and not always a practical or time-efficient option.
One more advantage is also the telehandlers biggest limitation: since the boom raises or extends when the machinery is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become quite unbalanced, 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 front of the wheels and the center of the load.
Once it is completely extended with a low boom angle for example, the telehandler would only have a 400 pound weight capacity, whereas a retracted boom could support weights up to 5000 pounds. The same model with a 5000 lb. lift capacity which has the boom retracted may be able to easily support as much as 10,000 lb. with the boom raised up to 70.
England initially 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 driver's cab on the back part of the machinery, as in the Teleram 40 model. The rigid chassis design with the cab located on the side and a rear mounted boom has since become more popular.