The telehandler or telescopic handler is a heavy duty machinery that is popular in both the agriculture and construction industries. These equipment are quite similar in both appearance and function to the lift truck, except it more closely resembles a crane. The telehandler offers improved versatility of a single telescopic boom that can extend forwards as well as upwards from the vehicle. The operator can connect a lot of attachments on the end of the boom. Several of the most popular attachments include: a bucket, a muck grab, pallet forks or a lift table.
A telehandler typically uses pallet forks as their most popular attachment in order to transport cargo through places that are normally unreachable for a conventional forklift. For instance, telehandlers are able to transport loads to and from areas that are not typically accessible by conventional forklift units. These devices also have the ability to remove palletized cargo from inside a trailer and position these loads in high places, such as on rooftops for example. Before, this abovementioned situation will require a crane. Cranes can be very expensive to use and not always a time-efficient or practical alternative.
One more advantage is also the telehandlers largest limitation: as the boom raises or extends when the machine is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become quite unbalanced, even with the counterweights on the back. 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.
For instance, a vehicle that has a 5000 pound capacity with the boom retracted may be able to safely lift only as heavy as 400 pounds when it is completely extended with a low boom angle. The same model with a 5000 pound 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 within Horley, Surrey, England first 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 portion. This positioned the driver's cab on the rear part of the machine, as in the Teleram 40 unit. The rigid chassis design with the cab located on the side and a rear mounted boom has since become increasingly more famous.