A telehandler or a telescopic handler is a machine that is popular within the construction and agriculture businesses. These machines are similar in appearance and function to a forklift or a lift truck but are actually more like a crane rather than a forklift. The telehandler provides improved versatility of a single telescopic boom which can extend forwards and upwards from the vehicle. The operator could connect a lot of attachments on the boom's end. Several of the most popular attachments consist of: 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 move cargo through areas which are normally unreachable for a conventional forklift. Like for instance, telehandlers can transport loads to and from areas which are not typically accessible by regular forklift units. These devices could also remove palletized cargo from in a trailer and place these loads in high locations, such as on rooftops for instance. Previously, this abovementioned situation would require a crane. Cranes could be very expensive to utilize and not always a practical or time-efficient option.
Telehandler's are unique in that their advantage is also their largest limitation: because 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 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 fully extended with a low boom angle for instance, the telehandler would just have a 400 pound weight capacity, while a retracted boom could support weights up to 5000 lb. The same model with a 5000 pound lift capacity that has the boom retracted might 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 portion. This placed the driver's cab on the rear portion of the machinery, like in the Teleram 40 unit. The rigid chassis design with a rear mounted boom and the cab located on the side has since become more famous.