The telescopic handler or just telehandler is a heavy duty machine that is popular in both the agriculture and construction industries. These machines are rather 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 which can extend forwards as well as upwards from the vehicle. The operator could connect numerous attachments on the end of the boom. Some of the most common attachments include: a muck grab, a bucket, pallet forks or a lift table.
In order to transport cargo through places that are normally unreachable for a standard forklift. The telehandler uses pallet forks as their most common attachment. For instance, telehandlers could transport loads to and from locations that are not usually reachable by standard forklift units. These devices could also remove palletized cargo from within a trailer and position these loads in high areas, like on rooftops for example. Before, this situation mentioned above will require a crane. Cranes can be pricey to use and not always a practical or time-efficient option.
Telehandler's are unique in that their advantage is also their biggest drawback: 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 somewhat unstable, despite the counterweights on the rear. This translates to the lifting capacity decreasing quickly as the working radius increases. The working radius is the distance between the center of the load and the front of the wheels.
When it is completely extended with a low boom angle for example, the telehandler would just have a 400 pound weight capacity, while a retracted boom can support weights up to 5000 pounds. The same unit with a 5000 lb. lift capacity which 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 originally 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 cab of the driver on the machine's back portion, as in the Teleram 40 model. The rigid chassis design with a rear mounted boom and the cab located on the side has ever since become increasingly more famous.