The telehandler or telescopic handler is a heavy duty equipment which is popular in both the agriculture and construction businesses. These machinery 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 could extend upwards and forwards from the vehicle. The operator has the ability to attach a lot of attachments on the boom's end. Some of the most popular attachments comprise: a bucket, a muck grab, a lift table or pallet forks.
A telehandler typically uses pallet forks as their most common attachment to be able to transport loads through locations that are usually not reachable for a conventional forklift. Like for example, telehandlers could transport cargo to and from areas which are not typically accessible by regular forklift models. These devices also have the ability to remove palletized loads from in a trailer and position these loads in high locations, such as on rooftops for example. Previously, this abovementioned situation will require a crane. Cranes could be very pricey to utilize and not always a time-efficient or practical alternative.
Another advantage is also the telehandlers biggest drawback: because the boom raises or extends when the equipment is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become somewhat 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 center of the load and the front of the wheels.
Like for example, a vehicle which has a 5000 pound capacity with the boom retracted might be able to safely lift only as heavy as 400 lb. when it is fully extended with a low boom angle. The same unit with a 5000 pound lift capacity that has the boom retracted may be able to easily support as much as 10,000 lb. with the boom raised up to 70.
England originally pioneered the telehandler within Horley, Surrey. The Matbro Company developed these machines from their articulated cross country forestry forklifts. At first, they had a centrally mounted boom design on the front section. This placed the driver's cab on the back portion of the equipment, as 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 popular.