A telehandler or a telescopic handler is a machine that is well-known in the construction and agriculture businesses. These machines are similar in function and appearance to a forklift or a lift truck but are really more like a crane rather than a forklift. The telehandler offers increased versatility of a single telescopic boom which could extend forwards and upwards from the vehicle. The operator has the ability to attach various kinds of attachments on the boom's end. Several of the most popular attachments include: a muck grab, a bucket, pallet forks or a lift table.
In order to transport cargo through places which are usually unreachable for a typical forklift. The telehandler uses pallet forks as their most common attachment. Like for example, telehandlers can move loads to and from locations that are not typically accessible by regular forklift units. These devices could also remove palletized cargo from in a trailer and position these loads in high areas, such as on rooftops for example. Previously, this situation mentioned above would need a crane. Cranes can be expensive to utilize and not always a practical or time-efficient alternative.
Telehandler's are unique in that their advantage is also their biggest limitation: as 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 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 front of the wheels and the center of the load.
Once it is completely extended with a low boom angle for instance, the telehandler will only have a 400 pound weight capacity, whereas a retracted boom could support weights as much as 5000 lb. The same model with a 5000 pound lift capacity which has the boom retracted might be able to easily support as heavy as 10,000 lb. with the boom raised up to 70.
England initially 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 section. This placed the cab of the driver on the machinery's back portion, 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 popular.