The telehandler or telescopic handler is a heavy duty machinery that is popular within both the agriculture and construction businesses. These machines are quite similar in both appearance and function to the forklift, except it more closely resembles a crane. The telehandler provides improved versatility of a single telescopic boom that can extend upwards as well as forwards from the vehicle. The operator could attach different types of attachments on the boom's end. Some of the most common attachments consist of: a bucket, a muck grab, pallet forks or a lift table.
To be able to move cargo through areas that are normally not reachable for a conventional forklift. The telehandler uses pallet forks as their most common attachment. For instance, telehandlers can transport cargo to and from areas that are not typically reachable by standard forklift units. These devices also have the ability to remove palletized loads from in a trailer and position these loads in high places, like on rooftops for instance. Before, this situation mentioned above will require a crane. Cranes can be expensive to utilize and not always a practical or time-efficient option.
Another 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 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 instance, a vehicle which has a 5000 lb. capacity with the boom retracted may be able to safely raise only as much as 400 pounds once it is completely extended with a low boom angle. The same model with a 5000 pound lift capacity that has the boom retracted might be able to easily support as heavy as 10,000 lb. with the boom raised up to 70.
The Matbro Company in 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 section. This positioned the cab of the driver on the rear part of the machinery, like in the Teleram 40 model. The rigid chassis design with the cab located on the side and a rear mounted boom has ever since become increasingly more famous.