A telehandler or a telescopic handler is a machine which is well-known within the agriculture and construction industries. These machinery are similar in appearance and function to a lift truck or a forklift but are actually more like a crane rather than a forklift. 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 different types of attachments on the boom's end. Several of the most popular attachments comprise: a muck grab, a bucket, a lift table or pallet forks.
To be able to transport loads through locations that are normally not reachable for a typical forklift. The telehandler uses pallet forks as their most common attachment. Like for instance, telehandlers can transport cargo to and from locations that are not usually reachable by standard forklift models. These devices also have the ability to remove palletized cargo from inside a trailer and position these loads in high areas, like on rooftops for example. Previously, this aforementioned situation will need a crane. Cranes can be really pricey to use and not always a time-efficient or practical choice.
Telehandler's are unique in that their advantage is also their largest drawback: as the boom raises or extends when the equipment is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become quite unbalanced, even with the counterweights on the rear. This translates to the lifting capacity decreasing fast as the working radius increases. The working radius is the distance between the front of the wheels and the center of the load.
Like for example, a vehicle which has a 5000 lb. capacity with the boom retracted might be able to safely raise only as much as 400 pounds when it is fully extended with a low boom angle. The same unit with a 5000 lb. lift capacity that has the boom retracted might be able to easily support as heavy as 10,000 pounds with the boom raised up to 70.
England originally pioneered the telehandler in 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 cab of the driver on the back part of the equipment, like in the Teleram 40 unit. The rigid chassis design with a rear mounted boom and the cab situated on the side has since become increasingly more popular.