A telescopic handler or telehandler is a machine which is popular within the construction and agriculture businesses. These equipment are similar in appearance and function to a forklift or a lift truck but are actually more similar to a crane rather than a forklift. The telehandler provides 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 common attachments consist of: a bucket, a muck grab, pallet forks or a lift table.
A telehandler normally utilizes pallet forks as their most popular attachment in order to transport cargo through areas that are usually unreachable for a typical forklift. Like for instance, telehandlers could transport loads to and from areas that are not normally accessible by standard forklift models. These devices can also remove palletized loads from in a trailer and position these loads in high locations, such as on rooftops for instance. Previously, this aforementioned situation would require a crane. Cranes can be very expensive to utilize and not always a practical or time-efficient choice.
Another advantage is also the telehandlers largest limitation: because 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 unbalanced, despite the rear counterweights. 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 just have a 400 pound weight capacity, whilst a retracted boom can support weights up to 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 pounds with the boom raised up to 70.
England initially pioneered the telehandler within Horley, Surrey. The Matbro Company developed these machinery from their articulated cross country forestry forklifts. At first, they had a centrally mounted boom design on the front portion. This placed the driver's cab on the rear portion of the equipment, 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 more and more popular.