A telescopic handler or telehandler is a machinery which is popular in the agriculture and construction businesses. These machines are similar in function and appearance to a lift truck or a forklift but are actually more similar to a crane rather than a forklift. The telehandler provides increased versatility of a single telescopic boom that can extend forwards as well as upwards from the vehicle. The operator could attach many attachments on the boom's end. Some of the most popular attachments include: a bucket, a muck grab, a lift table or pallet forks.
A telehandler normally utilizes pallet forks as their most common attachment to be able to transport loads through areas that are usually not reachable for a conventional forklift. For instance, telehandlers could transport cargo to and from places that are not usually reachable by regular forklift models. These devices could also remove palletized loads from in a trailer and position these loads in high areas, such as on rooftops for instance. Before, this aforementioned situation will require a crane. Cranes could be very pricey to utilize and not always a time-efficient or practical option.
One more advantage is also the telehandlers largest drawback: because 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, 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 center of the load and the front of the wheels.
For example, a vehicle that has a 5000 pound capacity with the boom retracted might be able to safely lift only as much as 400 lb. once it is fully extended with a low boom angle. The same model with a 5000 lb. 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 in 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 section. This positioned the cab of the driver on the machinery's back portion, as in the Teleram 40 model. The rigid chassis design with a rear mounted boom and the cab situated on the side has ever since become more and more popular.