A telehandler or a telescopic handler is a machine that is well-known within 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 as well as upwards from the vehicle. The operator could attach numerous attachments on the boom's end. Some of the most popular attachments include: a muck grab, a bucket, pallet forks or a lift table.
A telehandler usually utilizes pallet forks as their most common attachment to be able to transport loads through places that are usually not reachable for a standard forklift. For example, telehandlers could move loads to and from areas that are not normally accessible by regular forklift models. These devices could also remove palletized loads from in a trailer and place these loads in high locations, such as on rooftops for instance. Before, this aforementioned situation would require a crane. Cranes could be expensive to use 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 machine is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become somewhat unstable, 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.
Once it is fully 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 up to 5000 pounds. The same unit with a 5000 pound 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 initially pioneered the telehandler within Horley, Surrey. The Matbro Company developed these equipment from their articulated cross country forestry forklifts. Initially, they had a centrally mounted boom design on the front portion. This placed the cab of the driver on the rear portion of the machine, like 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.