A telehandler or a telescopic handler is a machine that is well-known in the agriculture and construction businesses. These machines are similar in appearance and function to a forklift or a lift truck but are really more similar to a crane instead of a forklift. The telehandler offers increased versatility of a single telescopic boom that can extend forwards and upwards from the vehicle. The operator has the ability to attach different kinds 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 move cargo through areas which are usually not reachable for a typical forklift. The telehandler uses pallet forks as their most common attachment. Like for example, telehandlers could move cargo to and from areas which are not normally reachable by standard forklift models. These devices also have the ability to remove palletized cargo from in a trailer and position these loads in high places, such as on rooftops for instance. Previously, this situation mentioned above would need a crane. Cranes can be really expensive to utilize and not always a practical or time-efficient alternative.
Telehandler's are unique in that their advantage is also their biggest drawback: because the boom raises or extends when the equipment is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become somewhat unstable, despite the rear counterweights. 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.
For instance, a vehicle which has a 5000 lb. capacity with the boom retracted may be able to safely raise just as much as 400 pounds when it is completely extended with a low boom angle. 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 lb. with the boom raised up to 70.
England first 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 driver's cab on the back portion of the machine, as in the Teleram 40 unit. The rigid chassis design with the cab located on the side and a rear mounted boom has since become increasingly more famous.