The telescopic handler or just telehandler is a heavy duty machinery that is well-known in both the agriculture and construction businesses. These machines are quite similar in both appearance and function to the lift truck, except it more closely resembles a crane. The telehandler provides increased versatility of a single telescopic boom which can extend forwards as well as upwards from the vehicle. The operator has the ability to attach lots of attachments on the end of the boom. Several of the most popular attachments include: a bucket, a muck grab, pallet forks or a lift table.
A telehandler usually uses pallet forks as their most popular attachment in order to move cargo through places which are normally not reachable for a standard forklift. Like for example, telehandlers can move cargo to and from places that are not usually reachable by regular forklift models. These devices can also remove palletized loads from inside a trailer and place these loads in high locations, such as on rooftops for instance. Previously, this abovementioned situation will require a crane. Cranes could be pricey to utilize and not always a time-efficient or practical option.
Another advantage is also the telehandlers largest limitation: since the boom extends or raises when the equipment is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become somewhat unbalanced, even with the counterweights on the back. 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 instance, a vehicle that has a 5000 lb. 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 pound lift capacity that has the boom retracted may be able to easily support as much 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 positioned the driver's cab on the equipment's back part, as in the Teleram 40 model. The rigid chassis design with the cab situated on the side and a rear mounted boom has ever since become more famous.