A telehandler or a telescopic handler is a machine which is popular in the agriculture and construction industries. These machines are similar in appearance and function to a forklift or a lift truck but are really more like a crane instead of a forklift. The telehandler provides improved versatility of a single telescopic boom that could extend upwards and forwards from the vehicle. The operator has the ability to attach many attachments on the end of the boom. Several of the most common attachments consist of: a bucket, a muck grab, a lift table or pallet forks.
A telehandler typically utilizes pallet forks as their most common attachment to be able to move cargo through places which are usually unreachable for a typical forklift. For instance, telehandlers could transport cargo to and from locations which are not typically reachable by regular forklift models. These devices also have the ability to remove palletized cargo from inside a trailer and position these loads in high locations, like on rooftops for instance. Previously, this aforementioned situation will require a crane. Cranes can be really pricey to use and not always a time-efficient or practical alternative.
Telehandler's are unique in that their advantage is also their biggest limitation: because the boom extends or raises when the machinery 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 center of the load and the front of the wheels.
Like for example, a vehicle which has a 5000 pound capacity with the boom retracted may be able to safely raise just as much as 400 lb. once 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 pounds with the boom raised up to 70.
England initially pioneered the telehandler within Horley, Surrey. The Matbro Company developed these machines from their articulated cross country forestry forklifts. At first, they had a centrally mounted boom design on the front section. This placed the driver's cab on the back portion of the machinery, like in the Teleram 40 unit. The rigid chassis design with a rear mounted boom and the cab located on the side has ever since become increasingly more famous.