A telescopic handler or telehandler is a machinery that is popular within the construction and agriculture industries. These equipment are similar in function and appearance to a forklift or a lift truck but are actually more similar to a crane instead of a forklift. The telehandler provides improved versatility of a single telescopic boom which can extend forwards as well as upwards from the vehicle. The operator could attach many attachments on the end of the boom. Several of the most popular attachments consist of: a bucket, a muck grab, a lift table or pallet forks.
A telehandler normally uses pallet forks as their most common attachment in order to move cargo through areas that are normally unreachable for a conventional forklift. For example, telehandlers can move loads to and from locations which are not usually reachable by conventional forklift units. These devices also have the ability to remove palletized loads from within a trailer and place these loads in high areas, like on rooftops for instance. Before, this abovementioned situation would require a crane. Cranes can be very expensive to utilize and not always a practical or time-efficient choice.
Telehandler's are unique in that their advantage is also their biggest drawback: as 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 unbalanced, despite the counterweights on the rear. 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 which has a 5000 lb. capacity with the boom retracted may be able to safely lift only as much as 400 lb. when it is completely extended with a low boom angle. The same model with a 5000 lb. lift capacity that has the boom retracted might be able to easily support as much as 10,000 lb. with the boom raised up to 70.
England originally 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 placed the driver's cab on the rear part of the equipment, as in the Teleram 40 model. The rigid chassis design with the cab located on the side and a rear mounted boom has ever since become more popular.