A telehandler or a telescopic handler is a machinery which is popular within the construction and agriculture businesses. These machines are similar in function and appearance to a lift truck or a forklift but are actually more similar to a crane instead of a forklift. The telehandler offers increased versatility of a single telescopic boom that can extend upwards and forwards from the vehicle. The operator could attach a lot of attachments on the boom's end. Several of the most popular attachments consist of: a muck grab, a bucket, pallet forks or a lift table.
To be able to transport cargo through places which are normally unreachable for a typical forklift. The telehandler utilizes pallet forks as their most common attachment. For instance, telehandlers are able to move cargo to and from places which are not normally accessible by standard forklift units. These devices also have the ability to remove palletized cargo from within a trailer and place these loads in high areas, such as on rooftops for example. Before, this abovementioned situation would require a crane. Cranes can be very pricey to use and not always a practical or time-efficient option.
Telehandler's are unique in that their advantage is also their biggest drawback: since the boom raises or extends when the machinery is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become quite unbalanced, despite 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.
Like for example, a vehicle that has a 5000 lb. capacity with the boom retracted might be able to safely raise just as much as 400 lb. when it is completely extended with a low boom angle. The same model with a 5000 pound lift capacity which has the boom retracted may be able to easily support as much as 10,000 lb. with the boom raised up to 70.
England first pioneered the telehandler in 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 section. This positioned the driver's cab on the back part of the machine, like in the Teleram 40 unit. The rigid chassis design with the cab located on the side and a rear mounted boom has ever since become more famous.