A telescopic handler or telehandler is a machinery that is popular in the agriculture and construction businesses. These machinery are similar in appearance and function to a lift truck or a forklift but are really more similar to a crane instead of a forklift. The telehandler provides improved versatility of a single telescopic boom that could extend forwards as well as upwards from the vehicle. The operator could connect various kinds of attachments on the end of the boom. Some of the most common attachments consist of: a muck grab, a bucket, a lift table or pallet forks.
To be able to move loads through locations which are usually unreachable for a typical forklift. The telehandler uses pallet forks as their most popular attachment. Like for instance, telehandlers can move cargo to and from places that are not usually reachable by standard forklift models. These devices could also remove palletized loads from inside a trailer and place these loads in high places, such as on rooftops for instance. Before, this abovementioned situation will need a crane. Cranes could be really expensive to use and not always a practical or time-efficient alternative.
Telehandler's are unique in that their advantage is also their biggest limitation: as 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 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.
For instance, a vehicle that has a 5000 lb. capacity with the boom retracted may be able to safely lift only as much as 400 pounds when it is fully extended with a low boom angle. The same unit 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.
The Matbro Company within Horley, Surrey, England initially pioneered telehandlers. These equipment were developed from their articulated cross country forestry forklifts. Initially, they had a centrally mounted boom design on the front portion. This positioned the driver's cab on the equipment's rear portion, like 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 popular.