A telehandler or a telescopic handler is a machinery that 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 actually more similar to a crane rather than a forklift. The telehandler provides increased versatility of a single telescopic boom which could extend upwards as well as forwards from the vehicle. The operator could attach numerous attachments on the boom's end. Some of the most common attachments consist of: a muck grab, a bucket, a lift table or pallet forks.
To be able to transport cargo through areas which are usually unreachable for a conventional forklift. The telehandler utilizes pallet forks as their most common attachment. For example, telehandlers can transport loads to and from places which are not usually reachable by standard forklift units. These devices can also remove palletized loads from within a trailer and position these loads in high places, like on rooftops for instance. Previously, this situation mentioned above would need a crane. Cranes could be very pricey to utilize and not always a time-efficient or practical alternative.
Telehandler's are unique in that their advantage is also their biggest limitation: as the boom raises or extends when the equipment is bearing a load, it also acts as a lever and causes the vehicle to become somewhat 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 front of the wheels and the center of the load.
For instance, a vehicle that has a 5000 lb. capacity with the boom retracted may be able to safely raise just as much as 400 lb. when it is completely extended with a low boom angle. The same unit with a 5000 lb. lift capacity that has the boom retracted might be able to easily support as heavy as 10,000 pounds with the boom raised up to 70.
The Matbro Company in Horley, Surrey, England originally pioneered telehandlers. These machinery were developed from their articulated cross country forestry forklifts. At first, they had a centrally mounted boom design on the front portion. This positioned the cab of the driver on the back part of the equipment, as 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.