A telescopic handler or telehandler is a machine that is popular in the agriculture and construction industries. These machinery 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 offers increased versatility of a single telescopic boom that can extend forwards and upwards from the vehicle. The operator can connect many attachments on the end of the boom. Some of the most popular attachments consist of: a bucket, a muck grab, pallet forks or a lift table.
To be able to transport cargo through places that are normally unreachable for a standard forklift. The telehandler utilizes pallet forks as their most common attachment. For example, telehandlers are able to transport loads to and from places which are not typically reachable by regular forklift units. These devices could also remove palletized cargo from within a trailer and position these loads in high locations, such as on rooftops for example. Previously, this situation mentioned above would require a crane. Cranes can be pricey to use and not always a practical or time-efficient alternative.
Telehandler's are unique in that their advantage is also their biggest drawback: because the boom raises or extends when the machine 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 front of the wheels and the center of the load.
When it is completely extended with a low boom angle for example, the telehandler will just have a 400 pound weight capacity, whereas a retracted boom can support weights as much as 5000 lb. The same unit with a 5000 lb. lift capacity that has the boom retracted may be able to easily support as much as 10,000 lb. with the boom raised up to 70.
England originally pioneered the telehandler in Horley, Surrey. The Matbro Company developed these equipment 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 machinery's back part, 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 more famous.