The telescopic handler or just telehandler is a heavy duty machinery that is well-known within both the agriculture and construction industries. These equipment are rather similar in both appearance and function to the forklift, except it more closely resembles a crane. The telehandler offers improved versatility of a single telescopic boom which can extend upwards and forwards from the vehicle. The operator could attach many attachments on the end of the boom. Several of the most common attachments comprise: a bucket, a muck grab, pallet forks or a lift table.
In order to transport cargo through areas which are usually unreachable for a typical forklift. The telehandler uses pallet forks as their most common attachment. For instance, telehandlers could transport cargo to and from places that are not usually accessible by regular forklift models. These devices also have the ability to remove palletized loads from in a trailer and position these loads in high areas, such as on rooftops for instance. Previously, this abovementioned situation will require a crane. Cranes could be really pricey to use and not always a practical or time-efficient option.
Another advantage is also the telehandlers largest limitation: 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 quite unstable, even with 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.
Once it is completely extended with a low boom angle for instance, the telehandler would only have a 400 pound weight capacity, while a retracted boom could support weights up to 5000 pounds. 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 pounds with the boom raised up to 70.
The Matbro Company in Horley, Surrey, England originally 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 placed the cab of the driver on the machine'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 ever since become more famous.