The telescopic handler or just telehandler is a heavy duty machine which is popular within both the construction and agriculture businesses. These machines are quite similar in both appearance and function to the lift truck, except it more closely resembles a crane. The telehandler provides increased versatility of a single telescopic boom which can extend upwards as well as forwards from the vehicle. The operator has the ability to connect many attachments on the boom's end. Some of the most common attachments include: a muck grab, a bucket, pallet forks or a lift table.
A telehandler typically uses pallet forks as their most popular attachment to be able to transport cargo through locations that are usually not reachable for a typical forklift. For example, telehandlers could transport cargo to and from areas that are not normally accessible by standard forklift models. These devices also have the ability to remove palletized loads from in a trailer and place these loads in high places, like on rooftops for example. Before, this aforementioned situation will require a crane. Cranes can be pricey to use and not always a time-efficient or practical alternative.
Telehandler's are unique in that their advantage is also their largest drawback: because the boom raises or extends when the machinery 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 center of the load and the front of the wheels.
When it is fully extended with a low boom angle for instance, the telehandler would only have a 400 pound weight capacity, while a retracted boom can support weights up to 5000 lb. The same model with a 5000 lb. lift capacity which has the boom retracted may be able to easily support as heavy as 10,000 lb. with the boom raised up to 70.
England first pioneered the telehandler within Horley, Surrey. The Matbro Company developed these machinery 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 back portion of the machinery, like in the Teleram 40 unit. The rigid chassis design with a rear mounted boom and the cab located on the side has since become more popular.