A telehandler is neither a forklift nor a crane, and that is exactly where the accidents sit. It carries a load that is all the lighter the further out in front it holds it — and nobody carries that relationship in their head. It is written on a document kept on board: the load chart.
Your manufacturer’s manual prevails. This page gives the order of the steps and what is specific to this family; every figure — capacities, reach, heights, tyre pressures — must be read in your own manual and on your own chart, because they change from one machine and one attachment to the next.
1. On delivery, before you sign
- Walk around it before you sign: structure, boom, rams, hoses, tyres, cab, forks and carriage.
- The load chart must be present and legible — and it must be the one for the attachment you are going to fit. This is the most important point on this page.
- Ask for the manual, the log book and the last inspection report.
- Check the attachment lock: it must operate and hold.
- Check the tyres. On a telehandler they are not consumables: they carry the load and contribute to stability.
- Photograph what you find, with the truck in frame.
2. Unloading
- Firm level ground, well clear of edges and excavations.
- Never correct your steering on the ramp: come back down, line up, go again.
- Boom retracted and low, forks just off the ground.
- Once loaded: chock and lash down.
3. The load chart — the gesture of this family
A telehandler’s capacity is not a number, it is a map. It depends on the reach (how far in front of the machine) and on the height. The further the boom extends, the more the permissible load falls — and it falls fast.
What both manufacturers consulted require, in the same terms:
- Never an attachment without its chart, supplied by the manufacturer and fitted on the machine. Changing attachment changes the chart: a bucket, a fork carriage and a hook are not read off the same curve.
- Never exceed the rated capacity, at any reach.
- Read the chart for the position you are aiming at, not the one you are in. You decide before lifting, not at the moment the machine starts to go light at the back.
- Carry the load as low as possible when travelling.
- The ground must be able to bear the machine and its load. The chart assumes stable support; it says nothing about fresh fill.
4. A level frame
You do not lift if the frame is not level. JLG puts it in black and white: the boom does not go up until the frame is at zero degrees.
And the corollary, less well known and just as clear: you do not correct the frame level with the load up high. The manufacturer sets a low limit — on the machine consulted, no levelling above 1.2 m of boom or attachment. You come back down, level, and go up again.
If the machine has stabilisers, they only increase capacity when properly deployed and firmly bearing — not merely extended.
5. Before lifting, and during
- Locate the power lines before raising the boom. It is a habit to acquire as you park, not once the boom is already in the air.
- Nobody under the load, nor under the boom. Walk around the machine before starting: nobody underneath, on top, or close by.
- Do not drive with the boom raised. The prohibition is explicit.
- Belt on. On a machine that goes over the front, staying in the cab is what saves you.
- Restrain a suspended load to stop it swinging: a swing moves the centre of gravity beyond what the chart allowed for.
6. What tips a telehandler over
- Reach, almost always. The machine lifts at the back before it goes forward: the first sign is a rear axle going light.
- An unlisted attachment — hence a chart that does not match what is fitted.
- Ground giving way under a wheel or a stabiliser.
- A levelling correction attempted with the load high.
7. The French framework
In professional use, a construction telehandler falls under CACES R482 category F — rough-terrain handling trucks with a mast or a telescopic boom. It is not R489, which covers industrial handling trucks.
A CACES card does not authorise you to operate: it attests to a competence. What authorises is the authorisation to operate issued by the employer (article R.4323-56 of the Labour Code), after medical fitness, a knowledge check and familiarity with the site.
Lifting a person requires a work platform approved for your machine, fitted and used to the manufacturer’s instructions. Never forks, never a pallet, never an improvised box.
Next
What makes a telehandler last: the boom kept greased, tyre condition and pressure watched, and the service intervals held.