The blurred line between forklift and wheel loader?

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Gavin Phillips
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The blurred line between forklift and wheel loader?

Post #1 by Gavin Phillips » Tue Oct 02, 2012 9:40 pm

A farm only a couple of miles from me has hired out a very shiny looking JCB TM310S Agri telescopic machine for handling some topsoil and other material. As you'd expect, on a job like that its fitted with a loader bucket rather than forks but that brings an interesting question to my mind. What do you call these machines then, are they a wheel loader, forklift, or something similar to CAT's line of toolcarriers of the IT-series?

Manitou have a similar machine, the MLA627. I do believe there were/are quite a few of these machines built by the Kramer Allrad company as well - no doubt others have found the design of a telescopic forklift-come-wheel loader a successful product for versatility rather than production loading. Manitou also produced a machine called the "Manihoe" which was some kind of a weird mix of a telescopic forklift with a backacter stuck on the rear. Interesting concept!

But how do you know when a forklift stops being just that and starts being something else?

Is there any advantage having the cab directly behind the bucket/forks rather than to the side of it as with a regular telescopic forklift built by any number of companies like JCB, CAT, Merlo, etc?

Hopefully I'll get a chance to get some pictures of this new JCB. They look nice machines!

Best regards

Gavin
Look out that window, Eden isn't burning. Its burnt.


Bill86
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Re: The blurred line between forklift and wheel loader?

Post #2 by Bill86 » Fri Jan 04, 2013 2:00 pm

These machines in agriculture are most commonly known as tele handlers or materials handlers. They can be called other things especially when they break down!
Side boom and artic steer have good and poor points. The driver visibility on the side boom is poor (new Claas loaders do put the driver higher up though) but the booms do have good telescopic extension which can make life a lot easier on certain jobs.
Boom extension is not as good on the artic steer like the 310S but the driving position and visibility is brilliant. The steering does take some getting used to and you can get yourself into some awkward corners if your'e not cafeful but a bit of experience gets you out of them without too much problem.
HTH.

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IBH
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Re: The blurred line between forklift and wheel loader?

Post #3 by IBH » Fri Jan 04, 2013 4:12 pm

Gavin Phillips wrote:A farm only a couple of miles from me has hired out a very shiny looking JCB TM310S Agri telescopic machine for handling some topsoil and other material. As you'd expect, on a job like that its fitted with a loader bucket rather than forks but that brings an interesting question to my mind. What do you call these machines then, are they a wheel loader, forklift, or something similar to CAT's line of toolcarriers of the IT-series?

Manitou have a similar machine, the MLA627. I do believe there were/are quite a few of these machines built by the Kramer Allrad company as well - no doubt others have found the design of a telescopic forklift-come-wheel loader a successful product for versatility rather than production loading. Manitou also produced a machine called the "Manihoe" which was some kind of a weird mix of a telescopic forklift with a backacter stuck on the rear. Interesting concept!

But how do you know when a forklift stops being just that and starts being something else?

Is there any advantage having the cab directly behind the bucket/forks rather than to the side of it as with a regular telescopic forklift built by any number of companies like JCB, CAT, Merlo, etc?

Hopefully I'll get a chance to get some pictures of this new JCB. They look nice machines!

Best regards

Gavin

JCB call them '' Telescopic Wheel Loaders''- good enough for me!
http://www.jcb.co.uk/products/Machines/Telescopic-Wheel-Loaders.aspx


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