Compact Telehandlers are Both Versatile and Productive in Concrete Market
Compact telescopic tool carriers, or "telehandlers," offer concrete and masonry contractors a versatile machine for precise placement of materials, multiple steering options, attachment versatility, and an alternative to a dedicated loader or material handler.The telehandler's design provides excellent lifting abilities in a compact design for optimum efficiency on jobsites with limited access. Bobcat Company, West Fargo, N.D., manufactures two compact telehandlers for multiple industries and applications, including the concrete and masonry markets. The two Bobcat® compact telehandlers can lift 5,000 and 7,000 pounds, respectively.
“Bobcat compact telehandlers are engineered as low-profile machines — a popular trend among tool carriers,” says Eric Brown, Bobcat telescopic tool carrier product specialist. “Each model utilizes a low pivot boom, which is well-built, protecting all the hoses and tube-lines inside the boom. A reinforced elbow area protects the machine’s tilt cylinder. This brawny boom structure provides superior digging ability, along with excellent reach at maximum lift height — from 18 feet to 23 feet — which makes these machines great tool carriers.
“Bobcat telescopic tool carriers, or telehandlers, combine the speed, agility, and strength of the company’s skid-steer loader with the extended reach and versatility of a telescopic boom for completing multiple jobsite tasks,” Brown explains.
When operating in confined spaces, Bobcat compact telehandlers have three modes of steering: all-wheel steer for tight turning, crab steer for maneuvering from side to side, or front-wheel steer for road travel. The steering mode selection can be made from the operator’s cab with the flip of a dash panel switch.
Thanks to the multiple steering options on the compact telehandlers, customers save time on their jobsites.
"We can work closer to a retaining wall and come at it from different angles to save time," says Pat Starr of R&S: The Retaining Wall Specialists. Owners Starr and Rod Rucker were among the first customers of Bobcat compact telehandlers. The Highlands Ranch, Colo., contractors use the machine with their skid-steer loaders to build concrete or timber retaining walls. One project involved a 500-foot-long, 15-foot-high structure. Equipped with pallet forks, the compact telehandler, with its high lift and reach, simplified the job of placing materials as the walls were being built. Then, they easily switched to a bucket attachment for excavating and backfilling work.
Other compact telehandler customers report turning in a 6-foot radius in all-wheel-steer mode, which helps when maneuvering in tight places, while the crab-steer model enables operators to get out of soft ground by climbing sideways. And, both crab and all-wheel steering modes allow operators to get in and out of areas that other equipment, like conventional forklifts, can’t.
According to Brown, the real key to success with these machines may be the versatility of running attachments on the boom. Attachments simply enable compact telehandlers to do more than a dedicated lifting machine. By adding an angle broom, a telehandler can clean driveways, streets, and parking lots of dirt and other construction debris. Lifting pallets of building material to a first- or second-story building is simplified with a pallet fork attachment for the telehandler. And when other tasks need to be completed, a compact telehander can fit the bill. One example is using the compact telehandler with an auger attachment, enabling the operator to dig holes for fence posts quickly and efficiently.
Bobcat compact telehandlers come standard with a hydraulic quick-tach mounting system, Brown says. This is similar to the attachment mounting system found on skid-steer loaders. With the hydraulic quick-tach, the compact telehandler operator never has to leave the cab when hooking up, changing, or disconnecting non-hydraulic attachments, such as buckets or pallet forks.
An attachment specific to compact telehandlers that may be new to some contractors is the tilt carriage, which makes it easy to keep pallets and other materials level on uneven terrain when placing or removing them from trucks beds, scaffolding, and rooftops. This can be especially helpful for concrete and masonry contractors who use a compact telehandler for loading palletized building materials on jobsites.
Compact telehandler customers Scott Rozier and Wade Schmidt from Rosch Company in O’Fallon, Mo. build large segmental retaining walls and mechanically stabilized earth walls. Their Bobcat V518’s maximum load capacity and variable lift height — as high as 18 feet — pays off by saving time and labor when building larger walls. The machine is used to lift and place concrete blocks, backfill materials, and tools.
The V518 eliminates the need to build haul roads from each end of a large wall and up behind the wall for transporting dirt and blocks with a loader and bucket, according to Rozier. “It was very time-consuming and very inefficient,” Rozier says, speaking about their experience before buying a compact telehandler. “The V518 has increased our efficiency on walls like that by more than 20 percent.”
Another benefit of compact telehandlers is their light weight. Contractors find the compact telehandlers easy to transport from jobsite to jobsite. For example, the V518 weighs just 10,846 pounds, which can be towed with a light truck.
“The V518 is easy to move between jobsites,” says general contractor Dale Cowan of Cowan Construction in Cody, Wyo. “It fits between the wheel wells on a tag-along trailer behind my pickup. It saves the expense of a large truck and trailer.”
Cowan uses the V518 with pallet forks to handle materials like lumber and steel, and with a one-yard bucket for moving dirt. "It's not just a lifting machine," he says. "It has true digging power and does a real nice job with dirt work."