Industrial Plant, Telehandlers

Manitou supersizes its telehandlers

An artist's impression of a new, supersized Manitou telehandler.

Two supersized Manitou telehandlers are in the final development stage at Manitou’s Castelfranco R&D facility in Italy, with one said to have a lifting weight capacity of a huge 40 tonnes — 17.5 tonnes more than the company’s current MHT10225 flagship.

The new models will be powered by Mercedes-Benz 7.2-litre, six-cylinder diesel engines, with the larger telehandler boasting 1,400Nm of torque and delivering 240kW (350 HP) at 2,200 rpm. The engines will be matched to a fully automatic hydrostatic transmission, for driving at up to 25 km/h.

“Manitou is currently in the process of building two new telescopic handlers due for introduction to the local market in the second semester of 2014,” Manitou Australia MD Stuart Walker says. “At this stage, it’s important to say that the larger of the two models has been designed to safely and repeatedly handle up to 33 percent more than the highest-capacity production telehandler currently on the market.”

Walker says Manitou has placed a new emphasis on size to cater for the growing heavy-industrial market and, in countries like Australia and South Africa specifically, for the handling of conveyor belt reels in the mining sector.

In terms of adaptability, the new telehandlers are being designed for standard operation with forks, jibs, winches, platforms, tyre handlers and belt reel handlers, plus custom attachments. The machines will be able to automatically adapt their modes, such as weight limits and envelope tolerances, to selected attachments without operator input.

In line with current trends, Manitou has also placed an emphasis on operator comfort to reduce fatigue and increase productivity.

“We can expect a radical new cab design that will give operators more space, as well as enhanced ergonomics that’s based on user experience gathered from Manitou’s global customer base,” Walker says.

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