Telehandler Attachments

Specialist Forklift Attachments Buying Guide

Start with the interface: quick-tach carriage or fork pockets. An attachment mounts one of two ways, and buying the wrong interface is the most common mistake here. The Star Industries line locks to a universal quick-attach plate, the same coupler style skid steers use, so a truss boom, auger drive, or bucket swaps in a few minutes without tools. The Star Telehandler Carriage itself comes in 48, 60, and 72 inch widths to match your machine, and it is what lets a telehandler run that quick-tach family. The second group slides onto the forks: the Star forklift spreader bars, the Tandemloc lifting beams, fork extensions, and the sweepers all ride in or over the tines. Before you buy, confirm which interface your machine presents. Fork-mounted gear needs your fork spacing and section width checked, and some Star spreader bars call out a minimum carriage width, such as 48 inch or wider, before they will seat.

Capacity lives on the load chart, not the sticker. A telehandler's rated capacity is never a single number. It falls as the boom extends and rises, and near maximum reach the safe load can drop by roughly half to keep the machine from tipping. Any attachment that carries the load out ahead of the carriage makes that steeper, because the boom becomes a longer lever. A Star quick-tach truss boom is rated to 10,000 lb at the carriage, but the usable pick at the tip of a 15 foot boom is a fraction of that, set by the boom's own chart on top of the machine's. Total the load, the rigging, and the working reach, then read both charts together before you plan the lift. The fork-pocket spreader bars and Tandemloc beams carry their own working load limits, from 2,000 lb up to 34,000 lb depending on the model and length, and those numbers assume the load is centered and rigged straight.

Truss booms and jibs for setting steel. The Star Quick-Tach Truss Booms, about $2,666 to $4,382, are the reason many crews buy a telehandler in the first place. The short 2 foot models come with a rated shackle and swivel hook, from a 7 ton shackle with a 5 or 7 ton hook up to a 12 ton shackle, for close-in picks where you want the load tight to the carriage. The 10, 12, and 15 foot booms carry a 6 ton pintle hitch at the tip for reaching over a wall to set roof trusses and metal building components. Wide-back versions add lateral stiffness for the longer reaches. This is jib work, so the rule is simple: the farther out you hook, the less you can lift, and the boom chart, not the carriage rating, is the document that governs the pick.

Augers: match the bit to the ground. Two auger families cover most digging. The Heavy-Duty Single Flight Augers, roughly $534 to $2,187, cut soil, clay, and mixed dirt in 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 24, 30, and 36 inch diameters, all 48 inches long. The Solid Rock Augers, about $1,269 to $4,574, carry harder cutting teeth for frozen ground, shale, and rock across a similar 6 to 36 inch range. When a footing or pole hole runs deeper than 48 inches, the Auger Shaft Extensions ($289 to $577) add 24, 36, 48, 60, or 72 inches of reach between the drive and the bit. Size the diameter to the footing or pole you are setting, and switch to the rock bit the moment a dirt auger starts bouncing rather than biting, because forcing the wrong bit wears teeth fast and stresses the drive.

Buckets, tubs, and skips for bulk material. For moving loose material, the Star Skeleton Buckets ($1,688 to $2,792) sift 7.2 to 18.5 cubic feet heaped, letting fines fall through the bars while holding rock, root, and debris. The Smooth Mini Excavator Buckets ($615 to $1,739) come in 10, 12, 18, 24, and 36 inch widths for tighter digging, backfilling, and grading. Mortar Tubs ($474 to $639) hold 6 or 10 cubic feet of mud at the mason's working height, which is exactly what a telehandler is good at delivering to an upper course. When the material has to ride the boom up to a deck, the Crane Lift Boxes (32 or 36 cubic feet) and Crane Trash Skips (40 to 102 cubic feet, rated to 13,000 lb) haul brick, block, and demolition waste to and from height without a separate crane.

Tow hitches and yard work. The Star Lift-N-Tow and Load-N-Tow hitches, about $1,495 to $3,690, turn a forklift or telehandler into a yard tractor for trailers, generators, and portable equipment. The Lift-N-Tow is rated 4,000 lb, and the Super Duty and Navy versions step up to 10,000 and 12,000 lb, with removable stop-plate variants for controlled pickups. The ball and pintle hardware sells separately as Adaptors and Hitches ($110 to $328), covering a 2 inch ball, a raised ball, a pintle, and combination heads keyed to each hitch model, so order the adaptor that matches your trailer coupler and the exact Lift-N-Tow you are running.

Rigging beams and fork-mounted extras. Where a bare fork cannot rig a load safely, the Tandemloc beams give you a rated hook. These are below-the-hook lifting devices under ASME B30.20, each marked with a working load limit and meant for inspect-before-use handling: the AT37 double-fork double-hook beam (2,000 to 10,000 lb), the AT38 fork boom with 48 to 96 inch hook positions, a telescopic lifting beam, and a multi-padeye spreader rated to 12,000 lb. On the utility side, Vestil Forklift Fork Extensions ($242 to $477) slide over your tines in usable lengths from 42 to 96 inches for oversized loads, subject to the ANSI B56.1 limit of 150 percent of the base fork length. The same fork interface also takes 48 and 60 inch sweeper brushes, snow plow blades and push boxes, a work platform, and a trash can compactor, so one machine keeps earning its keep across seasons and job types.