Telehandler Attachments

Telehandler Attachments for Sale: What This Collection Covers

Three US builders are represented here: Star Industries with 21 items, Apex Hoppers with 12 and Loflin Fabrication with 2. Buyers use a lot of different names for the same steel, which is worth knowing when you compare listings. Self-dumping hoppers get searched as scrap hoppers, loaf hoppers or Apex dumpsters. Open-top digging and carrying attachments get searched as lift buckets or telehandler buckets. Telescopic handler attachments and forklift attachments overlap heavily, because most of what is here mounts through fork pockets rather than a proprietary coupler. Sorting by what the attachment does — hold, dump, dig, hoist, or carry people — is more useful than sorting by name.

Nearly everything in this collection connects one of three ways: slip-on fork pockets, a crane or lifting hook, or a carriage-mounted frame. That mounting method, more often than the load rating, is what decides whether a given attachment will work on your machine.

Concrete Chute Hoppers

A concrete chute hopper is a tapered steel bin with a gate at the bottom and a chute that directs the mix where the machine cannot reach. Star Industries builds four in this collection, and the volume and weight ratings are matched to each other rather than to the biggest number the shell could hold:

The 1510, 1520 and 1530 are listed as compatible with cranes, forklifts and excavators, and the 1530 and 1520 are described as meeting ASME safety standards. The 1520 uses a lever-operated discharge gate with a spring system and a detachable side chute with center discharge. The 1575 is the fork-first option: a universal slip-on fork mount, a 30 inch chute that swings through 40 degrees total (20 degrees each side) and a manual gate with an adjustable multi-position handle.

One buying trap worth flagging: fork pockets are not universal across the Star hopper line. The 1530 listing states that a forklift adapter is not available for that model, with fork pockets supplied only for the smaller 1510 and 1520. If your plan is to run the hopper on forks rather than under a hook, confirm the adapter before you size up on volume.

Self-Dumping Hoppers, Scrap Hoppers and Apex Dumpsters

Apex Hoppers covers the debris and scrap side, with 12 units running from 0.25 cubic yard up to 5 cubic yards. Load ratings step through 4,000 lbs on the 0.25 and 0.5 cu yd units, 5,000 lbs on the 0.75, 6,000 lbs on the 1 through 2 cu yd sizes, and 8,000 lbs from 2.5 cu yd up through 5 cu yd. There is also an Apex Crane Dumping Bucket rated at 8,000 lbs.

Read that ladder carefully, because it tells you how these are meant to be loaded. The 5 cubic yard hopper carries the same 8,000 lbs rating as the 2.5 cubic yard hopper — you buy the larger shell for bulk, light material such as framing scrap, drywall or packaging, not to double the weight per pick. Filling a 5 cu yd body with masonry rubble will hit the load limit long before the box is full.

Build detail is published on the HD500, the 5 cubic yard unit: 7GA and 1/4 in steel, 100% MIG welded, made in the USA, 1,836 lbs empty, 75 3/4 in overall length, 47 1/4 in tall, 50 1/4 in overall width, with 2 3/4 in fork clearance. Fork clearance is the dimension people forget — thick fork blades or a worn heel can bind on a tight pocket, so measure your blades, not your carriage. Star Industries also lists a Heavy Duty Forklift Trash Hopper and dedicated Lifting Hooks for Self-Dump Hoppers if you intend to fly the hopper under a hook instead of carrying it on forks.

Telehandler Buckets, Lift Buckets and Grapples

Star's Heavy Duty Telehandler Bucket, Heavy Duty Skeleton Bucket and Slab Eater concrete slab bucket cover three different jobs. A solid bucket moves loose material and backfill. A skeleton bucket has open bars that let dirt and fines fall through so you keep rock, brick or demolition debris. The Slab Eater is built for broken concrete slab work. On the tractor side, Loflin Fabrication supplies a Compact Tractor Rock Bucket Grapple and a Compact Tractor Root Grapple, and Star lists a Universal Grapple Adapter — check the individual listing for its mounting pattern before assuming it fits your carriage.

Any grapple with a moving jaw needs an auxiliary hydraulic circuit on the machine and couplers that match. Machines sold without factory auxiliary hydraulics can usually be retrofitted, but that is a dealer conversation, not a bolt-on afternoon.

Booms, Spreader Bars, Hooks and Platforms

For placing loads out past the forks, this collection has the Star Telehandler Wide Back Truss Boom and the Truss Boom, Telehandler Low Profile, plus a Heavy Duty Extendable Spreader Bar and a Forklift Lift Hook. The catalog does not include a telehandler winch attachment; the truss booms are the reach-and-place option here. Also in the group: Wire Mesh Handlers rated 6,500–7,000 lbs at 13 ft, weighing 1,025 lbs net, handling bundles up to 8 ft x 20 ft, with fork pocket spacing of 24 in, 36 in or 39 in on center and a carriage requirement of 32 in, 44 in, 48 in or wider. A Scaffold Pallet, Paver Breaking Pallet, Hydraulic Hammer Stand, and the 1390B Lift-N-Tow (4,000 lbs lift, 10,000 lbs towing) round it out.

Personnel work is handled by the Safety Work Platform and the Industrial Work Platform. These are the only attachments in this collection intended to carry people.

Matching an Attachment to Your Machine and the Rules That Apply

Capacity on a telehandler is not a single number. It falls off as the boom extends and raises, which is why the machine carries a load chart for each approved attachment. The attachment's own empty weight counts against that chart — the 1,836 lbs HD500 or the 1,025 lbs wire mesh handler is part of the load before you put anything in it.

On the regulatory side, ANSI/ITSDF B56.6 is the safety standard covering rough terrain forklift trucks, the category telehandlers fall into, while ANSI/ITSDF B56.1 covers low lift and high lift industrial trucks. OSHA 1910.178(a)(4) prohibits modifications affecting capacity or safe operation without the manufacturer's prior written approval, and requires capacity and decal plates to be updated to match. OSHA requires trained and evaluated operators for powered industrial trucks under 1910.178(l), and 29 CFR 1926.602 applies that training requirement on construction sites. For below-the-hook items such as spreader bars and lifting hooks used under a crane, ASME B30.20 is the governing standard.