Wilmer King

Detail A · a machine I’ve collaborated on

Equipter 7000

Towable boom handler. A remote-controlled, three-stage telescopic boom on a chassis that tows to the job, then works on site.

An Equipter 7000 towable boom handler extending its boom to lift a container to the roofline of a stucco house.
Fig. 1 · The Equipter 7000 lifting a container to a roofline. Photo: Equipter.

What it is

A towable telehandler. It travels in tow mode, then works on site in work mode, where its remote-controlled, three-stage boom carries either an aluminum container or forks.

It steers three ways: four-wheel, crab and rear-wheel.

Level-sensor outriggers set it up, and tip protection lets an overloaded boom only retract.

My part

I’ve done design work and project coordination on different aspects of the 7000 through its concept, prototype and production phases, and I continue to lead its generation release updates.

Program context

It made its trade-show debut at the International Roofing Expo in 2024.

Tip protection, in general

How a boom handler tips: its combined center of gravity and the tipping line Side view of a generic boom handler set up on its front outrigger pads, with the boom extended in solid lines and retracted in phantom lines. The front pad is a swivel pad, and a vertical tipping line runs down through its pivot pin to the ground. Center-of-gravity marks with downward weight lines show where the weight of the chassis and counterweight, of the boom and of the load acts; extending the boom moves the boom’s and the load’s marks forward. A larger mark shows the combined center of gravity of the whole machine in each position, with its weight line carried straight down to the ground. Extended, it sits a small stability margin behind the tipping line; retracting the boom moves it back, and the margin is larger. A plan view inset shows the support polygon formed by the tires and the pivots of the two front pads, with the tipping line as its front edge and both combined centers of gravity inside it. Notes: the machine tips when its combined center of gravity reaches the tipping line, where the turning effects of the weight ahead of the line and the weight behind it balance, and it stays stable while that combined center of gravity is inside the support polygon. Illustrative geometry, not a product specification.
Fig. 2 · A machine tips when its combined center of gravity (chassis and counterweight, boom and load together) reaches the tipping line through its front supports. Extending the boom carries the load and the boom’s own weight forward and pulls that combined center of gravity toward the line; retracting moves it back, which is why retracting is the safe direction for an overloaded boom. Generic physics; no ratings.