Horizontal outreach explained

What the number is measuring

Horizontal outreach is the sideways distance the platform can reach from a reference point the manufacturer defines, and that reference point isn't always the edge of the chassis. Reading the number without checking the source diagram is one of the easier ways to end up short by a surprising amount on site.

The range across our catalogue runs up to around 42 m on the largest truck-mounted platforms, but outreach that big is the exception rather than the norm: most jobs sit well inside 15-20 m, and the machines built for that middle band handle basket load far more forgivingly than the specialist long-reach units do.

The figure that matters is rarely the maximum one

Maximum outreach is almost always tied to a specific, often minimal, basket load, and it commonly shrinks further depending on slew angle, outrigger position, jib extension or chassis configuration. A machine advertised with generous outreach at an empty platform can lose several metres once loaded with the people, tools and materials the job actually needs in the basket.

That's the same load-dependent envelope covered in our working height vs platform height guide, and the two should be checked together rather than in isolation: the envelope you actually get is a combination of height, reach and load, not any one figure on its own.

Specify what you actually need, then check the envelope against it

Work out the horizontal distance and the vertical work position together, and include everything that needs to be in the platform at once. Once you have that, the compare tool is a faster way to check two or three real candidates against each other than reading spec sheets side by side, and the full catalogue lets you filter by outreach directly.