By Bill Adams
In “A History of LTI and Ephrata’s Ladder Trucks, Part 1” (December 2022), I explained how a concept conceived by a rural farm wagon builder evolved into a crane manufacturing company that later created a division fabricating aerial devices for the fire service.
The aerial division was purchased by Mahlon Zimmerman, renamed Ladder Towers Incorporated (LTI), and relocated to Ephrata, PA. Part 1 described LTI’s development as an influential player in the ladder truck market and its eventual purchase and renaming to Simon-LTI. Part 2 continues the story.
American LaFrance
In 1995, Freightliner purchased the defunct American LaFrance (ALF) assets ostensibly to build custom cabs and chassis for the fire service. Several years later, Freightliner’s ALF division suddenly, but not unexpectedly, returned to building complete apparatus by acquiring apparatus manufacturers (OEMs) RD Murray, 3D Manufacturing, Becker, Boardman, Medic Master, Rescue Master, and Southern Coach as well as component part manufacturer Aerial Innovations, Incorporated. Shortly thereafter, ALF purchased Simon-LTI. The aerial device employees on Cocalico Creek Road had another new owner.
The domestic Snorkel products including the Squrt and TeleSqurt lines have a convoluted history of owners originating with Pitman Manufacturing. All the lines ended up at the rejuvenated ALF either previously purchased by ALF’s former owner before it went out of business or purchased directly by Freightliner.
Tony Mastrobattista (Tony Mastro), an original employee of LTI and later Simon-LTI, says, “After ALF purchased Aerial Innovations, it purchased Simon-LTI and I stayed on with American LaFrance. My title was changed to national sales training manager-LTI division.”
The numerous apparatus acquisitions caused a great deal of apprehension in the fire truck industry and in Ephrata. The purchases provided ALF with three sources of aerial devices and multiple nationwide manufacturing facilities with trained workforces experienced in building fire apparatus. It provided an instant backlog of hundreds of “on-order” apparatus ranging from ambulances to ladder trucks. Overnight, it put ALF in the top tier of apparatus manufacturers. And ALF now controlled small apparatus OEMs’ access to aerial devices once supplied by Aerial Innovations and Simon-LTI.
Keith Purdy was ALF’s national marketing manager from around 2001 to 2009. Purdy: “The former Aerial Innovations product line was phased out and its plant in Lebanon was used to produce the ALF Silver Eagle, a stainless-steel aerial ladder that Aerial Innovations already had under development.” Purdy and Mastro say some of the purchased Snorkel, Squrt, and TeleSqurt product lines were also manufactured at both the former AI factory in Lebanon and the former LTI facility on Cocalico Creek Road (photo 1). The LTI plant continued building aerial devices with the LTI logo for ALF on the ALF chassis (photo 2).
ALF’s owner Freightliner was part of the Daimler corporation that later merged with Chrysler. Purdy was asked if it was difficult integrating a small, very experienced, and well-established manufacturing firm such as LTI into ALF—now just one small segment in a large multicorporation conglomerate. Purdy: “The LTI team on Cocalico Creek Road was so exceptionally experienced and talented that weaving them into the American LaFrance mold was not as critical as maintaining their freedom of decision making and market growth campaigns. To this end, even the national advertising of American LaFrance ladder and tower products in that time frame still revealed LTI logos on the base sections and platforms of their equipment.” It didn’t matter. In 2005, ALF was purchased by a large holding company, which some industry observers claim accelerated ALF’s 2014 demise.
1 One of five TeleSqurt-equipped 2003 ALF pumpers built at the ALF/RD Murray facility. LTC in Ephrata re-chassied with Spartan Gladiators, added new torque boxes, and rebuilt the booms during the 2019/2020 time frame. (Photos 1 and 2 by Tom Shand.)
2 A 2006 America La France-LTI 93-foot mid-mount tower sporting an original LTI logo with the dotted “I” and rounded lower corners.
3 A 2009 Crimson rear-mount tower on a Spartan Gladiator that was one of the last rigs built by Crimson in Lancaster before moving to Ephrata. Several former LTI employees working at Crimson also moved “back home” to Cocalico Creek Road. (Photo 3 courtesy of REV Fire Group.)
4 A 2019 Spartan ERV 110-foot LTC rear-mount aerial on a Spartan Gladiator chassis. It sports a redesigned LTI logo with, among other things, the “i” replaced by a “c.” (Photo 4 by Tom Shand.)
Crimson
After ALF’s return to building complete fire apparatus, Spartan Motors, which at the time was only building the cabs and chassis, purchased apparatus manufacturers Quality in Talladega, AL, and Luverne in Brandon, SD. Initially operated as separate entities, Spartan rebranded both as Crimson Fire Apparatus in 2003. John Greible was the northeast regional sales manager at Crimson Fire. He says: “Prior to developing its own proprietary line, Crimson outsourced aerial purchases.” He was still at Crimson when its aerial line was created in Lancaster, PA.
Some in the industry thought the Crimson and Spartan facilities might have been consolidated. Talladega is 800 miles from Lancaster. Brandon is 1,300 miles away. Spartan’s chassis are made 600 miles away in Charlotte, MI.
However, paraphrasing a February 2007 article in this magazine by the late Bob Barraclough (bit.ly/3hXIJJH): “Two long-time LTI employees and aerial ladder experts were hired to develop Crimson’s aerial ladder line. Production of the first unit started in Crimson’s Lancaster, PA, aerial plant in October 2003.” Greible: “The new Crimson aerial ladder was designed so the base design could be easily adapted to a family of products.”
In 2007, Tony Mastro started working in Lancaster for Crimson Fire Aerials as the aerial sales manager-northern division. Greible was still there in 2010 when Crimson relocated its Lancaster aerial production 15 miles down the road to Ephrata to the same complex as American LaFrance (photo 3). Crimson was in one building and American LaFrance’s LTI division was in another. Mastro returned to Cocalico Creek Road, saying: “There was an imaginary line down the center of the parking lot between the two facilities lovingly referred to as the Berlin Wall.”
5 A 110-foot LT rear-mount aerial on a Spartan Gladiator chassis. (Photo 5 courtesy of REV Fire Group.)
6 An LT mid-mount ladder tower on a Spartan Gladiator chassis. (Photo 6 courtesy of Tony Mastro.)
Smeal and Spartan
In 2012, Spartan renamed itself Spartan Emergency Response Vehicles (Spartan ERV). Smeal Fire Apparatus started building fire apparatus in 1964 in Snyder, NE. In the 1970s, it began fabricating its own line of aerial devices.
Around 2014/2015, Smeal bought the LTI assets when ALF closed—again. Smeal rebranded the LTI line to Ladder Tower Company (LTC) and continued building them on Cocalico Creek Road in Ephrata—1,200 miles from Nebraska where it was building its own Smeal aerials. Similar to the Simon-LTI aerial line, the LTC aerials were commonly referred to LTIs. Smeal became the fifth owner of the original LTI paradigm that started with Grove, four of which were building them in Ephrata at the same complex.
Owner #6
Spartan ERV later rebranded itself Spartan Emergency Response (Spartan ER). Around 2016/2017, it purchased Smeal, which included the newly branded LTC being built on Cocalico Creek Road. Spartan kept it there and, unlike previous purchasers, Spartan did not change the name (photo 4).
Greible: “When Spartan purchased Smeal. the newly created Crimson aerial line was discontinued in favor of the long-established Smeal line in Nebraska.” Mastro: “When Spartan discontinued the Crimson brand name, their southern division aerial sales manager retired, and I assumed the role of aerial sales manager until I left.”
7 An LT tractor-drawn aerial “quint” on a Spartan Gladiator chassis. (Photos 7-8 courtesy of REV Fire Group.)
8 An LT rear-mount aerial “quint” with the latest revision of the original LTI logo eliminating the letter “c.”
REV Group is #7
In 2020, the REV Group purchased Spartan ER, which included the LTC and Smeal brands. REV rebranded LTC to Ladder Tower (LT). The Smeal brand is still built in Nebraska and the LT brand is now the only ladder truck manufactured on Cocalico Creek Road in Ephrata (photos 5-7). And the LTC logo was revised—this time to just LT (photo 8).
. . .
The 64 and 68 Cocalico Creek Road addresses in Ephrata used by the numerous aerial ladder manufacturers have been called a site, a complex, an industrial park, and a facility. There are four major buildings encompassing just over 142,000 square feet on about 25 acres. Ladder Tower is the only aerial ladder manufacturer still on the premises. People continue to refer to the ladder trucks built there as LTIs—a testament to the product and the people who built it.
Randy Hummer, who wrote an LTI History, is still there. One of Mahlon Zimmerman’s first employees hired before LTI moved to Ephrata, he’s currently the aerial account manager for REV Fire Group’s Spartan Emergency Response/Ladder Tower products.
Tony Mastro: “LTI and its offspring are as much about the people who pursued their passions there as they are about the ladder trucks that were built there. There were numerous people young and old who developed alongside the products. The Ladder Tower now has many newer copies and an originally outstanding idea has been continually improved and pushed closer to perfection over a 50-year period. Many of those people have branched out into positions of influence with other builders in the industry, and the world is a better and safer place because of it.”
BILL ADAMS is a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment Editorial Advisory Board, a former fire apparatus salesman, and a past chief of the East Rochester (NY) Fire Department. He has 50 years of experience in the volunteer fire service.
