Ladder Towers Company

Ladder Towers Incorporated (LTI) was an American fire apparatus manufacturer located in Shady Grove, Lancastar & Ephrata, Pennsylvania.

History
In 1973, Grove Manufacturing sold off its aerial ladder division to concentrate in its crane division. In 1974, Mahlon Zimmerman started a new company, Ladders Towers Incorporated better known by the initials LTI, by building former Grover aerial devices.

Over the years, LTI build a high numbers of aerial devices, bodies were build by Conestoga Custom Products Incorporated, another company established in the Conestoga Industrial Park where LTI were. Spartan, Hendrickson and Pemfab chassis were used by LTI.

In 1985, LTI developed its own custom chassis the LTI Olympian. In 1986, LTI was acquired by Simon Group, maker of the Simon Snorkel elevating platforms. Simon-LTI, the name of the new company, acquired Duplex, a manufacturer of custom chassis, the truck was manufactured under Simon Duplex LTI name.

In 1998, Simon-LTI's ladder division was purchased by Aerial Innovations, a company founded by Mahlon Zimmerman the founder of LTI.

In 1994, all these companies were merged into a division of the new American LaFrance Corporation owned by Freightliner Corporation. After this date, LTI and Aerial Innovations aerials were only build on American LaFrance custom chassis and Freightliner commercial chassis.

In 2014, American LaFrance went into bankruptcy.