The Hi-Ranger Snorkel was an articulating boom aerial platform built by Mobile Aerial Towers Inc.
The Chicago Fire Department placed the first Pitman Snorkel in service in 1958. With the success of this unit they were looking to buy more. While Pitman Manufacturing was the first to build an articulating aerial platform for a fire department, it was not the only company building such platforms. Chicago purchased two Hi-Ranger Snorkels in 1959, followed by two more in 1960.
Unlike most other aerial platforms which used enclosed tubular booms, the Hi-Ranger used a distinctive open lattice work for its booms.
The Hi-Ranger Snorkel was available in 50, 65, 75 and 85 foot lengths. Approximately 80 Hi-Rangers would be sold between 1959 and 1987 when the last unit entered service.
Hi-Rangers were mounted on both commercial and custom chassis. Several manufacturers built apparatus using a Hi-Ranger aerial platform, but Ward LaFrance and Van Pelt account for the largest number.
Ed Hass Sep 28, 2024[]
Van Pelt initially marketed the Hi-Ranger on the west coast under the brand name Van Pelt Fire Arm. The 1959 demonstrator Van Pelt Fire Arm had a boom failure in 1962 that caused the boom to crash down onto the cab roof. The boom was removed, a new cab was installed, the wheelbase was shortened, and it was resold as a tractor attached to a fire department water tender trailer. When my Dad, Bill Hass, took a class in 'snorkel' operations at the University of Maryland fire school in the 1970s, they used the generic term 'elevating platform' for both articulating and tower ladder types, and my Dad always used that as the generic term. I remember that Art Moore, Chief Engineer at Snorkel and a friend of my Dad's, also used 'elevating platform' as the generic term in conversations and correspondence he had with my Dad. Moore designed both the Squrt and the TeleSqurt elevating platforms.