The cherry picker truck, or bucket truck as we know it today, was quite revolutionary for many industries such as utility companies and arborists. Since that time, the popularity of the Paxton-Mitchell bucket trucks led to the almost generic use of the term “Snooper” truck. Then, in 1964, the first “SNOOPER™” Under Bridge Inspection and Maintenance Truck was designed and manufactured by the Paxton-Mitchell Company, LLC. Thornton-Trump patented his invention in the early 1960s, calling it a “power-operated boom structure” to be used as a “lifting apparatus for electric line and construction workers.” Thornton-Trump called his boom lift the Giraffe, but the name cherry picker became associated with it as people often used it to pick fruit from tall trees. Thornton-Trump who, in 1951, invented a boom lift to allow working in high places easier and safer. After a frustrating day of positioning and repositioning the ladder, the inefficiency of this chore led him to design a device he called the ‘cherry picker.’ On evenings and weekends, he built a highly maneuverable, telescoping, steel structure mounted on a truck chassis with a simple one-lever control.”Īnother example is Walter E. “In 1944, Jay spent a tedious summer day picking cherries. Some historians attribute the first bucket truck to Jay Eitel, the founder of the Telsta Corporation in Sunnyvale, Calif., which produced one of the first aerial lifts for the utility industry.
Though the trucks were used to pick may types of fruit, cherry is the one that stuck as a generic term to refer to bucket trucks and all other manlifts.” “The cherry picker, also now referred to as a bucket truck, aerial manlift, and many other names was first developed in the early 1900s as a means for farmers and their workers to pick fruit more safely and without damaging the tree. Bucket Trucks, Cherry Pickers, and ‘Snooper’ TrucksĪccording to several authors, bucket trucks were originally known as “cherry pickers.” Others can hold up to 1,000 pounds of both personnel and equipment. This work platform may only be capable of holding one worker and a small number of tools or material. While articulating booms provide far more versatility and reach, telescopic boom lifts usually provide higher weight capacities, but have less maneuverability.Īnd, finally, most truck-mounted boom lifts have hydraulically controlled arms with a one, two, or even three person bucket platform attached to the end of the last boom. Telescopic boom lifts, on the other hand, have straight booms that extend outwards. One is an articulating boom lift that has arms – or booms – that bend to allow navigation around or over objects, also known as jib booms. There are two common types of boom lifts. Specifically, a bucket truck is a type of aerial lift, or work platform, known as a boom lift. In fact, these vehicles are often referred to as cherry pickers, boom trucks, aerial work platforms, aerial devices, elevating work platforms, or mobile elevating work platforms.
The venerable Snooper™ truck is a notable example of this type of bucket truck. Defining Bucket Trucksĭefinitions are often easy to come by, but just as often they can be a bit slippery when applied to actual, real-world objects.Ī simple textbook definition of a bucket truck might go as follows:Īn aerial work platform that is a mechanical device used to provide temporary access for people or equipment to inaccessible areas, usually at height.Īnd, while this is accurate as far as it goes, in practice, bucket trucks can also be used to reach down and under, as is typical for bridge inspections, for example. For many people, the sight of a utility company boom truck, hoisting a one-man bucket up to the top of a power pole is quite familiar.īut a bucket truck is a far more versatile and varied piece of equipment. Depending on the industry you’re in, the term “bucket truck” might bring to mind different things.
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