Tools for the road

First and foremost a quality STRAIGHT Heavy Duty Tire Gauge. Don't get an Angled head.

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I ussually carry a few odds and ends. Pliers, side cutters, monkey wrench, and a few spanners, say up to one inch in size. A roll of insulation tape, a roll of PTFE tape, a tube of silicon. A few odds and ends of baling wire, and a few odds and ends of electrical wire. It could be handy to have some jubilee clamps of various sizes aswell. A vice grip comes to mind, aswell as a hammer. Just thinking of the minor things that could go wrong, major repairs would need special tools. Forgot to add a good quality set of screwdrivers phillips and flat.

 

Worthken pretty much covered it all. Maybe some zip ties. They come in handy for alot of things. Good luck out there.

 

Forgot that aswell, You will know what you need when dont have it. Ingeniouty and common sense also comes in handy sometimes.

 

A hammer, yes, or upgrade the hammer to a something like a shop hammer aka baby sledge or engineer's hammer. These are heavy enough to break loose troublesome trailer pins and frozen brake drums, carpenters hammers often don't have quite enough ummph. Also, if you use a hammer for "bumping tires" might I recommend a ball-peen hammer. These don't hurt the knee caps as bad as a nail claw side does when they bounce back and you're not in a good position and the claw sometimes sometimes get's in the way in confined spaces.

 

Add to the items already listed a Roll of GOOD electrical tape , wire strippers , criming tool , crimp connectors , Marettes ( wire nuts ) and learn how to splice wiring , see so m,any sitting waiting for ROAD SERVICE for simple wiring repair. Get spare bulbs / lights for whatever your assigned and know how to change them , same as glad hand seals..

 

I just put together a glad hand adapter to hook up a shop air hose to the truck. This allows me to carry a couple of air hoses with me (one is really only needed 50 ft long). Allows me to have two so I can also go into the box and use a blower nozzle to blow out the debris if I want instead of sweeping.

I can put on an air chuck for filling tires, an impact wrench for pulling a truck tire. All them fun things you might need an air tool for.

I also carry a basic set of screw drivers, combination wrenches, 3/8" and 1/2" socket sets, pliers, diagonal cutters, wire crimping tool, needle nose, vice-grips, 2lb engineer hammer, test light, spare bulbs, fuses, electrical tape, Teflon tape, duct tape, masking tape

If I can't handle a repair with those tools,

 

one of those little electrical kits that looks like a fishing tackle box is perfect for those quick fixes on the lights etc
a good hammer is essential to break loose trailer pins
side cutters for those heavy duty seals
wrenches to replace mud flaps with a spare mud flap with spare bolts
I buy bolts with nyletron bushings that dont become one rusted mess
why sit and wait miss a load get a lousy paycheck for a 15 min repair
out to sea all those years fishing i never saw a tow truck

 

Bungee cords can always be useful too.And a couple pairs of heavy duty gloves.