Essential Tool Kit for First Truck

How about a roll of ####ing duct tape for the win

 

This one is universal!

 

I'm already half way to the nuthouse with only 8 years in the trade. If I make it another 42 years it'd be a miracle lol.

 

Lol I went to hit "Thank" on this post and it took me to a screen that said "Are you sure you want to thank this post?"

 

That's a new one lol
I must be acting like a spam account...

(Actually I'm a recruiter for snap on)

 

It's not all that hard to get $30,000 worth of tools in a standard size Snap-on box. That one full of tools would run $100K plus.

Snap-on is good quality but their prices are outrageous. A friend of mine bought a used Snap-on welder. During his research he found out it was just a re-badged Lincoln. The bad part was you could buy the welder new from Lincoln for $1,800, the exact same welder new from Snap-on was $5,000.

 

I have this one: http://www.harborfreight.com/professional-301-piece-mechanics-tool-kit-45951.html

I've had it for years now. You can use one of their 20% off coupons on it as well. If anything breaks, just bring it in and they'll swap it right out. I'd say they're about the same quality as Craftsman. I've used the bigger ratchets as hammers more than a few times and they're still the original ones.

But honestly, the best tool is good maintenance. I haven't taken that tool kit on the road with me in years. I have a few screwdrivers, pliers, and tape. If it's something that those tools can't handle, I just let a shop fix it. They have the right equipment and I'd rather sleep/wait while they're fixing it than try to do it on my own. At home, I'll do most of my own maintenance. But on the road, I let the shop do it.

 

Crow bar mounted close to seat.

I use a narly looking fence tool I bought at Harbor Freight. It has a sharp point on one end, to break the truck window to escape. My brother flies corporate jets (he was the smarter of the 2 of us )

He said most private pilots keep the crow bar mounted securely within reach so as to pry the door open or to pry their feet from behind the smashed pedals or dashboard.

Nothing worse than surviving a plane crash only to not be able to get out.

I tried smashing a truck window with a sledge hammer to no avail. Probably because I was using the flat surface, maybe if I used the edge of the hammer it would have shattered the window.

As we've all seen many crashes I recall some where the people had nothing to smash the windows with. The doors often times jam and need to be pried open.

Make sure the pry bar is where it can be reached and wont fly around during the crash. I smashed a window by accident once, but have trouble when trying. Paint the pry bar a bright color.

The police will even tell you of stories where cops have tried to shoot a suspect through the side tempered window only to have bullets fly off (depends on the angle).

 

A box of plastic forks. He might also want to paint the inside door handles a bright color so he can easily find the handles when he's disoriented following a crash.