Your truck does more than transport. With the right equipment, your service truck serves as a mobile workshop and your home base when out on jobs. Your truck can carry equipment, parts, and tools for jobs, such as restoration, electrical, general construction, HVAC, carpet cleaning, and plumbing. But finding what you need shouldn’t be work. Fortunately, you can choose from a wide variety of service truck storage solutions to make smart use of whatever space is available.
With the right storage components or upfit, your service truck will:
- Keep your tools neatly organized and in better condition
- Protect your items from weather
- Prevent theft
- Increase space
- Help you complete jobs more efficiently by wasting less time searching for tools and parts
Below are several truck storage ideas. Implementing even one of these storage solutions will improve the usefulness of your work truck. If these smaller changes still leave you with storage issues, you might consider upfitting your truck so it becomes ultra-specialized to your work. Upfitting requires significant investment, but has potential for many rewards. Financing companies such as Aztec Financial can help with the equipment financing to get you started.
Before you begin adding storage solutions to your service truck, take the time to do the following:
- Clear out the clutter. Start with a clean slate. Remove tools rarely used, broken items, trash, etc.
- Make an inventory of all tools, equipment, and components. Assess each for the frequency of use. Identify what must be stored on your truck.
- Decide on your organization scheme. You might want to keep together items used for certain tasks, group like items together, or take another approach to organizing.
- Map out a thorough layout to make sure your truck storage ideas will make sense with your workflows and adequately hold all you require in a logical, accessible manner.
Pickup Truck Toolbox
For secure and weatherproof storage, a truck toolbox makes an excellent option. Several tool box and storage system options are available in numerous sizes, configurations, materials, and styles. Two main styles predominate:
- Cross box: Also known as a saddle box, the cross box suspends from the side rails of the pickup bed. Store your tools securely, access your tools from the truck’s side, and slide sheets or other flat items beneath the box. This style tends to be the easiest to install as well as remove when you need to use the entire bed. A cross box cannot fit under a tonneau cover.
- Chest box: This style bolts to the bed floor, so is less movable and does not allow for storage beneath. But a chest box tends to hold more capacity. Since the box sits at or near the height of the bed rail, your line of sight out the cab rear window or rearview mirror is not blocked. Plus, it can fit beneath a tonneau cover.
Cargo Load Bars
To safely secure your loads and to prevent load shift, use a cargo bar, also called load bars or load locks. These ratcheting square bars have extendible fittings on each end and are secured by exerting pressure on the opposite sides of the truck. Use these to keep propane bottles, large boxes, and more from falling over.
Ladder Rack
If you routinely need to carry ladders, conduit, pipes, or other lengthy items, then consider installing a ladder rack. As with most service truck storage solutions, you can choose among a wide variety of materials, sizes, and styles. The most common types of overhead or ladder racks include:
- Over-cab truck ladder rack: Transform your pickup truck into a double-decker vehicle with an over-cab rack that maximizes your available space that extends over the bed and the cab.
- Over-bed truck ladder rack: These racks can be quickly installed or removed. The racks extend over your bed and come with adjustable posts and tie-downs to secure your equipment.
- Side-mount truck ladder rack: These racks take up no space in your truck bed, and they are ideal for carrying one or more full-sized ladders.
Truck Bed Tool Drawers
Add storage space to your truck bed without sacrificing floor space with slide-out drawers. Drawers are built beneath a sturdy platform that fits across the bed, usually less than a foot high, and extending the length of the bed. To access items, just pull out the drawer. These drawers add permanent compartmentalized storage.
We Can Help
Aztec Financial helps business owners save money on upfitted vehicles with special fleet pricing. Aztec fleet specialists help businesses find the best vehicle option, upfitting products, and financing plan for their unique needs. Whether you need pickup truck financing or customizations to add to your work truck, Aztec is there.