Service truck layout/organization

[Jatreecompany]

just bought a new to me mechanics truck. Gmc 4500 with a knuckle boom mounted on rear.
Just trying to decide how to layout my tools and stuff. Like to learn from others.
Thanks in advance
Post pics please

 

[Junkyard]

Wow are you gonna open a can of worms!!!

I'm on my fourth. Here's what I've learned/gotten used to. Handtools on the same side as crane. Preferably curb side but that's not the end of the world unless you do a lot of roadside work. Can't have too many drawers, bins, magnetic hooks etc. Take the time to organize and lay it out now or you'll never get it done. Unless you're one of those OCD freaks!

If you can, consolidate all the oil, aerosol, funnels and other leaky crap to one cabinet and put pig mat down before you load it up. It's gonna get messy but it'll keep it tidy longer. Not sure what all you'll work on but some of my compartments are organized by machine. One is all IMT crap, a smaller one is all Watson which on them isn't much.

When I got my last one I sat down and visualized the majority of my work and tried to put all that stuff on one side. The way my drawers came I have tools on the opposite side of the crane. Seldom a big deal as the majority of the time I can pick across the truck and still work from that side.

I have one of the large front cabinets mostly open because when I go to service a rig or two I have to take a lot of filters and I like them locked up, dry and clean. The same spot has my cooler and microwave.

Make room for trash somewhere or you'll end up with a bed full of $hit. Hang a bag each time you work, a bucket, box or whatever. Get in the habit and it'll make cleanup easier.

 

[ETER]

Hey Jatreecompany, there seems to be a couple of us in the process of setting up / building service trucks...I got a 2001 Sterling single axle a few months back with a knuckle boom mounted behind the cab (was set up as a flat bed delivery when I got it), and plan on mounting the compessor in the 28" gap between the crane and the 11' service body that I have about a million hours (or at least it seems like it) on the reconstruction.
Would like to see the crane set up on the rear of your unit if you could post some pics? I have also been thinking about how to organize, my latest issue with installing top chest boxes in the compartments for hand tool storage is that the body is a Reading and the compartments are only 18" deep which will allow a 16" deep chest (or the more conventional 12" deep boxes) and be wasting a lot of cubes!
Still have more body work, painting and wiring to do before the tool load-up task (what I think will be the fun part) so all of this discussion will definitely be of interest. Junkyard has already made some good points to consider with one being the type of equipment that is mostly worked on, another consideration is the units GVWR as I can see overloading seems inevitable
Regards, Bob

 

[Jatreecompany]

Will get more pics

 

[thepumpguysc]

DAM NICE TRUCK.!!!
I like the idea about organizing for SPECIFIC equipment.!!
I too have my boxes organized for SPECIFIC PUMPS..
I can grab a box & go to work.. EVERY TOOL that I need to tear a pump down/reassemble is IN THAT BOX..
No looking for a 5/16" socket, no looking for a 11/32" nut driver.. EVERY TOOL is IN that box..
I have multiple boxes for different pumps & every tool that's required is in there..
Needless to say, I have MULTIPLES of the same sockets, wrenches & screw drives, but it sure saves ABUNCH of time..
I use those clear plastic divider "trays" w/2 closure tabs on the front..
I get them from Harbor Frt when they're on sale for just a couple of bucks each..

 

[ETER]

That is a very cool looking unit! Looks like you have manual controls on both sides with remote? My crane is a National Crane Corp. unit, much older...mid 90's I think and uses a hyd. motor for turning, not the newer rack piston type. Do you have much time on the articulating cranes? I am nowhere even close to being proficient at moving the hook up and down in a straight line...I'm thinking a small chainfall on the hook will work well for lifts like cylinder head remove / installs where more precision is needed.
The body looks to be very clean and was well taken care of, who is the manufacturer?
Regards, Bob

 

[YukonJeff]

Nice lookin service body, need more pics.

Take your time and think out your layout, we all set our trucks up differently. Think about the best ways to keep yourself efficient and productive. Simple things like when you mount your Oxy/Acetylene bottles, make sure the valves are positioned so you can easily attach the regulators... sounds silly, but customers don't want to pay you to F around with your truck when you should be fixing their equipment. The little things will keep you efficient.

I am one of those OCD people, I'm never quite happy with my layout and always adjusting, building shelves etc. My tool boxes are always on the drivers side, up to 1/2" hand tools. Ideally I have my crane on the RH side and heavy tooling (3/4" and up) on the RH side, trying to balance weight as best I can (my current tuck has the crane on the LH side). Consumables on the same side as hand tools/tool boxes. Hardware, fittings, etc are all in organized bins, like fishing tackle organizers. Few pictures attached.

 

[Jatreecompany]

Nice lookin service body, need more pics.

Take your time and think out your layout, we all set our trucks up differently. Think about the best ways to keep yourself efficient and productive. Simple things like when you mount your Oxy/Acetylene bottles, make sure the valves are positioned so you can easily attach the regulators... sounds silly, but customers don't want to pay you to F around with your truck when you should be fixing their equipment. The little things will keep you efficient.

I am one of those OCD people, I'm never quite happy with my layout and always adjusting, building shelves etc. My tool boxes are always on the drivers side, up to 1/2" hand tools. Ideally I have my crane on the RH side and heavy tooling (3/4" and up) on the RH side, trying to balance weight as best I can (my current tuck has the crane on the LH side). Consumables on the same side as hand tools/tool boxes. Hardware, fittings, etc are all in organized bins, like fishing tackle organizers. Few pictures attached.

View attachment 175328 View attachment 175329 View attachment 175330 View attachment 175331

Where did you get that chain rack?
I would like to see more pics of you setup. And maybe an overall pic. Thanks

 

[YukonJeff]

Chain rack is made by Star Manufacturing. Brutus Service Bodies puts them in their bodies as part of the standard build, I just moved it from the dog house to that cabinet.

I'll work on some pictures, I've got the truck all tore apart at the moment doing some work on it. New fuel tanks, some shelving, resealing air compressor, etc. Some guys build hot rods, I build my service truck

 

[Numbfingers]

] I built a service truck last winter for my new business as well, and found out this past summer that the time you take to be organized and efficient pays big dividends on the job for efficiency. There are a few things I have to adjust but overall I'm pretty happy with the layout. I built the truck on a budget because I didn't want to go heavily into debt getting my business off the ground. Almost all my most commonly used wrenches and sockets 1" and below are in a 22" cantilever box strapped to the deck. All the assorted pliers, screwdrivers, picks and such are in a separate tool bag. All the other common hand and air tools and go in a set of drawers I installed inside the tool chests mounted on the truck bed. All the diagnostics and specialty tools go in another tool chest above. Inside the boxes on the other side of the truck with the crane are various electrical and consumable supplies, abs pads, chemicals, minor parts, fasteners up to 18mm and 3/4. In the middle between the boxes and located in front are things I use less frequently like welding gear, 1" drive gear, oil storage/pumping gear, and steel rigging. I only carry a Miller 211 for minor repairs, and keep the engine driven welder at home ready to go for heavy stuff.
I'm always concerned about contaminating somebody's machine with a dirty funnel so I bought a gamma lid for a 5 gal bucket and keep all my funnels in there, sealing out road grime. All the lifting slings are contained in a tote inside the crane pedestal I built and enclosed. Oxy/acety setup by front rack and easy to access.Now I'm in the process of adding some work lights, along with some pad heaters to the generator, air compressor and it's engine. I installed three auxiliary air tanks under the bed so I have 32 gal of air storage. Like I said, I built a truck on a budget and it works great for me with a low operating cost. Would I like to have a bigger truck? I don't know, maybe. I haven't turned down any work due to the size of my truck and I'm plenty busy, but a little bit more storage would be nice. But then again is there ever enough storage?

 

[92U 3406]

I like to put all my tools in the first cabinet or 2 on the driver's side. I like to keep all my sockets 1/2" drive and smaller seperate from my big sockets. Same with wrenches. I keep them divided by metric and standard. 30mm and down stayed together, 1-1/4" and down stayed together. Everything bigger goes in a seperate drawer (still seperated into metric and standard). Specialty wrenches (like adjustables, half-moon, ratcheting, offset etc) get grouped together. All my ratchets, breaker bars, extensions etc stay together. You get the picture.

Cabinets over the wheels is where I like to store shop supplies, bolts/nuts, electrical terminals, wire and smaller parts. My last truck had a re-volt setup in the front passenger side cabinet and no drawers so I used that to store empty pails and pails of oil, coolant etc.

 

[John Shipp]

View attachment 175364 View attachment 175365 View attachment 175366 ] I built a service truck last winter for my new business as well, and found out this past summer that the time you take to be organized and efficient pays big dividends on the job for efficiency. There are a few things I have to adjust but overall I'm pretty happy with the layout. I built the truck on a budget because I didn't want to go heavily into debt getting my business off the ground. Almost all my most commonly used wrenches and sockets 1" and below are in a 22" cantilever box strapped to the deck. All the assorted pliers, screwdrivers, picks and such are in a separate tool bag. All the other common hand and air tools and go in a set of drawers I installed inside the tool chests mounted on the truck bed. All the diagnostics and specialty tools go in another tool chest above. Inside the boxes on the other side of the truck with the crane are various electrical and consumable supplies, abs pads, chemicals, minor parts, fasteners up to 18mm and 3/4. In the middle between the boxes and located in front are things I use less frequently like welding gear, 1" drive gear, oil storage/pumping gear, and steel rigging. I only carry a Miller 211 for minor repairs, and keep the engine driven welder at home ready to go for heavy stuff.
I'm always concerned about contaminating somebody's machine with a dirty funnel so I bought a gamma lid for a 5 gal bucket and keep all my funnels in there, sealing out road grime. All the lifting slings are contained in a tote inside the crane pedestal I built and enclosed. Oxy/acety setup by front rack and easy to access.Now I'm in the process of adding some work lights, along with some pad heaters to the generator, air compressor and it's engine. I installed three auxiliary air tanks under the bed so I have 32 gal of air storage. Like I said, I built a truck on a budget and it works great for me with a low operating cost. Would I like to have a bigger truck? I don't know, maybe. I haven't turned down any work due to the size of my truck and I'm plenty busy, but a little bit more storage would be nice. But then again is there ever enough storage?

Numbfingers, what kind of truck is that? I like how you've set it up. Do you know how wide the deck on the back is, looks more than 6ft, maybe getting up to 8ft? Because the side boxes look like 20 inch depth, yet you've still got useful space between them.
Did you find some drawers to fit in good?
Looking for ideas myself, but our current service vehicle only 6ft wide.
Cheers

 

[DARO]

Whats a revolt set up? @92U 3406

 

[Numbfingers]

Numbfingers, what kind of truck is that? I like how you've set it up. Do you know how wide the deck on the back is, looks more than 6ft, maybe getting up to 8ft? Because the side boxes look like 20 inch depth, yet you've still got useful space between them.
Did you find some drawers to fit in good?
Looking for ideas myself, but our current service vehicle only 6ft wide.
CheersView attachment 175899

John, Thanks, my truck is an Isuzu NQR, 4 cyl diesel, 6 spd manual. Wish I could get my hands on a 4WD model, or at least a limited slip. I narrowed the bed down to 7' wide and about 13' long. I didn't like the 8'6" bed the previous owner had. The boxes are 16"" deep and didn't come with any drawers so I bought two 26" Craftsman intermediate chests and put them inside the lower left box on top the bed. They're not super durable but they're holding up so far. They hold a lot of hand tools not kept in my red box (crowsfeet, hex drivers, large wrenches/sockets, punches, precision measuring tools, etc). The other boxes don't have drawers because I don't need that many. I do have a bunch of space between the boxes so I built the platform to hold the air compressor and another truck box(aluminum one in the pic) to hold welding gear. Under the platform I stow 2 large tubs (17-20 gal each) for oil/coolant draining, and clean oil pumping gear. Under the same platform I also have two portable tool boxes, one with 1" gun, large truck sockets, and another box full of chain hoists, chains, etc. I always use that space for oil buckets, jack stands, etc. Between the vise and crane I have enough space for a full size pallet or large items like an engine or transmission. I still need to tweak my organization a bit, but I'm pretty happy with most of it. Snap-On makes a road box that can bolted down to a bed but I have no idea how much they are. Anyways, enough of me rambling, hopefully that helps.

 

[John Shipp]

Thanks, that's good info. Are the side boxes long enough to take 2x intermediate drawers lengthwise, or did you manage to stack one on top the other? The side boxes I've seen, I would have to sit the drawer up on blocks so as to open the bottom drawer. I'd love to get a snap-on road box and bolt it on the bed but think it would be like red flag to a bull to any thieving lowlife that saw it.
I have some old unused diesel tanks, 6'x4'x4' that I keep looking at thinking I could cut up and weld doors in each 4'x4' end, and take the wheels of a cabinet and put inside one end, compressor behind that etc. Anyone got any advice for grinding holes in a diesel tank...? I cut the end off a gas bottle once, but filled it full of water as was doing. The diesel tank is 600 gallons so this wouldn't work. Cold day in winter? Get life insurance? Or not a worry, just grind away peacefully!?
Cheers, sorry if I've hijacked.

 

[Numbfingers]

I set the boxes side by side and put 1.5" wood blocking underneath, just enough to get bottom drawers open. Still has room on top and sides of drawer chest for stuff like filter wrenches, hammers, and such.
As far as the tank goes, what about draining off then force ventilating for a couple days? We did that once for a 850J fuel tank that was cracked and had to be welded inside. Similar practice is done for aircraft fuel cells to make it safe to enter.

 

[John Shipp]

Cheers, thanks for the advice. Will have a go at that.

 

[donkey doctor]

We used to run the exhaust from the portable welder into the tank. Run it long enough to purge the tank and leave it running of course while welding. Exhaust settles to the bottom and pushes the air out the top so have the opening at the top. Be careful! I almost lost a good friend welding a cracked tank. Exhaust was coming out through the crack straight into his face. All that saved him was having pure oxygen and lots of it from the oxy act cutting equipment he had with him. d.d.

 

[ckblum]

Hopefully be setting this thing up in the new year! First two cabinets on the driver side have American Eagle cabinets. I'll have all my tools and cases of hydraulic/electrical diagnostics on the driver side cabinets, supplies, o-rings, fittings, hardware etc. in bins/containers on the passenger side. All my lifting tackle, chain and slings will be stored in the dog house on e-track or the crane cabinet if it can all fit. Oils in pails, waste oil tank and recovery pump in the doghouse as well.

I'd like to see more guys post up their setups, especially when it comes to parts/hardware storage.

 

[Numbfingers]

I would be interested in seeing what kind of setups are out there for waste oil suction and storage. I'm going to setup a 1 ton truck for my son to use for oil changes and light maintenance. I'm not interested in a lube skid because my customers have too many different types of machines to be able to carry all the variety of fluids. I was thinking about a 40-80 gallon tank. Anybody got examples?