How many times have you been stranded because a hose sprung a leak, a critical lamp went out, or a bolt got loose? Little problems can become a danger, or cause the alternator to stop charging or the water pump to stop pumping. A DOT inspection might leave you out of service even though a simple wrench or pair of pliers might have made it easy for you to make the truck legal again. A truckstop might have the new radiator you need, but no shop time to fix it. Why travel unprepared for such common problems?
Where to start
We asked Jim O’Hara, marketing manager of SK Hand Tool Corp., what a trucker would want to carry in his onboard, hand-carried toolbox. He came up with a number of suggestions designed to be “as universally applicable” as possible.
His first recommendation was some sort of complete bit driver set to drive screws and the like. SK has a 29-piece, ratcheting, T-handle bit driver set. The set includes a ratcheting T-handle bit driver and slotted, Phillips, and Pozidriv screwdriver bits, fractional-inch hex bits, Torx bits, and Robertson bits. Such a tool set would enable you to tighten (or remove and replace) many unusual little fasteners on the dash and other cab parts.
Next, O’Hara suggests a quality set of sockets with a 3/8-inch drive, something similar to the SK 47-piece 3/8-inch-drive socket SuperSet. It includes ratchet extensions and standard depth, deep fractional inch and metric sockets in a molded plastic storage case. Such tools let you quickly remove and install bolts all over the truck – handy if you have to install an alternator or radiator in a truckstop parking lot.
Adapters such as the SK socket spinner adapter and the 1/4-inch F-to-3/8-inch M increasing adapter would allow you to use the ratcheting T-handle with the sockets from the 3/8-inch-drive set to speed your work.
O’Hara’s third suggestion is a good set of combination wrenches – open on one end, and box on the other. The SK offering he recommends here is the 15-piece SuperKrome combination wrench set, which includes fractional combination wrenches from 1/4 to 1 inch. Such tools often get you in to work on bolts whose heads are in a spot where a socket and drive won’t quite fit.
Next, he recommends something along the lines of the SK five-piece general maintenance pliers set. After all, you may very well need to twist or pull something on the truck that does not have a bolt head with flats.
