A Handyman's No-Cap Pickup

Ditched the Trailer

Trailers are pretty popular for contractors and remodelers, and he even used to own one, but just never wanted to haul it for handyman work.

A theme with many skilled tradespeople that work in cities is that they generally want smaller, easy-to-maneuver vehicles. Unless you do long term projects and you can safely leave your trailer on the jobsite, a trailer can make your day-to-day travels difficult and inefficient.

Luis traded the trailer for a 20 foot container, large enough for big materials and lots of tools, and now he just backs up to the doors to do a retool.

He does still have a large dump trailer that he uses for kitchen and bath remodeling to haul trash.

Squeezing Out Space

Where do the tools go?

Luis's Ford 250 is an extended cab. So he took out the rear seats, giving him a pretty spacious area to organize his toolbags.

Amazingly, his most commonly used day-to-day tools all fit here, no climbing like when you have a typical setup under a cap. This is something that many handymen would love to achieve with their own trucks!

Tool Love

Luis explains why he loves many of his tools and why he carries them all the time. A few interesting points:

Some less frequently used drill bits go under the seats, and a neat little angle iron shelf on the front of the seat holds hardware for the current job.

Working with a lot of drywall, he loves sanding screens. They allow him to use a vacuum sander attachment that keeps the jobsite clean.

One of his favorite tools is a 36V Makita rear-handle circular saw. While he has a table saw and a chop saw, they aren't always easy to bring on jobsites and the Makita stores easily in the cab of the truck.

He also likes an inexpensive endoscope that he picked up. It has a camera on the end of a wire and pairs with his phone. It makes it easy to look inside walls and other tight places.

What About the Bed?

The truck bed is reserved for large items and materials like drywall, plywood, 2x4s, and tools. The bed still gets filled up!

Some tools he mostly leaves at the home shop are his welders, tile saw, chop saw, and table saw. Occasionally, these come on the job, but they aren't day-to-day items like the tools in the truck cab.