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Gear

What to carry, and where to buy it

Every item here is a job that needs doing rather than a product we like. What matters is which failure each one prevents and roughly what it should cost, so that is what the entries say.

3 of them carry a note telling you not to buy them online. Tyres, oil, filters and chains are cheaper, better fitted and correctly specified from a dealer, a truck stop or a tyre shop, and pretending otherwise to earn a commission is exactly what this site exists not to do.

The four an inspector writes you up for

Required

Warning triangles

$25 to $60

Required

Fire extinguisher

$35 to $90

Required

Spare fuses

$10 to $30

Required

High-visibility vest

$12 to $35

All four together cost less than a hundred dollars and the violation goes on the carrier’s record rather than only the driver’s. People still fail on them.

Required on board

4 items

An inspector will write you up for these, and a violation goes on the carrier's record rather than only the driver's. They are cheap, they live in the side box, and people still fail on them.

Warning triangles

$25 to $60

Three of them, and they must be the bidirectional reflective type. Flares and fusees are permitted alternatives but triangles are what an inspector expects to see and they do not expire.

Fire extinguisher

$35 to $90

Rated and charged, with the gauge in the green and the seal intact. An expired or discharged extinguisher is the same violation as no extinguisher.

Spare fuses

$10 to $30

A spare for every fuse type on the truck, unless every circuit is breaker-protected. Two dollars of plastic, and it is on the inspection list.

High-visibility vest

$12 to $35

Required whenever you are out of the cab on a roadway. Keep two, because the one you own will be in the wash on the day you need it.

Diagnostics

4 items

The difference between knowing why the light is on and paying somebody to plug in a laptop and tell you. On a modern truck the fault codes are most of the repair bill.

Heavy-duty scan tool

$200 to $2500

Reads the codes on the engine, transmission and aftertreatment rather than the generic ones a car scanner sees. On a post-2010 truck it also tells you whether a derate countdown has started, which decides whether you finish the load or stop.

Bluetooth J1939 adapter

$60 to $300

The cheap version: an adapter and a phone app. Enough to read and clear codes and watch live data, which covers most of what you actually need at the side of a road.

Multimeter

$25 to $120

Most electrical faults on an older truck are a corroded connector or a bad ground, and both are found with a meter in ten minutes. Several unrelated aftertreatment codes at once is usually one harness.

Tyre pressure gauge

$15 to $60

Underinflation is the largest single cause of tyre failure and it costs fuel every mile before it costs you a casing. A thumper tells you a tyre is flat; it does not tell you a tyre is at 85 psi.

Roadside and recovery

6 items

What turns a four hour wait into a twenty minute fix. Every item here is something that has stranded somebody who did not have it.

Glad hand seals

$8 to $25

A dollar each and they are the single most common reason a trailer will not build air. Carry a dozen; you will give most of them away.

Spare air line

$30 to $90

A blown line ends the day if you do not have one and delays you an hour if you do.

Heavy jumper cables

$60 to $200

Car cables will not turn a 15 litre diesel. One gauge and long enough to reach a truck parked nose to nose, which is further than you think.

Wheel chocks

$25 to $80

For any time you are under the truck or working a landing gear on a grade. Cheap, and the alternative is being run over by your own trailer.

Rechargeable work light

$20 to $70

Magnetic, so it sticks to the frame and leaves both hands free. Everything that goes wrong goes wrong at night.

Mechanic gloves

$12 to $40

Fifth wheels, air lines and tyre irons. Cheap insurance against the kind of hand injury that puts you out of a truck for a month.

Maintenance

6 items

The jobs worth doing yourself between services. Nothing here needs a lift or a pit.

Grease gun

$25 to $120

Fifth wheel, slack adjusters, king pins and s-cam bushings. Fifteen minutes a week and it is the cheapest maintenance there is.

Torque wrench

$50 to $250

Wheel nuts are a torque specification, not a feel. Under-torqued wheels come off and over-torqued studs snap, and both are the kind of failure that ends up in a report.

Diesel exhaust fluid

$15 to $45

Carry a jug. Running the tank dry triggers the derate escalation whatever else is healthy, and DEF has a shelf life so buy from somewhere with turnover.

Fuel filters

$25 to $90

A restricted fuel filter reads as low power and gets misdiagnosed as a turbo. Change on schedule and carry a spare of the primary.

Do not buy this online. Cheaper and correct-fit from a dealer or a truck stop parts counter. Buy for your engine, not for a search result.

Engine oil

$60 to $180

The specification matters more than the brand: CK-4 or the FA-4 low-viscosity grade only if your engine maker calls for it. Oil condition is also what protects an EGR cooler.

Do not buy this online. Almost always cheaper by the drum from a truck stop or a jobber. Amazon is for a top-up jug you keep on board, not for a service.

Coolant tester

$15 to $45

Neglected coolant kills EGR coolers, and an EGR cooler is a four figure repair. Test strips are a few dollars and nobody uses them.

In the bunk

4 items

The truck is also where you live. Sleep and food quality are not luxuries on a job where fatigue is a regulated safety issue.

Power inverter

$80 to $400

Pure sine rather than modified: cheap inverters buzz, run laptop chargers hot and shorten the life of anything with a motor in it. Size it to what you actually run, not to the biggest number on the box.

12 volt fridge

$150 to $700

The fastest paying item in this list. Eating from a fridge instead of a truck stop is easily fifteen dollars a day, which pays for a good one inside a season.

Bunk mattress

$150 to $600

Factory mattresses are thin and most people replace them. Fatigue is a regulated safety issue and this is the cheapest thing that moves it.

Blackout curtains

$40 to $150

Sleeping in daylight at a lit truck stop is most of why drivers sleep badly. Blackout material, not the decorative kind.

Winter

4 items

Diesel gels, air lines freeze, and both happen at the least convenient moment. This is the box you pack in October and unpack in April.

Fuel anti-gel

$15 to $50

Diesel starts clouding around minus 10 Celsius and gels below it, and a gelled truck is a tow. Treat before the cold, because additive does not un-gel fuel that has already waxed.

Air brake antifreeze

$10 to $35

Moisture in the air system freezes in the lines and the valves, and a frozen brake will not release. A working air dryer is the real fix; this is what you carry when it is not.

Tyre chains

$120 to $500

Required by law on certain routes in certain conditions, and carrying them is not the same as knowing how to fit them in the dark on a shoulder. Practise once in a yard.

Do not buy this online. Fit matters and so does the local chain law. A truck stop in chain country will sell you the right ones and show you how they go on.

Folding shovel

$20 to $60

For digging out drive tyres and for clearing enough snow to get chains on. Takes no room and there is no substitute at 2am.

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