How you carry or store your off road tools while wheeling can be difficult. In this post well discuss some options that we have personally tried.
Tool Boxes
Tool boxes are an option for taking a lot of tools. There are also a lot of tool box options available. Some are actual tool boxes with locking and sliding drawers that hold the tools. These can be bulky though and take up a lot of space. They can also be heavy. Most people that carry sockets that I have seen purchase a socket set in a case with ratchets and extensions. Those are convenient because they are contained and you have a variety of sockets, torx, and both SAE and Metric tools. They also come in an uncountable number of configurations such as 6 point, 12 point, ¼" drive, ⅜" drive, ½" drive, and 30 to 300+ count pieces. They can get very heavy with some of the larger sets and if your like me you still want to put the carry case in something instead of just throwing it in the back of your rig.
Tool Rolls or Pouches
Tool Rolls are another option that has worked well for us. You can purchase a roll to hold a variety of sizes for wrenches. We have a canvas roll up for both SAE and Metric wrenches. We also have a canvas tool roll up for miscellaneous items like vice grips, channel locks, screw drivers, etc. It's nice to be able to just roll them up into a small log and stick them in a bag or box. The only downside is whatever you put them in takes up space, especially a box, bin, or construction type tote. You could just throw them in the back of your rig but I like to keep things a bit more organized than that.
Construction Totes
For a long time we used a large single bin container used to hold construction tools. It had a pull out handle and wheels. We just stuck our socket set, tool rolls, compressor, and some other items in it. It was nice to have all the tools in one container together. We were able to ratchet strap it in the back of the Jeep so it wouldn't move around. I had originally thought this would be convenient to move around because of the handle and wheels, until the handle broke. Then the wheels became useless and I was left lugging it in and out of the Jeep and wherever I wanted to take it. It was extremely heavy because it contained all of our tools. I have a bad back and it seemed every time I moved it to and from the Jeep it left me in pain afterwards. It was also very bulky and took a lot of space in the back of our Jeep.
Canvas or Leather Duffel Bags
Now we are trying canvas duffel bags. We have two of them and split the tools between the bags. This split the load from the single large construction box we had before and makes it a lot easier to load and unload. The handles make it easy to grab and move around. We have also found it saves some space in the back because the unused portions of the duffel bag fold in around the tools. Were still able to secure them with a ratchet strap as well to keep them from bouncing around. We put the canvas tool rolls inside the duffel bags to keep up with organization.
How do you carry your trail tools? We want you to Share Your Story so your ideas can benefit others in the off road community.