What do you have in your toolbag?

A lot of guys never say what they use their trucks for or are transparent about their mechanical know how and it doesn’t help keep things focused and productive. Sorry it wasn’t a smooth road this time around. Thanks for bearing with us with all the random messages. Even I forgot about a multimeter and a cutting implement in making my list. I always have a razor knife if I’m walking in the wilderness or in my tools on road trips so that was a good contribution.

I’ve had 4 flats in 5 years so you figure 4 times per flat (spare down, flat up, then the opposite at the tire shop) would be 20 times plus the couple times lowering it initially to have the valve pointing downwards when I bought it and then again when I brought it to a tire shop to have the spare replaced with a bigger size. Living in the city you get a lot of nails and screws in your tires. You could drill out both pieces for a bigger lock pin that Keeps them tied together more securely. Unfortunately the metal is cheap indeed.

 

Yup, definitely cheap, which is why I was hoping that someone rigged up something better.

 

At work I’ve welded two halves of a 1/2 inch extension together to drop factory style ram truck tire winches. I figure the same thing can work for a Toyota but I have a swing out so I haven’t tried . A impact makes it happen in seconds instead of piecing the flimsy factory kit together .
Take a look I figure Toyota is probably 3/8.

 

I picked up a mechanics tool set (sockets, flat wrenches, Allen wrenches, multi driver) at less than half price and keep that in my truck. Around 99 bucks. Then a waterproof box with a few screw drivers, knife, crescent wrenches, hammer, vice grips, wire cutters etc. Most of that isn’t needed often though. My WD40 seems to get used the most.

it’s handy to have a little air compressor if you’re going to air down. I have a little one that plugs into the auxiliary outlet.

A light source is an absolute must if you break down or have to change a tire at night.

 

I'm putting this in my tool bag right now. Can't believe I didn't think of this before.

 

10 mm removed so much. Fender liners, bumper covers, battery terminals, ground wires, wire harnesses in the engine bay, license plate screws, and so much more.

 

I went ahead and threw an extra 6 inch socket extension I had lying around in there too. I can only imagine the frustration of having the 10mm setup for whatever went wrong, and then not being able to reach whatever nut it was by just a little bit.

 

Make sure you get a deep 10 mm for nuts that are on a long stud.