Like many folks who need to work on things, I started out with an old
pickup truck. I loved this truck. It never gave me any problems and
over time I think it was hit by everything but the lottery. I had
bolted three nice, lockable diamond-plate toolboxes onto the truck
along with a huge ladder rack that I was given by a man who owed me
money. That long-bed Dodge and I built my small landlord business
from the ground up. I could barely squeeze in the cab because of all
the larger tools that took up shop there. The toolboxes were
inevitably overrun with extra parts, odd sized pieces, half-used caulk
tubes and every other manner of repair paraphernalia one can imagine.
The cab of the truck held the tools that were too large to fit in the
boxes and too valuable to get wet. My truck, like many, began to look
like a mobile hoarder display.
This truck never let me down, even when I truly believe it wanted to.
The old girl just kept on, keeping on until I finally outgrew her.
The day I sold her I nearly cried. I felt like I was breaking up with
a high-school sweetheart. My consolation came in knowing that she had
found a home perfectly suited to her, where she would be well
appreciated. I sold her to a handyman I worked with for many years.
"Old Uncle Bill”, as I called him, was in his 70’s and never missed a
day of hard work. He had trucks older than my girl and had them held
together with every thing he could think of, never allowing them
to quit because he wouldn’t.
Old
Bill would pull up in my truck and swear that truck about drove itself
to our usual job sites. He would kid me that it took him months to
train her to drive to his house instead of mine at days end. I never
felt more peace in that truck as I did seeing just how much Bill loved
her. That truck provided a means for Bill to continue making a living
for his family. He worked harder than any two young men I knew
and always did so with an enthusiasm for the job and for life.
When I sold that truck, I did so because my small rental property
business had reached a point that I could no longer carry all that I
needed in it. I constantly found myself without the one tool I needed
and nowhere close to home to get it. Worse yet, the larger tools
would get stashed at one property or another and I would have to drive
all over town to get them, wasting both gas and time. I would
spend hours a day, it seemed, just digging through the bottom of the
toolboxes looking for screws, fittings and other small parts. Not
being a patient man, I realized that this had to stop.
I
needed a mobile workshop, one that was large enough to carry my
materials, supplies and tools, but small enough to maneuver in and out
of the mountain rental properties I owned and repaired. I also needed
enough room to move appliances and to be able to do so by myself. I
had spent years twisting my back into a pretzel trying to slide a
refrigerator over the tailgate and under the ladder rack on the old
Dodge. A used refrigerator simply wasn’t worth the risk to my back,
but, neither could I afford to buy new refrigerators and have them
delivered each time one went out.
I
looked into pulling a utility trailer, but, again ran into the time it
took to run across town to get the trailer and then pickup appliances
and other large items, move them and then return the trailer, all the
while exposing them to the elements and possible damage or theft if
left unattended while I worked on some other repair.
I
looked into buying a cargo-style van that would allow me to store
tools and repair supplies more safely but found that I still did not
have the room to house the building materials, such as plywood and
lumber, that I routinely required. This would mean I would still have
to travel across town to buy or pickup these items and transport them
to the jobsite. Larger appliances would still require the use of a
utility trailer.
I
dreamed of a tool shed on wheels. I wanted something that would allow
me to keep what I needed on hand to fix nearly all the problems I
could encounter in a day of repair calls as well as a vehicle that
could move appliances easily so as to save my back.
I
looked at old bread delivery trucks but they never seemed be in very
good condition. I looked at used moving trucks but these were far too
long for the type of properties I would need to enter. I looked at
old moving-van-style trucks but these were often in poor shape,
although this may have just been my luck in finding them so. I looked
at some small delivery trucks but many of them had air brakes, which I
did not like, and many did not have a lift gate that would allow me to
load and unload large appliances easily.
