3 Tips For Upfitting Your Work Truck

07.23.20

Customized upfits for a work truck may require a higher initial investment, but having the proper equipment can help reduce wear on a vehicle, make it more efficient to operate, extend its life, and reduce maintenance costs. Here are three tips to remember during your next upfit. 

1. Consider all aspects of safety for the operator and the equipment.

A properly upfitted service truck will help the operator best utilize all the safety features of the chassis and the equipment.  

Consider adding handrails, lift gates, and extra lighting to increase safety on the vehicle.  Increasing visibility and limiting the number of times an operator needs to climb in and out of the load bed can reduce the risk of accidents and injuries.   

Look at features that allow operators to use the equipment from secure distances, such as the Stellar® CDTpro™ remote. The remote enables the operator to control the crane with full visibility while maintaining a safe distance. It also provides haptic feedback of information on the lift, letting the operator know when approaching a max lift or needing to reposition the crane.  

2. Be mindful of usage and the intended life cycle of the equipment.

When choosing a truck, it’s important to get the right sized chassis, body, and crane.  Questions to ask during this process include: 

  • What will the crane be lifting? 
  • How much does the lift weigh? 
  • What shape(s) are the lifts? 
  • How often will the crane be used? 

The answers to these questions will help determine the appropriate size of crane, body and chassis.   

Also consider the material of your service vehicle. Can you invest in an aluminum body for weight reduction and corrosion resistance, or do you need steel for extreme duty or mining applications?   

 All of these components are important for the job and for increasing the lifecycle of your service vehicle. Keep in mind, the more you spend on upfitting, the longer you should keep the vehicle before trade-in or disposal to maximize ROI.  

3. Choose accessories wisely.

Anything an operator can do to make the truck more efficient and ultimately more productive, is a good thing.  Adding the proper accessories is key to making a service truck work for the operator.  

Instead of running an individual air compressor, welder, and generator, consider upfitting your truck with an engine-driven, integrated solution.  Not only are these systems more efficient than their modular counterparts, they can also help with chassis maintenance and fuel savings because they don’t require the truck to run. The units utilize their own engine in place of the standard PTO-driven air compressor configurations found on most work trucks. 

In addition to aluminum bodies, consider equipping your fleet with aluminum accessories such as an aluminum lube skid and aluminum drawer systems. Upfitting with aluminum accessories increases overall weight reduction and longevity of equipment.  

Technology can also be a wise upfit to your next work truck. With telematics systems, fleet managers don’t have to keep track of maintenance needs, equipment usage, and truck lifecycles themselves, increasing the potential savings due to less downtime and fewer equipment replacements.   

Proper upfits for a work truck can help reduce wear on a vehicle, make it more efficient to operate, and reduce maintenance costs.  Simply put, a well-equipped work truck ultimately means more money in your pocket. 

Want to learn more? Contact us or your local distributor.