A truck toolbox is a great addition on your truck. Tools left on the back seat can damage your truck’s interior, making it a challenge when you need to transport a family member or any other person. You also cannot leave the tools on the bed of your truck as they are exposed to elements that might cause rusting and water damage. They are also susceptible to theft when left at the bed of the truck.Best Truck Tool Boxes of 2020
| Product | Type | Material | Size, WxDxH | Features | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arksen 49 Inch Aluminum Utility Tool Box (Editor's Choice) |  | Chest | Aluminum | 48.42"x15"x15" | Aluminum diamond plate design; Reinforced top lid; Metal, welded side handles; Welded, metal locking hasp | Check Price |
| Lund 79760PB Side-Mount Box |  | Side Mount | Aluminum | 61.5"x13.5"x14.5" | Weatherproof; Lockable Latch; Diamond plated black finish; Limited lifetime warranty | Check Price |
| Better Built 67011386 ATV Toolbox |  | Chest | Aluminum | 23.3"x15.8"x13" | Weatherproof; Lockable paddle handles | Check Price |
| Lund 5748 Challenger |  | Side Mount | Aluminum | 48.2"x13.1"x12.8" | Quick release; Lockable paddle handles; Twin commercial gas struts; No drilling into the truck bed | Check Price |
| UWS DS22 Drawer Slide Box |  | Drawer Slide Box | Aluminum | 23"x19"x8.5" | Zinc-plated metal sliders; 3 removable bottom drawers; Handle locks; Weather-tight seals | Check Price |
1. Arksen 49 Inch Aluminum Utility Tool Box – Best Rated Aluminum Truck Tool Box
This is an aluminum truck toolbox with a shiny black finish. This finish protects it from rust and corrosion and has been designed strong to resist scratching. It sports a diamond plate design, which enhances its appearance on your rig. It is a crossover box to be mounted just behind the truck’s back window on the bed rails. Each unit has a reinforced top lid with welded metal locking hasp to keep your tools safe. It also features metal welded side handles to allow transportation.
Each unit features protected bottom pads that keep the box safe and secure. It sports the ruggedness and durability of Aluminum boxes and has been protected from rust thanks to powder coat and the polishing. The box is 49 inches long. The manufacturer offers a one-year warranty to cover workmanship and design defects. It is recommended for users who want a durable and secure toolbox.
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2. Lund 79760PB – Best Side Mount Tool Box
The Lund 79760PB is a 60-inch truck toolbox designed as a side mount design, but with an L-shape. This gives you more space beneath the box on the truck bed to carry other items. Its long size lets you store long tools. The push button design of the box offers great convenience while giving a great storage solution. It sports a sturdy aluminum build with a silver finish. Being 60 inches long, the box is designed to fit on most trucks. It sports a diamond tread finish to last through beatings and looks great on your rig. The finish enhances a scratchless look and keeps the unit safe from water and rust. To keep the box safe from abrasion and scratching, it is equipped with an electrostatically placed finish with Ethofoam mounting strips.
The boxes are designed to allow easy access. First off, they are side-mount boxes fitted with strong paddle handles. This is made even better by its push-button design and heavy-duty gas shocks that offer a smooth operation every time. Lund is a popular provider for automotive accessories with more than thirty years in the industry. The Lund 79760PB is offered with a limited lifetime warranty. It is recommended thanks to its high quality and strong construction and easy to use design.
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3. Better Built 67011386 ATV Toolbox – Best All-Aluminum Truck Bed Tool Box
The Better Built 67011386 is a small toolbox, originally designed for ATV, but still comes in handy for trucks when you do not have lots of tools. It sports an all-aluminum construction, giving it strength and durability while reducing its weight significantly. Its diamond plate construction enhances its appearance while making it non-slip.
This is a small version of a crossover design with a single lid that opens towards the back window of your truck. It is equipped with side handles, making it easy to transport, and high quality locking hasps to keep it secure. Each unit measures 20 inches long and 12 inches wide. This allows you to keep a number of short tools for everyday use.
This toolbox is recommended for all those who need a small unit to use in their trucks, RVs, and other automobiles.
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4. Lund 5748 Challenger – Best Truck Bed Storage Box
This is a budget-friendly professional grade truck toolbox designed to keep tools safe and secure. It sports a Deflecta-Shield aluminum build for strength and durability. It is available in diamond plated, black, and polished finishes. There are different sizes and styles to choose from, making it an ideal choice for all.
The toolbox is designed with dome style lids that are reinforced for more security. These lids are also lined on the interior for superior strength and utmost ruggedness. Each unit is made of high grade polished, 0.063-inch thick diamond plate aluminum. Each unit sports a three-piece box construction with fully welded seams to strengthen the safety and security of the box. For security, the box is offered with quick-release, stainless steel lockable handles. These lids are easy to operate and highly secure for your toolbox.
The box is fitted with twin commercial grade gas struts lift lid, for easy, one-hand use. It comes with J-mounting hardware, which requires no drilling to install the box into the truck bed. The box is recommended for users who need a high-quality truck toolbox for use in all situations.
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5. UWS DS22 Drawer Slide Box – Best Compartmentalized Pickup Tool Box
The UWS DS22 is designed for the storage of tools and other items. Its multi-purpose usage with easy configurations make it an ideal choice for many users. Each box is made from heavy gauge aluminum, giving it a long life without adding unnecessary weight. It is equipped with microseal stripping to lock out weather elements and dust. This keeps your tools dry and rust and grime free. The box is designed with zinc plated metal sliders on which are attached steel ball bearings. On these sliders are five precision-injected high-quality plastic drawers. The drawers slide smoothly on the steel ball bearings.
The unit features a diamond plate design with a shiny zinc color to enhance its appearance. It is fitted with handle locks with weather tight seals to keep your tools secure. The box is 23 inches long and 19 inches high. This allows it to house five large drawers to store away a high number of tools with great ease.
This box is recommended to those with a wide variety of tools that need to be well arranged for ease of access.
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Buyer’s Guide
Why Do You Need a Truck Toolbox?
Not many trucks are engineered with a canopy or a box where you can store your tools securely. If you are a part-time handyman, or you work fulltime, your tools are valuable possessions. By using a truck toolbox, you keep the tools safe when you lock them in it. This will discourage the thieves from trying to break in. Another great advantage is that truck tool boxes are designed with a rubber weather seal that keeps dust and moisture away. This ensures your tools are dry and free of rust and dirt, and grime.
Seeing that most toolboxes are designed with internal shelving, they help you organize your tools. The shelves also allow you to keep other items in your box, such as a camping stove and tent. You can also carry jumper cables, emergency supplies, and groceries.
Security
The truck toolbox you buy needs to have good safety features to ensure that it keeps your tools safe. Stolen tools will cost you money, time, and effort in replacing them. Plus, you may be out of job for a few days as you try to replace your tools. A good toolbox should be sturdy with thick walls and metal safes. They should not be easy to open with a crowbar, and their weight discourages a thief from trying to dismount them and run with them.
A variety of the boxes are mounted to the floor of your truck and are only accessible through unlocking. These boxes are fitted with rotary latch mechanisms. This means that as long as you keep your toolbox locked, and the lid stays flush with the box’s body, a crowbar will not fit to break into the box. Besides a cutting torch or an experienced lock picker, your box keeps you safe from theft. These two techniques will also cause noise and might take a lot of time, and, therefore, many thieves will not bother.
Different Materials to Choose From
Aluminum – This is the most common toolbox material. Most of the boxes will have a bent sheet aluminum in a diamond plate pattern. Aluminum is tough and affordable, and it looks great on the bed of your truck. Truck boxes made of aluminum are lightweight – in fact, aluminum has a higher strength-weight ratio than steel. This makes aluminum tough and secure without unnecessarily adding weight. Again, aluminum stays free of rust for a long time.
Steel – Steel is less common, but a great option too. It is relatively heavy, which has a couple of advantages and disadvantages. Though you will be transporting more weight at the back of your truck, steel boxes offer you more ruggedness and last longer than aluminum. To keep them from rusting, steel boxes sport a powder-coated finish. This coating will not be compromised by a scratch, which leaves the box prone to rust and corrosion.
Stainless Steel – This is another less common material compared to aluminum, but more common than steel. A stainless-steel box offers the toughness of steel with the corrosion and rust resistance properties of aluminum. This makes the boxes expensive, secure, and long-lasting. These boxes are not powder coated and they stay corrosion-resistant for long. However, they can still be susceptible in jobsites with lots of chemicals.
Box Finishes
Powder-coated boxes will either be white or black. You can choose whichever color you feel will look great on your rig. A semi-glossy black box will look sleek, especially when your truck has other black parts such as black tire rims or black plasti-dip. A smooth white toolbox will also look great on any truck. The choice is aesthetic.
Aluminum boxes sport a diamond plate finish with no need for a powder coat. A manufacturer buffs the toolbox, giving it a shiny finish. Stainless steel boxes are also buffed to give them a shiny finish, seeing that they also do not need a powder coat.
Truck Tool Box Styles
After you have chosen a good material for your toolbox, you need to pick a style that resonates with your tastes and is easy to mount on your truck. Styles determine how a box sits on the bed of your truck and its accessibility. To choose a good style, consider where and how you will be using your box.
Crossover Toolboxes
These are also called cross-bed boxes. They are the most common truck toolboxes. They get their name from their ‘cross-over’ design, where they are installed across the bed of your truck’s bed from one side to the other, sitting on the bed’s rails. These boxes have a single lid that opens towards the back window. Some boxes will have a double-lid design. These two lids open and lock separately, and divide your box into two separate halves. Some have two lids opening towards the center of the box. These boxes are loved for their convenience as you can reach them from the side without having to unnecessarily get into the bed of your truck. Low-profile crossover boxes are designed with a slim lid, ensuring they do not block you from seeing the back of your truck through your back window. Crossover boxes mount on the bed rails of your truck without necessarily touching the bed of your truck. This gives you space to carry other things such as lumber.
Side-Mount Tool Boxes
Side-mounted toolboxes offer great accessibility. You do not need to get into the bed of your truck to access your tools. They can also be used together with crossover boxes to add more space. Side-mount toolboxes are installed on either side of the truck’s bed rails facing outwards. Most of these boxes are long, spanning the length of your bed. This makes them handy when you need to carry long tools. If you need to access your tools often, this style is the best as you do not need to get into the bed of your truck to access the tools. You can easily access your tools from the sides of your truck. These boxes are also referred to as innerside truck toolboxes.
Tool Chests
Tool chests sits on the bed of your truck rather than attaching to the sides. These chests are highly versatile and have a relatively large capacity compared to crossover boxes. Seeing that they do not mount on the bed rails of your truck, they look unattractive when used with truck canopies and tonneau covers, which are mounted on the rails. These boxes sit directly on the bed of your truck, and this reduces the length of the truck’s bed. This reduces your ability to transport other supplies and goods.
Other Tool Box Styles
Some truck toolboxes do not fall in either of the categories above. Wheel well toolboxes are L-shaped, designed to fit perfectly on the space between the tailgate and the wheel well of your truck. These boxes are relatively small, which makes them ideal when you need to save space. Fifth wheel boxes sport a design that allows them to be used when you have a fifth wheel hitch on your truck’s bed. There are also underbed toolboxes, which are ideal for users with flatbed trucks. They mount under the flat bed reducing clearance and giving you enough space to carry other items.
Choosing a Good Size
Size is one of the most important factors when you are choosing a truck toolbox. Generally, toolboxes are either labeled fits-full-size or fits-down-size. Down-size trucks are small pickups such as Frontiers, Tacomas, Canyon, Rangers, or Colorado. Full-size trucks are large and include Titans, Tundras, Sierras, and Silverados, among others. When shopping, you will need to consider different measurements, including the length, width, and depth. Some boxes are asymmetrical, meaning you have to consider different other measurements. You want to pick a box that matches the measurements of your truck bed. You can also shop for boxes that are tailor-made for different truck makes and models.
Measuring Your Truck’s Bed
There are different measurements to make when shopping for a truck toolbox. To start, measure the distance from the inside of the one-bed rail to the inside of the other bed rail. The shorter measurement of the toolbox should correspond to this measurement. Then, take the measurements between the outside of the bed rails to correspond with the largest measurements of the toolbox you are considering. Note that a truck toolbox wider than the truck’s bed will stick out and not sit perfectly on the bed.
Other measurements to consider include the height of the truck and the distance between wheel wells and bulkhead. The height of the bed should be taken from the highest point of bed’s floor to the topmost part of the bed rail. Larger toolboxes may not fit properly on shallow truck beds. This height should correspond to the height of the box you are buying. Measure the distance between the bulkhead and the wheel wells, this is the part of the truck’s bed just underneath the truck’s back window. This measurement is shown as depth on truck box. A larger box picked a short truck bed will span a long distance to hit the well wheels and end up not sitting properly. Owners of stepside or flairside trucks will need narrow boxes.
Installation
Installing a truck toolbox is easy and straightforward. By the fact that you need a toolbox, it means you are handy enough to figure out how to install one. Boxes are offered with all installation hardware and mounting instructions. You must be having the tools needed to install. While each model will have a different installation method, a typical and crossover box is the easiest to install as all you need is a J-bolt, a nut, and a washer. A J-bolt is long and hooks through the bottom of the box underneath the bed rail. You will only need a few turns and the toolbox will be securely fixed. Some toolboxes might need you to drill the red rails for secure fastening.
Value for Money
As much as other factors matter, price determines which box your finally buy. Fortunately, truck tool boxes are offered at a wide range of prices to suit different budgets. You can pick a box based on how and when you will be using it. For some people, a bare minimum box will do. If this is what you need, choose an aluminum, single strut box with single lid. For other people, the tools they need to store require great organization, and as such, only a higher-quality box will do. These users will need a high-quality stainless steel box for protection against theft and weather elements. There are some high-end aluminum boxes too.
You need to consider the tools you will be stored inside the toolbox. Ensure that the price of the box is not more than the tools you will be storing inside. Whichever toolbox you choose, ensure that you get value for money.
F.A.Q.
1. How do you measure a truck bed for a toolbox?
Start by measuring the length of the truck bed. Measure from the back of the cab to the edge of the closed tailgate. Make sure the bed is empty to avoid wrong measurements. Go to the inner wall of the tailgate. Repeat steps to get the width. Be sure to measure the inner walls, not the top of the sides. If wheel wells are present, measure inside those as well. To get the depth, measure straight down to the highest ridge of the bed to the top of the tailgate.
2. What size toolbox fits a Ford Ranger?
The required space will be different, depending on the year and style of your Ranger. There are also many styles to choose from, which will also determine the size you will need. You can start your search here and input your trucks specs to get the right size toolbox and choose the model from there.
3. How wide is a Ford Ranger bed?
These dimensions will depend on the year and model of your Ranger. If your truck is a 1983-1992 with a 6’ or extended cab, it will be 73” X 54.3” X 16.6”, and a 7′ bed: 85” X 54.3” X 16.6”. Trucks between ‘93 and ‘97 with a 6’ bed or extended cab will measure 71.8” X 46.4” X 16.4” with the 7′ bed changing in height to 84.6”. 1998 through 2011 trucks with a 6’ or extended cab: 71.8” X 40.5” X 16.5” and the 7′ bed making the height change to 84.6”.
4. How are truck boxes measured?
Truck boxes are best measured with room on all sides to effectively reach and read your measuring tape. The box should be empty to allow straight measurements. Be sure to measure the inside of the box and tailgate as the thickness of your truck won’t allow for storage usage. Also, when you measure the depth of the box, make sure you only go to the highest point. Some truck beds have ridgelines to allow water to flow out and keep cargo off the mess.
5. What is a crossover toolbox?
This is a toolbox that will be mounted at the back of the bed, closest to the cab, and right beneath the cab’s window, so the driver’s view is not blocked. It will reach across the full width of the bed, resting on top of the bed rails for added support. Typically, they will come with one lid that opens to the bed. Some models come with 2 lids, which hinge in the center for ease of access from both sides of the truck.
6. What tools should I keep in my truck?
Technically, anything you desire or think you will need on the road. Every profession is going to need the essentials to get their job done. If you are looking for a good, get started the list, though, the most common tools to have handy include a hammer, screwdriver, various wrench sets (socket, crescent, allen, pipe), tape measure, assorted pliers and a socket set. Many include power drills and saws to their list as well.
7. How wide is a full-size truck bed?
The width of all full-size truck beds is going to average between 48.5 and 51 inches, with the idea that every truck bed can fit a 4X8 sheet of material for hauling securely. These measurements would be inside the wheel wells if the style included this feature. Size variances depend on long, short, or ultra-short cab based trucks.
8. How do I measure my truck bed for a tonneau cover?
You will only need the length of your truck bed for this one. Measure from the point of contact with the cab to the inside of the tailgate. Most manufacturers will round to the nearest inch, so be sure to check their offers and choose a size within a 2-inch variance. Another precaution is to check if your bed liner (if applicable) is an over the rail or under the rail. Your tonneau cover needs to be able to attach to your tailgate.
9. How wide is an F150 truck bed?
There are a variety of bed lengths, depending on the year of your truck. On average, the width of the bed between the wheel wells should not be less than 50 inches. When measuring the rest of the bed width, near the tailgate, and where it connects to the cab, the width goes out anywhere from 60.38” in older models (‘04 and ‘05) up to 97.6” (‘06-2016).
10. How big is the bed of a Chevy Silverado?
All Silverados will come with a standard 22” deep bed. It is the bed length that will change sizes and cubic feet of cargo space. The truck beds come in 3 size options: short, standard, long. The cargo area will vary depending on the year and style. The 2019 model will be the biggest yet with the following dimensions:
- Short bed- 70” L with 63 ft3 cargo space
- Standard bed- 79” L with 72 ft3 cargo space
- Long bed- 98” L with 89 ft3 cargo space
Conclusion
There are so many truck toolbox options on the market. You need to choose one that will meet your needs. First off, think of how much cargo you need to carry. If you are always on the road carrying large power tools, you will need a large toolbox. Factor in the length and the width of your tools. For small tools, choose a shallow box.
Accessibility should also matter when you are choosing a toolbox. If you are always using your truck bed, a crossover toolbox will leave you enough space to carry other items. A side mount toolbox comes in handy when you need to access your tools with ease from the sides. To be on the safe side, you can choose a toolbox designed for the specific model of the truck you own.
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