WHAT TO KEEP IN YOUR VAN AS AN ELECTRICIAN! | Day in the Life of a Service Electrician

What's going on guys? It's Handy the Sparky here, electrician from New Jersey and today I'm going to show you guys what the must-have tools you should have in your van as a service electrician. So come with me, I'm going to show you right now. All right guys, so the number one thing as an electrician, your van is super important, okay? So this van we have here is called a Ford e-Transit 350. This is a fully electric van, 130 mile range. Now, you don't essentially need to get an electric van, you can get a gas van, anything is fine, but presentation is key in the service industry. So just want to let you guys know vans are super important. I'm going to show you right now what are the must-have tools you should keep in the van as a residential service electrician. Door slides open like that. And guys, you can see here is my work van setup. And right off the rip, I got my tool belt, okay? Number one thing as a service electrician is that you should have a tool belt. I like to use Klein tools because you see how this is a lightweight apron right here? And I can carry my wire nuts, my drill bits, okay? So like in my pockets here, I got my bits, I got Phillips, I got my 5/16. You want to carry, you know, different size bits and um and this is what I also keep. I carry a uh insulated screwdriver with Phillips and flathead bit. This is Klein tools. And I also keep um this is strippers, wire strippers, and here are diagonal cutters. So guys, here are just some of the tools that I keep in my tool belt. And you just want to make sure that you get a good tool belt that you're comfortable with. And that's super important because when you're going in these homes, you want to make sure you're lightweight but also not that heavy. So this is just my recommendation. I like to get the Klein tools apron. Some people like to do full setups, but this is my setup. And um you can get this on their website if you like. And then secondly, you always want to carry a tool bag. So we have the tool belt and the tool bag. This bag is by Jonard Tools. Like I said again, the brand doesn't particularly matter. You can get DeWalt, you can get Milwaukee, you know, they're all really they're essentially the same, but I'm going to show you guys what I keep in my tool bag as a service electrician. So you can see I got my for MC cable, sometimes we deal with older homes. We got BX cable, we got MC cable. So I got my Roto-Zip, okay? Here's a Roto-Zip. This is where you put your MC and you can slice it open if you need to do a new termination. And let's see, uh we have diagonal cutters just in case, God forbid, I drop my original diagonal cutters and I lose them, I got another pair, lineman's, okay? Lineman's are super important, you know, for twisting your connections together, get that proper mechanical connection. Uh we have needle nose. You must You should always carry a needle nose and another pair of strippers. Wire strippers are super important, especially, you know, terminating in anything, an outlet, an EV charger. Level, guys. We're electricians, we want to make sure our boxes are straight. We're not handyman because um presentation is key, right? You want the customer to call you back. You want to make sure all your work is level and straight. We also have Phillips and flathead screwdriver. Okay? This is Milwaukee, these are insulated. I like to get insulated tools because it gives you that extra protection. Uh you know, they're thousand from a thousand volts. We also have a number two screwdriver. This is by Klein and I really like this a lot. Um next we have a conduit reamer. This is nice for EMT. Sometimes when you're working in a garage in residential, you're going to have to install EMT, whether it's an electric vehicle charger or it's something uh a line going to a fridge, you need this to ream your conduits cuz you can't do Romex in a garage. We also have Allen keys. You never know um when you're going to have to deal with an Allen uh device. And paddle bits, right? For your drill, right? I got to get my paddle bits restocked, but to drill in studs in wood, super important. Channel locks. I like to keep a pair of these. You never know I got You have to twist something for a service. And then um pretty much we're getting down to it, but the lastly, this is probably one of the most important tools you need as an electrician is a voltmeter, okay? This particularly is a it's a multi-purpose, it's a voltmeter and an ammeter. And this is really nice because I can track voltage, I can track how many amps is going through the wire. And um pretty much this is by Ideal. You can get any brand. Uh Fluke makes really good meters. Uh I know Milwaukee's starting to make them, but uh this is by Ideal. This is my go-to. I really like this. I'm going to put this back. Oh guys, don't ever forget, you always need tape. As an electrician, no matter what, you always need to carry tape, electrical tape, because and if and something is exposed, if you see a copper wire that's exposed, you need to repair it, tape's your best friend. So make sure you have a roll of tape, no matter if you're an apprentice, a journeyman, a master electrician, you're going to need tape. So guys, when I go to a call if of a if a woman calls me or a customer calls me, "Hey, my outlet's not working." This is how I'm exactly showing up, okay? I'm showing up like this. I got my tool bag and my tool belt and I'm walking to the customer's door. This is how you should show up as a service electrician and you look really professional. Make sure you're wearing work pants. Make sure you're wearing boots, right? Um make sure you're wearing a work shirt. You know, don't don't come in, you know, wearing shorts and sneakers. You want to presentation is key in this business. All right. So that's pretty much how I'm coming in. Now we're getting to the van. Now you always want to be prepared as an electrician, right? You never know what these these service calls come. You know, right here for example, I have what's called a Little Giant Ladder. So if a customer's like, "Oh, I got a high light, it's like 15 ft in the air." Well, I have this ladder in my van just in case so I can get up 15 ft in the air. It's the little things that you need in your van that will make you above average than your standard electrician. This is going to make you the best electrician. So I carry a Little Giant Ladder. This thing can extend up to 15 ft. It can also go on stairs. Also, if you go in here, I got a Milwaukee Packout setup. I have Let's see. We got cable cutters, especially when you're doing a service or a residential panel upgrade, cutting some 4/0 cable. We got a Sawzall. All ready? Let's see. We got staple gun. This is a residential electrician's best friend, right? Because in residential you're mainly dealing with NM cable, NMB, Romex, and stapling the wire to a stud is really key. So it saves you time and money. We're not old school anymore, we're not going to do that hammer and staple anymore. It's about time and efficiency. So I highly recommend to get a staple gun. I know DeWalt makes a good one. I got a multi-tool, okay? So you can see this is by Milwaukee. Um this is nice for cutting drywall. If you need to get wire into, you know, the wall or anything, cut through the wall, I highly recommend to get a multi-tool. We also have a hammer drill. Especially you got to drill in concrete. You never know, sometimes the customer has a a brick home and we need to drill through a brick home. You never know what what you're going to come into. So always recommend to get a concrete hammer drill. And then that's pretty much that. And by the way guys, you saw what I just did? I was just uh un-ratcheting my uh setup here cuz I have a ratchet because when I'm driving, I don't want these to fall over. So if you're ever going to think about getting Packouts, you want to make sure you get a support system, a setup that so that these don't fall over as you're driving. This drawer, I have a band saw. This will cut literally everything. See that? Cuts my conduits. Now you don't need to get a a really big band saw, you know, because as a service electrician, really you're only just cutting conduits or you know, wood, but you need a band saw. And then here we go guys. This is um a super important drawer. We have 1900 boxes, 4-in boxes, 4-in and 11/16 in, super important in this field. You always got to make sure you have metal boxes. I have Milwaukee Packouts. We have The main thing in residential guys is 1/2-in and 3/4-in. I would say those are the main key sizes whenever you're doing work in the residential field because we're not dealing with big size wires. Wires that would like in commercial for example, you're dealing with way different animal size wires. Residential is mainly 1/2-in and 3/4-in raceways. So we got um straps right here, 3/4 inch straps, 1/2 inch straps, 3/4 inch Romex connectors, we have 3/4 inch EMT connectors, and we have connectors couplings. But guys, this is just an example of what you need and behind the scenes what you need as a service residential electrician. Also, now we get to outside. We have PVC. 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch PVC. Got to be stocked up, guys. Whenever you're dealing with outdoor work, it switches to PVC. So, we're prepared with that, you know, expansion couplings, that good stuff. We come over here. We got service now. So, this is now Look at Look how big this thing is. This is an expansion coupling. Expansion. Right? For our 200 amp service. Right? So, got to be prepared for the service heads. So, you guys know, just a little education. Residential homes are typically 100 amp or 200 amps. Okay. At least in New Jersey. And then this one over here Like I I got to fill this up, but we got service straps, SEU cable straps, 2 inch straps for my 2 inch PVC. You know, splicers, connectors. It's the little things you got to have. All right, so I'm going to put this back. Then we get to up here, guys. So, I have my What do you call it? My drop cloth. It shows the customer that you care about the home. You could be the best electrician. You could be the best conduit bender. But if you are not showing the customer that you care and you're walking around the home with dirty shoes, dirty feet, it means nothing. And I really at the end of the day. So, I have this drop cloth and I put this down everywhere I go in the customer's home before I start working. So, I highly recommend to get a drop cloth. You can get them at Home Depot. They're cheap. You just get one. And right over here is probably one of my number one pack outs. Okay. This is a low profile all my wire nuts. So, blue wire nuts are for my big wire, red wire nuts are for my medium size wire, and orange wire nuts are for my little size wire. But guys, wire nuts here, screws here, washers here, wash coli anchors, 1/4 inch. This is really, really important. Especially I need this pretty much every call I do. Okay, so I keep it up here because this is probably my most used pack out. Put up here. Now we get into here. And This is a service electrician van. So, I always want to keep two ladders because if you have your own van, always keep a minimum of two ladders. One is for the journeyman and one is for the apprentice. Now, some electricians and usually majority work by themselves. It's usually one man show. But if you have a helper with you and you have a decently big job, you always want to carry two ladders. You know, if you have to pull electrical line in the basement and you need somebody to help you, you need two ladders. So, always carry two ladders. This is called a wire tub and basically what that is is you take a roll of wire like this for example, you throw it on the tub and this thing just spins and it dispenses your wire. So, basically it keeps your wire straight because think about this. If I had like for example, if I had this roll of wire and I was running this in someone's home and I didn't have this tub, like pretty much this wire is going to be kinked, it's going to be flying everywhere. But when I have this tub, for example, I mean, I'm in a van, so it's going to be tough to show, but this dispenses the wire for me and keeps the wire straight. So, super important, guys, to have a wire tub or something to dispense your Romex. So, that's what also what I keep. If anybody wants to purchase this, this is called the Rack-A-Tiers wire tub. Shout out Rack-A-Tiers for actually sending this product to me. And I'm not even promoting it. I'm not even promoting it whatsoever. I just really like the product. It's It's been helping me for all my calls. Okay. So, now we're getting to it. Um let's see. So, up here as well, I have my We do a lot of EV chargers. A huge thing in the residential electrician service industry is EV chargers. They're expanding. A lot of people are getting Teslas. A lot of people are getting electric vehicles. So, I keep a pack out called EV breakers. So, I have here different brands. I have Cutler-Hammer. I have Cutler-Hammer tan. I have Siemens. I have GE. I have Square D. As electrician, you want to make sure you have all different brands cuz when you go to someone's home, they might have a panel that damn, I You want to make sure you have that breaker. Because if you don't have that breaker, you have to go to Home Depot and that's a waste of time. You already just lost because you have to spend your time out of the job, out of the day to get a simple breaker. So, always carry every single brand. So, EV breakers typically 40 amp, 50 amp, 60 amp. All right. And then you go over here. I even have more breakers. I even labeled it. So, if you can see right here, Square D QO, Cutler-Hammer, Siemens, Murray, double pole, GE, and Square D Home Line. So, I always carry in each bin 15 amp single poles, 20 amp single poles, and so on. Cutler-Hammer single poles, double poles. You guys know the gist of it, but you want to make sure at the end of the day you have every breaker for every type of panel. And then um we have our MC wire right here. Now, we do mainly residential, but sometimes we will get that one commercial call where we're going to need MC cable or we're going to get that call where we got to run MC cable in the garage or somewhere we can't run Romex wire. So, we keep MC in the truck. So, we got some MC cable here. Um down below here, we have our six gauge wire. This is our EV charger bay. So, we have our number six gauge red, our number six gauge black, our number 10 gauge green ground, right? Because you're allowed to downsize the ground, remember that. And we have our 82 Romex and our 62 Romex wire right here. So, I like to call this my EV charger bay. And then down here, we have our offset benders. Okay. This is for, you know, doing conduit offsets. Um and you can use a bender, but I like to use an offset bender only because it saves time and it's more practicable practical in my opinion. So, I got offset bender 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch. More THHN wire, more wires over here. So, we have now our practical Romex. We have our 122 Romex, our 142 Romex, our 63 Romex, our 102 Romex. 102 Romex is mainly for like water heaters. Um and you know, guys, the white Romex is for like outlet switches, 122 outlets. And then we come over here, guys. Now we're getting to the device section. So, here in the device section, you can see I'm stocked up. I have basically what you need as a residential service electrician. I have This is what they call the standard outlets. I have the decora outlets. I have GFCIs. I got all the plates. Um even light bulbs. This is the little things you need, guys. Little devices. Um you don't have to I like to just carry everything in the van because I'm a big advocate for not going to the supply house. I want to make sure I have everything with me. And then up here, we have a little miscellaneous stuff. Um you know, just in case like for example, I have a circuit tracer right here. This is by Klein. Uh let's see. I have a Hmm. I have a a Fluke voltmeter here. This is actually my pops. This is OG to me. So, I always keep this in the van no matter what. Let's say God forbid I forget my tool bag, I need a voltmeter in the van. Always want to carry a backup of something that you essentially need all the time. That's what I highly recommend. Um you know, machine screws. Got to always have machine screws. You know, customers outlets, they could have been through the ringer. You might need a new machine screw. So, another one. Heat gun. Right? No, this is um a heat detection gun. So, basically this will see I'll I'll scan panels. I'll see if the panel is hot or not. You know, got to have that tool. And then conduit benders right here. But guys, now we're getting to it. We're getting to it. Now, getting to the back of the van. What I like to keep in the back of the van, guys, is stuff that I need on the fly and super accessible. So, as an electrician, what you should keep in the back of the van is something you need all the time because it's easy access. So, like for example, right here. I have a bunch of drills here because drills are really common as electrician. You know, unscrewing the machine screws of of outlet or a So, I got here my DeWalt drill. See that? I got an impact drill. I'm an impact guy. I like impacts. But then I also have here an M12 Milwaukee. This is more tiny. If I have to go through a space where I need more, you know, mobility, I got the M12. I also have a chuck drill. Chuck chuck drill, okay? M12 chuck drill. You know, got to always have a You always need to have an impact and a chuck drill. Chuck drill, I mean, is a drill driver. But guys, always carry these two in the van. Right here, I also have my charging station. Um since this is an electric van, I'm able to charge my batteries in the back of my van. So, that's the pro of having electrician van, electric van. So, I got my M12 batteries right here. And I also have my M18 batteries always charging constantly because you want to make sure in this field as advice to always have charged batteries. If you don't have a charged battery, it's not good because you can't get the job done. Your power tools dead. And um like again, time is efficiency in this business. And then you come over here, we have a Milwaukee station light. Now, I only use this when the building has no power or um you know, I'm doing like something I need a lot of light. This is a very good light if you want to purchase a light. I have also here my wire snake. Wire snakes are super important for when you need to fish wire through conduits. And then I have here my Rack-A-Tiers um wire stands. So, basically, I'll show you right now. These guys are super nice because they're portable and I can put my wire and just have a piece of conduit right here and basically be my jack stands. Also, this is nice because I can sit on it. So, if I'm somewhere in a job site, I can sit on this when I need to eat lunch. So, that's why I really like this thing. So, I'm going to put this back. And then also guys, I got a shop vac. So, shop vacs are super important cuz we want to make sure we go to the customers' homes, we leave them cleaner than we saw it. Okay? Guys, I mean, we're getting to it. And lastly, we have a conduit rack. Okay? Always as an electrician, you want to have a conduit rack to make sure have your pipes for when you got to run your raceways. And it's a nice way to keep them organized. If you don't have a conduit rack, then your your pipes are just laying everywhere in the van. They're rolling around. Um when you're driving, you're going to hear that clinking. So, always get a conduit rack. Um yeah, guys. I mean, we're getting to the This is pretty much it. I mean, let me know down in the comments. I'm also I even have this um fish poles. You got Oh yeah, guys, always have fish poles. You know, when you're fishing wire through drop ceilings in residential. This is…