What's actually in a working trades van — the 2026 honest list

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Why most 'van tour' content lies

Open YouTube and search 'van tour'. You'll see immaculate vans where every tool has its own laser-engraved spot in a custom Bott shelf, and the floor is clean enough to eat off. That's marketing content. It's not a working van.

A real working van has the racking — yes — but it also has half a dust sheet that's been used six times, a tube of CT1 with a dried-out nozzle, two broken Stanley blades on the floor, and a single boot you've been looking for since March. We'll talk about the proper kit, but the vibes have to be honest.

This list is what we'd put in a 2026 working trade van — by section — and what we'd quietly take out.

Section 1 — the cordless platform

Pick one platform and stick with it. We covered the DeWalt vs Makita vs Milwaukee call in this piece. Whichever you pick, the working core in the van is:

• Combi drill (drill + percussion)
• Impact driver
• Reciprocating saw or jigsaw, depending on trade
• SDS rotary hammer for masonry
• Three batteries minimum — one in tool, one on charge, one spare
• One spare charger, kept in the van charged from the leisure battery overnight

That's about £900-£1,400 of cordless kit. Fits in two L-Boxx 238s or equivalent stacked drawers.

Section 2 — hand tools (the ones used daily)

These live in the front toolbag — the one you carry in to every job, not the one bolted into the racking.

• Stabila 70 series 600mm spirit level
• Stanley FatMax 8m tape
• Knipex Cobra adjustable pliers (the 250mm one)
• Stanley 99E utility knife + a pack of fresh blades
• VDE-rated screwdriver set (sparkies — non-negotiable; everyone else — still nice to have)
• Joiner's pencil and a Sharpie
• 16oz claw hammer (Estwing or Stanley AntiVibe)
• Decent torch — see our head torch picks

About £200 of hand tools. Lasts a decade with care.

Section 3 — PPE that gets used

Half of trade PPE is bought, used twice, and forgotten. The bits that genuinely live in the van and earn their space:

• Safety glasses — Bolle Rush, two pairs (one in the front bag, one spare)
• Ear defenders — 3M Peltor X4A or X5A, lives clipped to the toolbag
• FFP3 dust mask — for kitchen rip-outs, bathroom break-outs, anything dusty. Don't skimp on these.
• Knee pads — see our picks
• Gloves — two pairs of cut-resistant grip gloves, plus thicker insulated gloves for winter outdoor work
• Safety boots — see our boots round-up

Notice what's NOT there: hi-vis. You wear it; you don't store it. And the disposable nitrile gloves that everyone keeps in the van and never wears — keep one box for plumbing/painting work, throw the rest away.

Section 4 — consumables (the bit nobody tells you about)

This is where the van actually earns its keep. Nothing kills a job faster than driving to Toolstation for a £4 connector. Stock these, on day one:

• Mixed screws — at least three sizes of woodscrew, two sizes of self-drilling tek screw, one size of brass plumber's brass
• Mixed wall plugs — yellow, red, brown
• Two boxes of fixings appropriate to your trade (sparkies — terminal blocks, JB connectors; plumbers — push-fit fittings, copper olive sets)
• One spare 100m drum of cable (sparky) or one 3m length of 22mm copper (plumber)
• Roll of insulating tape, roll of duct tape
• One tube of CT1 or Sika MS
• Two spare drill bits in every common size — they break, and a broken bit on a job costs you 45 minutes

Section 5 — the 'just in case' kit

The bits that earn their space once a month, but when they do, they save the day.

• Multimeter (sparky), pressure-test gauge (plumber), digital angle finder (carpenter)
• One torque wrench appropriate to trade
• Inspection mirror and a borescope (£30-50, surprisingly useful)
• Hot air gun
• SDS chisel set for the rotary hammer
• Mini pry bar / nail puller
• Magnetic parts tray — £8 from Halfords, life-changing

Section 6 — vehicle and emergency

The boring bits. Not optional.

• First aid kit — see our guide — required for self-employed sites, sensible always
• Fire extinguisher — see our piece — 1kg ABC powder for the van
• Hi-vis vest in the cab (legal requirement to carry, basically)
• Spare bulb kit — a bulb out is an MOT fail and a fixed-penalty risk on an LED-only car these days
• Jump pack — Noco GB40 or similar, £80, has saved us more times than we can count
• One folded blue tarp — for protecting customer floors, sitting on in the rain, covering kit in the back of the van when it pours
• One pair of disposable shoe covers per job day — the difference between a happy customer and a mark on the carpet

What we'd quietly bin

The honest list of stuff that's in most vans and shouldn't be:

• The cheap socket set you bought five years ago and use twice a year. Bin it. Buy a small Bahco set in the sizes you actually use.
• The corded mains drill that's been replaced by your cordless. Bin it.
• The 'just in case' second hammer you've never picked up.
• The 18 half-empty packs of screws you bought from Wickes. Decant into one tray, throw the packets out.
• The leftover laminate flooring from a job in 2023 that you 'might use'. You won't.

An empty van pocket is more useful than a full one of stuff you don't touch.

The thing nobody buys until they really need it

A small pop-up shelter, the kind cyclists use for race events. £40-£60. Means you can work outside in the rain — fitting a fence post, doing a roof inspection write-up, having lunch on a wet day on a job with no shed access. Every working trade we know who's bought one says they wish they had years earlier.

The total cost of a properly-stocked van

From scratch — cordless kit, hand tools, PPE, consumables, emergency, the lot — about £2,500 to £3,500. Plus the van fit-out if you're starting fresh (see our racking piece) — another £2,500.

So £5,000-£6,000 to set up a proper working van from zero. Spread across an apprentice's first three years it's about £35 a week. Less than your phone bill, more than your gym membership.

The honest summary

The best vans we've seen aren't the immaculate Bott-fitted Insta vans. They're the working ones — neat enough that nothing slides around, organised enough that the regular kit lives in the same place every day, and minimal enough that there's still room to throw a bag of plaster or a length of skirting in when the job changes.

Start with the cordless platform. Build the hand tool kit. Stock the consumables. Add the PPE that you'll actually wear. Skip the rest. Your back, your customers, and your insurance company will all thank you.