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An empty truck floor is a rarity these days. Whether you own a tonneau cover, cap, toolbox or drawer system, a truck bed can be used more easily with one or two accessories. Truck tool boxes have been around almost as long as pickup trucks. They are a great way to transport and protect your gear from the elements and tool thieves.
When I think of a truck bed toolbox, the first thing that comes to mind is the shiny, metal diamond plate variety, usually accompanied by rust in the bed. Fortunately, that’s not at all what you get with the Decked box. Let’s start from the top. The lid is injection molded and made from a high-impact resin that the company says is impervious to both dents and punctures, and while I didn’t have an ax against it the week I was testing it, I did. not taken easy too. It feels sturdy without being too heavy, which is exactly what I like when it comes to my toolboxes.
In addition to being dent resistant, the lid, which is more important to me, fits seamlessly over the base, making it waterproof. For someone who likes to keep their fly fishing gear in their vehicle so I can get out on the water in the blink of an eye, this is a nice feature. For those who carry thousands of dollars worth of tools to a job site every day, it’s a necessity. I filled the toolbox with gear, sprayed it with a hose, and left it outside during a thunderstorm with no water getting in. Not letting water in also means no water can escape, so if you leave your damp waders and waders in the box for days, for example, they won’t dry out. In fact, they will become moldy and dirty and will need to be cleaned. Or so I heard. You have been warned.
Not every part of the Truck Tool Box is made of plastic. The hardware is made of aluminum and steel, each of which has an anti-corrosion treatment, for those of us who live in the rust belt.
Once you open the lid of the Truck Tool Box, which is easy to do by pressing a plastic button on either side, you will see two removable inserts: a blue D-Box, a 20.5″ x 17.5″ x 8 A toolbox that can hold up to 50 pounds of tools or whatever you throw in it, and, on the driver’s side, what Decked calls a Snack Tray, a gray tray that fits at the end of your toolbox for all your most-used items. speaking the driver side there is the lock It is easy to use and works well I had a friend who tried to break in with several keys and picks but to no avail On the passenger side of the toolbox is the ladder.
On the one hand, you might think that a ladder in a truck toolbox is an obvious accessory to have. After all, who wants to climb into the back of their truck, assuming the bed isn’t full of junk, only to access the center of a toolbox? On the other hand, I’ve never seen this before. This is one of those times when there has been a problem that almost everyone who owns a truck has had and so far there is no solution.
The ladder folds out relatively easily and can handle multiple heights (more on that later), which is nice for those truck owners who want to change the height of their truck on the road, or if you’ve parked on uneven terrain.
The Truck Tool Box is surprisingly large. Even if it doesn’t go all the way to the bed, in case you need to put plywood or drywall in the back of your truck, it can still hold 9.83 cubic feet of equipment or 278 gallons for our metric friends outside. Considering the amount of backpack stuff I try to fit in my 40 liter bag every weekend, that’s a lot. At the top, the box is 18.2 inches wide, although that narrows quite a bit when you factor in the ladder, to 13.5 inches. In length on the inside, the box comes in at just under five feet at 59.9 inches and the depth is 17 inches.
All those dimensions were more than enough for me to throw in a paddleboard pump, two camping chairs, two life jackets, and three river tubes without breaking a sweat, or removing the D-Box. The limited depth also allowed me to slide two paddleboards under the box and secure them in the bed.
However, the Decked Truck Tool Box is not without its drawbacks. The cover of the tester I had, which was pre-installed for me, had a habit of hitting the rear brake light of the Nissan Titan XD it was mounted in. Over the course of the week I had it it didn’t do any damage to the lamp itself, but that was probably due to the fact that I realized it on the first day and carefully opened the lid from then on. With repeated use I would be concerned about damage to my truck.
The second issue I had was the ease of use. The integrated ladder, although my favorite part of the toolbox outside of its seemingly indestructible construction, took me some time to get used to. I made it a point to use the ladder every day I had the truck and at the end of the week the controls still felt a little clunky as multiple extensions move at once when you grab it. That said, this is definitely a nitpick and it didn’t detract from the ease of using the ladder. I didn’t feel that way at all when I put the ladder back in the box, so you may get used to it over time.
So that finally brings us to the price. The Decked Truck Tool Box with the ladder starts at $899.99, with the price depending on the truck you install it in. The toolbox to match the Titan I was testing cost a hundred dollars more and came in at $999.99. With another $50 or so in taxes and free shipping, that comes to about $1050, which is admittedly a lot for a toolbox, ladder or not. Other plastic toolboxes can be found on Amazon for a third the price, but without an integrated ladder, no removable toolbox inside, no lifetime warranty and, at a third the weight, much less durability. There’s no arguing that the Decked option is a much better product.
That said, the Decked Truck Tool Box doesn’t scream “value” in ways other company products do. Take, for example, the Decked Drawer System, which at $1,449 is $450 more than the toolbox but offers more features and better organization options, including two lockable bed-length drawers, good for a payload of 200 pounds each. When the bed is closed you can’t see the drawers, just the raised top deck with a 2,000lb payload, which is less attractive to would-be tool thieves, and it’s not in anyone’s way. coverage you may already have for your truck. Not to mention the drawers that hold more, 12 cubic feet for a standard length bed compared to 9.83 cubic feet for the truck toolbox.
None of that is the Decked Truck Tool Box’s fault. Coincidentally, I think drawer systems are a better way to organize and store things safely in the back of your truck. Even Decked agrees, referring to a truck toolbox on their own site as a “giant black hole.”
With fewer moving parts, less ease of use, and fewer options than a drawer system, I’d expect the Truck Tool Box to be priced a little lower than it is. That said, if you’re looking for the best truck tool kit on the market, your search is over. The Decked Truck Tool Box will last longer than you, probably longer than your kids and certainly longer than your truck.