Most of this has been covered....

An air hose with a glad hand and a dual straight footed chuck to inflate low tires. The primary cause of blowouts is low pressure due to not checking often enough. You can keep inflating a leaking tire but a blowout usually parks you. I'm always surprised at the number of drivers that don't even bump the tires once a day.

I keep a bicycle inner tube and some hose clamps to patch a trailer airline, I have never used it, but I've seen ice covered air lines dragging on the road. For the winter I also have a cheap propane torch to warm frozen brakes, it's faster than beating them forever with a hammer.

Fuses and lights, electrical tape. Two pair of vice grips to clamp off air lines to a brake can. After using the key to back off the brake you can clamp the lines and rebuild pressure and drive again. Others have told me you can put a penny in the connection and tighten it down instead of the vice grips and DOT won't notice your "repair" as easily.

It's winter time so don't forget to check to make sure the fuel your using is winterized if you will be traveling into low temps. If you fuel in AZ and head up north you may need to add anti-gel.

An extra cam tool (don't remember what its called) for your tire chains. The cams can be a real pain to tighten without one and I leave on in the snow at least once a year.

 

I was with one of our other drivers when he forgot to unhook his airlines and the gladhand stayed on the trailer and the rubber airline did not stay with it. He was unsure about how to fix it until I pulled a new end out of my tool box. They cost $6.00 apiece and saved us the downtime. 10 minutes later we were back on the road. I also keep different size airline fittings and connectors "Just in case".

 

Actually, if a parking brake diaphragm is leaking, you would insert the "key" into the can, back off the spring, and then just clamp off the line going to the parking brake side of the brake chamber. This way you still have service brakes at that wheel.

If the service brake diaphragm is leaking, you would simply clamp off the line going to the service brake side of that chamber. This would still allow the parking brake to function at that wheel.

The only time you'd have to clamp off both lines would be if the service and parking brake diaphragms are both leaking.

 

In most trucks, you can also keep it as a liner for the side-locker. If you need it, just pull it out.

About half a dozen rubber tarp straps (I carry about 9 of them) can be put on the handle to pull the pins and slide your tandems. Hook them to the end of the lever that the rod connects to, and then stretch them to the undercarriage of the tandems so that when they slide, you don't break them. 6 to 8 of those straps will pull far more than a human can to get the pins out. And, if you lose a mudflap, I've used 6 of them to hold one onto the bottom of the trailer bed until I got to where I could get a new bracket welded on. Hooked it to the I-beam of the trailer bed. But, you have to hook it front and back, or you could lose it and the straps when going down the road.

 

Just buy one of these and have it follow you around. Then if you have to replace a motor or something on the side of the road you will be ready.

 

And, if you do not have a pair of vice grips, I have been able to find enough slack in the line to be able to "KINK" the line, and wrap some black electrical tape around it to hold it that way.

 

Ditto, Snapon is VERY proud of their tools. Half of mine are and WOW did I pay for them lol.

 

This may not be in the area of "tools", but when I lived and drove, from WI, I would keep a bucket of sand in the truck. About 10% of it was salt. When on ice and not able to get started, it sure helped get some traction. An "ice-cream" bucket might be enough in most cases, but mine was a 5-gallon variety. Also, even now, carry one of the chains from my flatbed days. Only needed it for my own benefit once, but have used it quite a number of times to help someone else out.

 

I carry a couple of 1/2" pipe nipples and a easy-out to remove broken ones. If I break a glad hand off, I'm covered. Also, brake rivets work perfectly to block a line to a brake chamber if you lose a diaphragm. I also carry a one of the stud/bolt thingies to hold a spring brake released. I don't carry nearly as many tools as I used to. It seems like with modern trucks simple things rarely break. If you have a problem it's usually call a mechanic time.

 

It's called "CAGING THE BRAKE", and the "thingy" you're referring to is called a "CAGING BOLT". It compresses the spring for the spring brake, and keeps the brake released. Good till you can get it fixed, but I can't say that DOT won't put you OOS for it.