Pick up truck tool salesmen

[boomer12831]

Many years ago ( 15 to 20 ) there were these guys that would come in to town in pick up trucks and sell tools from them. They would stay at a motel down the road from here and would drive all over selling shop items. They would have a press, floor jacks, jack stands, engine lifts, etc. There would be a couple of tractor trailers in the parking lot that they would restock from. They would all be out in front of the motel at night having a few beers and probably discussing the people from the area that they encountered during the day. I pulled in once to see how much a floor jack was but I didn't have the $ on me and they were gone the next day. I didn't have a garage either. I wonder if they are still around, I have not seen them back this way in a long time. Have any of you guys ever run across these guys and have you bought anything from them ? Just a thread that I thought I would start to hear your experiences. Ed.

 

[58Yeoman]

It might have been about 40 years ago, a guy would pull up to the shop with a trunk full of tools on his car...no truck. I never bought anything.

 

[Gregster]

We had a guy like that come to my old shop once. He would appear once a month, drive all the way from Toronto with a pickup/ 20ft closed trailer.

I bought an Audi/VW camlock tool for 45$ and oddly enough I was doing a timing belt on a 2.7T...

 

[platypus20]

Yep, I bought an engine crane and a press, can't remember the name on the tools (damn, that was 40 years ago), but they were bright red and they were from Traveler's Rest, SC.

 

[J king]

Wasn't the tools name "Carolina"? I believe that is it.

 

[platypus20]

Yep, that was the name, Carolina

 

[Regnar]

I wonder if they are still around, I have not seen them back this way in a long time. QUOTE]

They are still around and I see them just about everyday. He drives a huge brown truck that usually says UPS on the side. In all serious to make a living doing it would be ruff. With discounts, promo codes and free shipping I wonder how stores make any money.

 

[binder man]

we had one stop by last year this time. From the carolinas. The old man bought a tap and dye set off him.

 

[toymn6366]

they are irish gypsies called travelers they would import basicly the same things you can know buy at hf slap made in usa labels on it and hit shops in town claiming they where selling tools that they had got stuck with. you can google them,it is funny to ride thur their town and see these huge houses with junk cars sitting around.

 

[softailgarage]

We've had 2 guys in the last 6 years do this. Both times showed up in white rented pickups selling Harbor Freight quality jacks, cherry pickers, etc. I always thought they were Gypsies.

 

[billspit]

I remember these guys in the early 80s. They would call on the farmers that I was working with. They would hard sell them to buy all of the tools in the truck.

 

[chrisa7164]

We had them here in Ma. too. I haven't seen them in a while. We also had them that sold furniture out of trucks.

 

[justanengineer]

Wish they still did this. South Bend salesman's car.

 

[bottom feeder]

Not sure if this is the same thing the OP is referring to, but we have an outfit that comes to town once or twice a year that rents out one of the buildings at the fairgrounds to display and sell their tools. They put up a lot of signs all over town advertising "Tool Sale", and usually the items are branded as "Cummins" and are of the Chinese Harbor Freight variety. Many of the electrical tools are remanufactured. I usually take the time to go have a look. They usually have one semi trailer of inventory.

 

[Big Gus]

Around here in the 90s, we had the tool salesman pull in and set up shop in the community center for a couple of days. They had a couple of semi trailers parked outside full of tools. This stuff was right on par quality wise with Harbor Freight. The brand name of the tools was "Cummins". They'd send flyers in the mail letting folks know they were coming.

 

[beatcad]

yeah these guys used to come by my shop maybe once a month. but never w/ the big stuff like hoists or presses. come to think of it I aint seen any this year.
pickup truck beds full of hand tools. mostly junk like "GRIP" or "MIT" brand.
harbor freight quality stuff. these guys were ligit I think,as in I dought it was hot. probably overstock or bulk bought. they even gave ya a receipt.
I did buy a few things from them but nothing that might be used daily or see and heavy use.
although I did buy a MIT metric allen socket kit that I use often.


i just double checked. the MIT is supposed to stand for Michigan industrial tool, but we all know it means made in taiwan

 

[ihatelaramie]

We have a guy that sets up probably twice a month at an abandoned gas station in town. It's at the biggest intersection in town (flashing red light, four way stop), and I assume he has someone's permission to do it. I've never stopped in, but my roommate has, and he said it's all Chinese junk.

 

[Ign]

Not sure if this is the same thing the OP is referring to, but we have an outfit that comes to town once or twice a year that rents out one of the buildings at the fairgrounds to display and sell their tools. They put up a lot of signs all over town advertising "Tool Sale", and usually the items are branded as "Cummins" and are of the Chinese Harbor Freight variety. Many of the electrical tools are remanufactured. I usually take the time to go have a look. They usually have one semi trailer of inventory.

This. I'm sure they hit you on the way to me, or the other way around. Several years ago I think they started calling themselves Ram Tools. Once, around 2003, Homier came here with semi's, too. Never seen them since.

Most of this stuff, whether it's Ram/Cummins or Homier, is less than HF quality. Things like jacks and presses are the same as HF, but hand tools and power tools are worse generally speaking. They usually have some sort of Bahco wrenches to try to draw people in saying "same manufacturer as Snap-On."

Nonetheless I always go look, it's fun if nothing else. I love to chuckle at the benchtop lathes they bring - literally toys!

 

[Inkncraig]

Those guys still exist. The have HF tools available. They show up every 6 months

 

[Lippyp]

We still get the tool truck come to our village in France. They do a catalogue drop a few wbefore so you can pre-order stuff which arrives on the 40 foot trailer which also is outfitted partly as a showroom for all the stuff they carry as standard stock so people can impiulse buy as well. We also get the military surplus/hunting gear truck too.

 

[Garage Coffee Roaster]

i just double checked. the MIT is supposed to stand for Michigan industrial tool, but we all know it means made in taiwan

How times have changed...

Now Taiwan manufactures the better grade of imports

Wish they still did this. South Bend salesman's car.

Great Picture. Thanks!

 

[BigAl62]

At the last shop I worked at we had a tool dealer that worked out of a Ford van. He sold SK, Gearwrench, IR, Astro, Sunex and other non tool truck brands. It was convenient not having to find these tools online or in a small tool store plus you could make weekly payments, not having to pay 100% at time of purchase. He stood behind everything he sold and as far as I know nobody ever had a problem with a purchase from him.

 

[crewchief888]

i think the OP is refering to the gypsy tool sellers.
they also ran a "scam" dropping by your shop saying the "big boss" told them to pick up all the floor jacks to be sent out for repair,

the scam usually worked, what shop dont have a jack that needs repair?

last scam i saw them running, was to drop a piece of equipment, (usually having something to do with a small paving company) off for a "quicky" repair, while they distract everyone in the place, they'd steal whatever they could get their hands on.

 

[W_KY]

Those would be gypsies or travels as others have referenced.

 

[MG44]

I bought a 1.5Ton underhoist stand off one of these guys at the beginning of spring, I think it was a "Carolina" brand. Works well I use it everyday for $45

 

[jd_1138]

At the last shop I worked at we had a tool dealer that worked out of a Ford van. He sold SK, Gearwrench, IR, Astro, Sunex and other non tool truck brands. It was convenient not having to find these tools online or in a small tool store plus you could make weekly payments, not having to pay 100% at time of purchase. He stood behind everything he sold and as far as I know nobody ever had a problem with a purchase from him.

Interesting concept. It helps the technician obtain tools on credit, and the salesman ups the markup so as to make a profit. Not having to stock tool boxes on the truck and having a smaller route probably meant that he could pretty much keep it well-stocked with the basics.

Maybe this would be a good alternative to someone getting up to their ears in debt with a truck brand franchise.

 

[thoraudio]

Sounds like the 'white van speaker' guys.

Don't buy speakers from the white van speaker guys.

 

[BigAl62]

Interesting concept. It helps the technician obtain tools on credit, and the salesman ups the markup so as to make a profit. Not having to stock tool boxes on the truck and having a smaller route probably meant that he could pretty much keep it well-stocked with the basics.

Maybe this would be a good alternative to someone getting up to their ears in debt with a truck brand franchise.

It seemed to work quite well. The best part was that the regular tool truck guys didn't seem to mind him showing up as there was not a lot of overlap of products. He even showed up at the same time as the Matco guy and they would take time to talk to each other and not arguing either!

As for the gypsy tool guys - I did have dealings with one at another shop I worked at, we chased him out and he never returned (we did the same with the white van speaker guys and the "fresh" meat guys).

 

[jtcalkid]

I worked 2 yrs selling that shop equipment out of pick ups the company was Carolina tool and equipment sold tools all over the country we would go into a town with a tractor trailer full of equipment and talk to everyone we could to sell equipment we had a sales pitch we had a bunch of tools that got left there in that town and they were worth 10thousand dollars but we would give all the equipment to you for the price of the band saw 4988 so not selling tools selling a deal most guys didn't do very well and would sell a couple of tools and quit I had a little different approach I would buy an old truck and if they bought all the tools at full price of 5 thousand I told them the boss told me to just give them the old truck with the tools I sold quite a few truck loads lol

 

[Two Door]

In the late seventies there was a woman going around Houston doing this. Part of the pitch was garnering sympathy because she was a woman that had somehow been cheated and needed to sell the equipment urgently. We bought a band saw and maybe one or two other items. The saw worked fine.

 

[finn]

yeah these guys used to come by my shop maybe once a month. but never w/ the big stuff like hoists or presses. come to think of it I aint seen any this year.
pickup truck beds full of hand tools. mostly junk like "GRIP" or "MIT" brand.
harbor freight quality stuff. these guys were ligit I think,as in I dought it was hot. probably overstock or bulk bought. they even gave ya a receipt.
I did buy a few things from them but nothing that might be used daily or see and heavy use.
although I did buy a MIT metric allen socket kit that I use often.


i just double checked. the MIT is supposed to stand for Michigan industrial tool, but we all know it means made in taiwan

MIT is now known as Tekton, which has become a go to brand for some here.

The Irish Travelers are all from the same area of, I think, Tennessee, Kentucky, or the Carolinas. They’re a Gypsie band, all loosely related.

You would see newspaper articles about them. They would pull their kids from school in the spring to go on their traveling circuit. Most never graduated. It was a lifestyle.

I recall going to one of their “Sales” in the early seventies. They rented the American Legion hall and set up shop.

Mainly junk imports, some with the Cummins logo.

 

[22-W]

I still have a couple sets of Cummins impact sockets that I got several decades ago. Use them all the time and still in great shape.

 

[wolfhawk73]

Around here in the 90s, we had the tool salesman pull in and set up shop in the community center for a couple of days. They had a couple of semi trailers parked outside full of tools. This stuff was right on par quality wise with Harbor Freight. The brand name of the tools was "Cummins". They'd send flyers in the mail letting folks know they were coming.

I remember those. They'd come to our local National Guard Armory or fairgrounds and set up shop for a couple of weekends around 25 years ago. I still have one of their 4" grinders that Dad gave me. $20. I rarely use it, so at least it still works. It definitely has that Chinesium feel. It had a wonderful, first-use, cheap electrical smell. The brushes arc enough to piss off local pilots and air traffic controllers.