Food Truck Business Guide

Food Truck Equipment List for Beginners

Spec the kitchen your concept actually needs, starting with the format and the non-negotiable code items.

Start with the format, not the gear

Before any equipment list, pick the format, because it caps what you can carry. The course’s quick rule based on how many places you serve in a day:

• One location a day (a brewery slot, a single office park): you are likely a trailer concept ($15,000-$80,000 used). Trailers win on capital and build-out simplicity and carry strong generators (3,000-5,000W common).
• Two locations (lunch site plus dinner site): either format works.
• Three or more locations (multi-site lunch route, late-night): you are a truck concept, with the largest generator capacity (5,000-7,000W common) and best weather protection.
• Tightly scoped concept (coffee, hot dogs, ice cream, churros): a cart ($3,000-$25,000) can be the right, lowest-capital start where your jurisdiction permits it.

Carts often cannot carry hood-vented cooking, which limits them to non-frying, non-griddle menus in many jurisdictions. Match the format to the menu and the daily plan before you buy a single appliance.

The cooking line and the non-negotiables

The cooking line is cuisine-specific, but two items are non-negotiable in nearly every jurisdiction. The hood, Type I exhaust, and UL-300 wet-chemical fire suppression (Ansul R-102 is the common system) is both the most expensive line and the one the fire marshal checks first ($5,000-$8,000 bootstrap up to $15,000-$30,000+ pro). The three-compartment sink plus a separate handwash sink is required for ware-washing; substituting a smaller unit fails inspection. Importantly, the hood requirement is keyed to grease and smoke production, not flame, so an electric griddle or fryer generally still needs the Type I hood and suppression.

Build the rest to your menu, with the course’s named brands by tier:

• Griddle/range/charbroiler: Vulcan and Cooking Performance Group as workhorses, Atosa and Avantco for value, Garland and U.S. Range premium.
• Fryer: Pitco for premium reliability, Atosa for value.
• Convection oven: only for bake/roast concepts.

Refrigeration, water, and power

Cold-side and utility equipment every build needs:

• Refrigeration: a reach-in fridge ($2,500-$7,000 mid-tier) and undercounter freezer, with True/True Refrigeration as the premium default, Turbo Air and Atosa for value, and Hoshizaki for ice.
• Water: a 40-80 gallon NSF potable tank, a gray-water tank sized larger than the fresh tank per local code, a point-of-use water heater, and a reliable pump.
• Power: propane cooking plus a battery or small generator is the dominant pattern. If you go all-electric or hybrid, size the battery bank (EcoFlow Delta Pro, Bluetti EP500) to your cooking load.

Generator sizing is the most commonly botched line. The method: sum the running watts of everything that runs at once, add the single largest startup surge (usually a refrigeration compressor), then add 20-30% headroom. A typical solid-starter build lands in the 4-5kW class; the course names the Honda EU3000iS for light loads and the EU7000iS for full hot-cooking trucks, both prized for quiet operation that meets festival noise limits (often under 65 dBA at 23 ft).

POS, smallwares, and safety

The tech and finishing kit:

• POS: Square for Restaurants is the course’s starter pick. The free tier is real, hardware is cheap and replaceable (a Square Reader is about $59; a Terminal $300), and onboarding takes an afternoon. Move to Toast for a true kitchen-display screen once you are consistently above roughly $25,000-$30,000/month.
• Smallwares: commercial knives and cutting boards, hotel pans (Vollrath, Carlisle), Cambro storage, squeeze bottles, tongs and ladles, and a sanitizing kit with test strips.
• Safety: a UL-listed K-class extinguisher for the cooking line, a backup ABC extinguisher, a first-aid kit, and a sharps container.

Budget initial inventory and disposables (proteins, produce, dry goods, clamshells, napkins) at roughly $3,000-$8,500 to open.

Buy, build, or lease, and how to save 20-40%

Equipment discipline is as much about how you buy as what you buy. The course’s tactics:

• Restaurant auctions and liquidations: a True reach-in that is $5,500 new is often $1,800-$2,500 at auction in good condition. Inspect before buying.
• Facebook Marketplace commercial: restaurant closures post directly, often at half the auction price; drive out to inspect.
• Compare new sources: Webstaurantstore for volume, eBay commercial for new-old-stock on niche items, Heritage Restaurant Equipment for both.

Match the spend to a tier and grow into the next one as revenue justifies, rather than over-spending on an aspirational kitchen up front. If your concept caters, add a starter catering kit (Cambro insulated transport boxes, hotel pans, chafing dishes, Sterno) for roughly $400-$1,500, recoverable on the first few jobs.