That is really what I’m looking for. What equipment is needed to be effective? Rather not buy extra appliances I will never use. Truck or trailer and build or buy are my main questions.
The best thing you can do is to visit your local health department / environmental health department. Discuss with them your vision for your food truck ; ie BBQ truck, taco truck, etc. and they should be able to get you started.
I bought an empty trailer shell which was 20' long with a 14' interior and a 6' porch. This was I think $5500 (can't quite recall), but it was already wired which was good. Then I took it to a fabricator to have my equipment installed. I got a refrigerator, 3 bay sink, handwash station, a couple prep tables, and they set me up with a smoker on the porch. They also installed a warming cabinet which they made themselves...100% piece of garbage but it cost me $1k. I screwed up there. ; )
This was as bare bones as possible. I had no idea if my business plan would succeed, so I wanted to get my foot in the door as cheaply as possible. No point in spending $50K on something which might not pan out...that was my though process anyways. All in with the trailer shell, the equipment install and fabrication, I was right at $20K. I also bought myself an F-250 truck so I could easily tow the trailer without any worries. Opening an LLC, food truck insurance, and general truck insurance put me at about $3k (annual costs). I think I spent about $100 for a vinyl sign, but you can easily budget quite a bit more if you want a full vinyl wrap...upwards of $5K.
This was enough to get me going. I decided against a steam table and instead went with chafing dishes. I use the Square App on my phone to take credit card payments, and I have a little cashbox for the rare times when people want to pay cash.
If I had to do it all over again I'd find someone local to build out my trailer. This way I could check up on it every couple of days and make sure they're doing what I wanted. I spent a long time looking on UsedTrailers.com and other places such as that, but I was never able to find a solid piece of equipment with a good price. Most of what I see on there is beat up trailers for sky high prices.
*Note : there is exactly ZERO dollars out there in terms of financing for mobile food trucks / trailers. I spent 2 months or so trying to get financed because I thought that would be a good way to build up business credit. I went through the Small Business Administration (SBA) and a ton of financers claimed they were interested in helping me out. No, they were not...they didn't read my actual business plan or even the proposed name of my business, and when I told them it was for a food truck every single one of them backed out. Mind you my credit score was (and still is) excellent. In the end I just went through my bank and got approved for a $20K personal loan in about 30 seconds. haha
I hope this helps and gives you at least a small something to chew on.
