6 Best Hand Truck Tool Holders For Orchard Work Old Farmers Swear By
Boost orchard efficiency with 6 farmer-tested hand truck tool holders. These rugged organizers keep your essential gear secure, organized, and accessible.
There’s a moment every orchard keeper knows well: you’re halfway down a row of apple trees, loppers in one hand, pruning saw tucked under your arm, and you realize the grafting tape is back in the barn with the shovel you need for a loose stake. A simple hand truck or dolly is great for hauling crates of fruit, but its real value comes from turning it into a mobile workshop. The right tool holder transforms it from a simple cart into your most valuable partner, saving dozens of trips and countless bits of frustration.
Secure plant grafts and increase seedling survival with this stretchable, self-adhesive tape. The waterproof PE film allows gas exchange and sunlight penetration for effective healing.
Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, this site earns from qualifying purchases. Thank you!
Equipping Your Dolly for Orchard Efficiency
A hand truck is just a frame on two wheels until you give it a purpose beyond moving boxes. By adding tool holders, you create a system that carries everything you need for a specific job, whether that’s pruning, planting, or harvesting. This isn’t about fancy gadgets; it’s about pure, simple efficiency.
The goal is to touch your tools only when you need to use them. Every trip back to the shed is wasted energy and broken focus. A well-outfitted dolly lets you load up once for the task at hand and stay out in the orchard until the job is done.
Before you buy anything, look at your own workflow. Do you mostly carry long-handled tools like pole saws and rakes? Or is your work more about small hand tools like pruners, knives, and twine? The best setup for you depends entirely on the jobs you do most often.
Rack’em RA-17: The All-Around Workhorse
The Rack’em RA-17 is one of those tools that wasn’t designed for orchard work but fits it perfectly. Originally made for landscape trailers, its simple, sturdy design is a fantastic starting point for any hand truck. It easily bolts onto the vertical frame with a couple of U-bolts.
Its strength is versatility. The rack has slots for three long-handled tools, holding them securely without much fuss. It also includes a set of hooks perfect for hanging a hand saw, a coil of wire, or even your water bottle. It’s the jack-of-all-trades that handles 80% of your daily needs.
This is the holder you want for general maintenance days. You can load up a shovel, a heavy-duty rake, and a pair of loppers, and still have room for smaller essentials. It’s not a specialized piece of gear, and that’s precisely why it works so well for so many different tasks.
Buyers DTR Racks for Long-Handled Tools
If your primary task involves a lot of shovels, hoes, or pole pruners, the Buyers DTR series is purpose-built for the job. These racks are brutally simple and effective. They consist of a heavy steel plate with thick, flexible rubber grommets that grip tool handles with incredible force.
The real advantage here is security. When you’re rolling a dolly over uneven, bumpy orchard ground, tools can rattle, shift, and fall out of less secure holders. The rubber grips on the Buyers rack clamp down hard, meaning your tools stay put no matter what.
This is a specialist, not a generalist. It won’t hold your hand pruners or a roll of tape. But for those days when you’re planting a new row of saplings or doing extensive clearing work, nothing holds long-handled tools better. It does one job, and it does it perfectly.
The Bucket Boss for Small Tool Organization
Sometimes the biggest challenge isn’t the big tools, but the dozen small ones that get lost in your pockets or left on the ground. For tasks like grafting, budding, or detailed pruning, a 5-gallon bucket equipped with a Bucket Boss organizer is the undisputed champion. You can strap the bucket right onto the hand truck’s base plate.
This setup gives you an instant command center. The canvas organizer slips over the bucket, providing dozens of pockets of various sizes. Suddenly, your grafting knives, marking pens, rolls of tape, hand pruners, and sharpening stones all have a visible, accessible home.
The bucket itself can hold soil amendments, water, or discarded cuttings. It’s a self-contained system that keeps all your small, essential items in one place. It’s not a replacement for a long-handled tool rack, but an essential complement to one.
Green Touch Xtreme Rack for Heavy-Duty Use
If you believe in the "buy it once, buy it for life" philosophy, the Green Touch Xtreme Rack is your answer. This is professional-grade equipment, and it feels like it. It’s made from heavy-gauge powder-coated steel and features a spring-loaded locking mechanism.
The locking system is the key feature. While you probably don’t need to lock your tools to your dolly, the mechanism holds them with zero play. There is no rattling or shifting, which makes for a much quieter and more stable trip across the property. It’s built to withstand the daily abuse of a commercial landscaping crew.
Is it overkill for a hobby farmer? Maybe. It’s certainly more expensive than other options. But if you have a larger orchard, deal with very rough terrain, or simply want the most durable, secure rack you can find, the Green Touch delivers peace of mind.
DIY PVC Pipe Holder: The Customizable Classic
You don’t always need to buy a solution. For a few dollars and an hour of your time, you can build a perfectly functional tool holder from PVC pipe. This is the classic farmer’s solution: simple, cheap, and completely tailored to your needs.
The process is straightforward. Cut sections of 2-inch or 3-inch diameter PVC pipe to a length of about 12-18 inches. Then, fasten them to the vertical frame of your hand truck using U-bolts or heavy-duty hose clamps. You can arrange them however you like to fit your specific tools.
The beauty of this approach is its infinite customizability. You can create a holder specifically for the odd-shaped handle of your favorite pole saw or a narrow slot for a soil probe. It may not be as durable as steel in the long run, but it’s so inexpensive that you can afford to experiment and replace it as needed.
Jungle Jim’s Rack for Ultimate Versatility
Like the Green Touch, Jungle Jim’s racks are born from the professional landscaping world. Their systems are known for being modular and incredibly versatile. While they sell individual tool racks, their real strength is in creating a complete mobile workstation.
You can find Jungle Jim’s accessories for holding a water cooler, a string trimmer, or a spool of trimmer line, all designed to mount together. For the hobby farmer, this means you can build a dolly that serves you both in the orchard and for other property maintenance tasks, like fence line clearing.
This is a premium option for someone who uses their hand truck as a primary vehicle for all outdoor work. If you find yourself needing to carry a diverse and changing set of tools for different projects around your property, the modularity of a Jungle Jim’s system can be a game-changer, justifying the higher cost.
Choosing the Right Holder for Your Orchard Tasks
There is no single "best" tool holder. The right choice depends entirely on your budget, your tools, and the work you do most often. Don’t chase the most expensive option if a simple one meets your needs.
Think about your primary workflow:
- For mixed-use and general pruning: The Rack’em RA-17 is a fantastic, balanced choice.
- For heavy, long-handled tool work: The Buyers DTR rack offers unmatched security.
- For detailed tasks with many small items: A Bucket Boss setup is essential.
- For the ultimate in durability: The Green Touch Xtreme Rack is built to last forever.
- For a custom, low-cost solution: The DIY PVC holder can’t be beaten.
Ultimately, the goal is to make your work flow more smoothly. A good tool holder removes the small, repeated frustrations that drain your energy over a long day. It lets you keep your mind on the trees and the task at hand, which is exactly where it should be.
Efficiency in a small orchard isn’t about expensive tractors or complicated technology. It’s about smart, simple systems that save you steps and keep you organized, and a well-equipped hand truck is one of the best investments you can make.
