⏱️ Read time: ~ 4 minutes
Before building a food truck, the first step is choosing the right equipment. With so many options—burners, fryers, hoods, fridges, and more—it’s normal to feel a bit overwhelmed. A lot of buyers also wonder the same thing: buy locally, or source everything from China?
This guide makes it simple. Here’s a clear equipment list and some practical tips on sourcing at factory-direct prices—often 50% cheaper than buying in your own country.
What Equipment Every Food Truck Needs
Power Core: Your Cooking & Heating Hub
When you’re choosing cooking equipment, reliability and safety come first—no exceptions.
- Gas or induction cooktop
- Pro-grade range hood
- Fryer or griddle
- Oven or grill
- Hot dog roller / sausage grill
The Chill Zone: Your Cool & Fresh Hub
Food trucks put way more stress on cooling equipment than a home fridge ever would—constant door-opening, bumps, and vibration. So stick with commercial-grade gear that’s built for the job.
- Commercial fridge: Go for heavy-duty, restaurant-grade door hinges.
- Food display case
- Dry-storage shelves / cabinet
- Ice cream machine
The Service Counter: Your Prep & Delivery Hub
This area is basically the “face” of your food truck. How fast you take orders, how smoothly you hand out food, and how clean your counter looks — that’s the customer’s first impression of your business.
- Sink system
- POS system
- Prep workstation
- Food packaging
Buy Locally or Source From PackJing?
In many Western countries, buying a food truck usually means purchasing the truck body and the kitchen equipment separately.A bare food-truck shell typically starts at US$25,000+ — basically a road-ready step van with no kitchen inside.
Then you have to build the kitchen yourself by ordering equipment from sites like WebstaurantStore or Katom. A basic setup will easily cost another US$20,000+, and if your layout is more complex, you’ll still need a local builder to install everything.
If you want to buy a fully finished food truck, your choices are limited, and local prices usually start around US$50,000+. Once you add decent equipment, proper ventilation, and compliance systems, the final price can go way beyond that.
The U.S. supply chain is also very fragmented, the truck body, kitchen equipment, installation team, fire-safety compliance, and health permits—all handled by different people, each adding their own markup.
The more pieces you buy separately, the higher your coordination costs. That’s why the total cost is high and the process gets complicated.
So, Why Can China Integrate the Entire Food Truck Setup?
In China, the food truck body and the equipment are also produced separately. The difference is that PackJing have a complete supply chain and can integrate everything for you — commercial kitchen equipment, stainless-steel counters, ventilation systems, water tanks, electrical setups, custom layouts, as well as custom food packaging.
We work directly with the source manufacturers, with no middlemen marking things up. All electrical work is organized under UL compliance, and we only use commercial equipment with ETL or NSF certifications. Because of this setup, your startup cost often drops by 50% or more compared to buying locally.
At the same time, everything is fully customizable — kitchen layout, equipment dimensions, exterior colors, logo branding, packaging — all tailored to your business instead of being limited by whatever stock model a dealer happens to have.
And if you’re outfitting a whole food-stall street or buying 10 units or more, you can get another 20% discount on top. So instead of buying from five different suppliers, PackJing can deliver a fully equipped food truck in one order.
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Build Your Food Truck the Easy Way,
Over the past few years, we’ve helped a lot of family-run businesses and street food sellers build their own custom food trucks.
We offer one-stop sourcing, including:
- Food truck
- Kitchen equipment
- Custom food packaging
We load everything into one container and ship it straight to your door. Our team actually understands what food truck owners need, and you’ll have a dedicated agent to guide you step by step through the whole process.
If you’re just getting your project off the ground and don’t know where to start, you’re very welcome to reach out and chat with us.
