Editorial policy
Editorial policy
What we commit to, in terms specific enough that you could catch us breaking them.
Independence
- Commission rate is not a ranking input. We recommend the better product even when a worse one pays more, and we say so on the page when that is the situation. Buyer-first beats commission, always.
- No paid placements. No manufacturer, retailer or brand can buy a position on a list here. Nobody has offered and the answer would be no.
- No pay-for-inclusion. A product is on a page because it belongs there or it is not on the page.
- No vendor copy. Verdicts are ours. Manufacturer marketing language is never presented as an independent finding, and where we quote a published specification we cite it.
- No gifted-product obligation. If a product is ever supplied to us, the page will say so plainly and the assessment will be the same assessment.
Sourcing standards
| Claim type | Required source |
|---|---|
| Bed dimensions and fitment figures | Manufacturer specifications or a published bed-dimension reference, cited per figure |
| Product dimensions, materials, capacity | Manufacturer specification or the live catalog listing, cited on the card |
| Weight and load ratings | The manufacturer's published rating. Never estimated |
| Price | The live price layer only. “Check price” where no live figure exists |
| Owner-report patterns | A described pattern across verified purchaser reports, never one cherry-picked quote |
| Safety claims | The relevant standard plus the manufacturer's own statement |
| Contested claims (e.g. cover fuel economy) | Stated as contested, with the reasons tests disagree |
| Statistics | A named, linked source — or the claim is omitted entirely |
The last row is the one that matters most. If a number cannot be verified it does not appear, and the sentence gets rewritten rather than padded with “studies show”. There is no theft statistic anywhere on this site for exactly that reason.
Corrections
- Errors are fixed, not quietly removed. If a specification, a dimension or a fitment claim is wrong, we correct it against the source.
- The fix is dated. The page's Updated date moves when the correction is made.
- Material corrections are noted on the page, not just silently applied — if a recommendation changes because we got something wrong, the page says so.
- Report an error to contact@toolboxandtruck.com. Tell us the page and the figure and we will check it.
The update date, and why it is not a marketing device
Every page on Toolbox & Truck carries an “Updated <month year>” dateline. That date moves only when the content actually changed.
This is worth stating explicitly because the practice in this niche is the opposite. Several of the sites ranking for the same searches carry a rotating month stamp in the page title on content that was not re-checked — a page headed with the current month over a body written many months earlier.
We will not do that, and the reason is self-interested as much as principled: an honest date is the single clearest trust signal available to a small site, and faking it would throw away the one durable advantage we have.
What this site will never publish
- A testimonial, review or rating of this business that was not given by a real customer with attribution.
- A business-level star rating or review count. We have none on file and will not invent one.
- A claim of hands-on use of a product that has not had it.
- An invented credential, license, certification or tenure.
- A price that did not come from the live price layer.
- A specification, dimension or load rating that the manufacturer did not publish.
- A statistic without a named, linked source.
- Fake urgency: no countdowns, no “prices won't last”, no limited-time framing.
Who is responsible
Toolbox & Truck is published by Iron Mako Media and written by Mike M. One named person is accountable for every page, which is the point of having a byline at all. About the author.