Multimeter

This is possibly the most important tool you will buy, so buy it well… These range from the ridiculously cheap to the extremely expensive, now we don’t need to go overboard on this but there are a few minimum specifications and some features which are nice to have!

Obviously we are only testing DC voltages up to probably 30volts max. but you may wish to use your multimeter with high voltage monitor repair or even just to check the mains wiring in a cab so make sure the AC rating is high enough (most meters allow for testing AC up to 250VAC anyway…)
Also, make sure the meter has an audible continuity test - there’s nothing worse than having to look up at the meter when you’re probing around!

Some multimeters have component testing features too, useful things to have are transistor test, diode test and a capitance test. The capitance test isn’t particularly useful unless it goes up to at the very least 1000uF if not 10,000uF (you’d be lucky!) Also, something that few models have and if they do they’re generally too low to be of any use, is a frequency test. Most of the models I’ve seen only measure in Hz which is pretty useless for us, but the more expensive models such as Wavetek’s DM27XT go up to 20Mhz which is extremely useful!!!