How to Design a Food Truck Layout

To design a food truck layout, start from the menu, list every piece of equipment with its real size, group it into work zones, place the water, power and gas, check the aisle, run it past your health department, and only then draw the final plan to scale. Doing it in that order keeps you from building around equipment you won’t use.

These eight steps work for a step van, a trailer or a cart. The food truck layout maker handles the drawing part, but the thinking comes first.

Step 1: Write the menu first

Every dish needs a cooking method, and every cooking method needs equipment. Write the menu, then next to each item note how it’s cooked (griddle, fryer, oven, steam table, blender, espresso machine) and how it’s held (hot, cold, frozen).

Keep the menu tight. A shorter menu means fewer pieces of equipment, a shorter cooking line and a smaller hood.

Step 2: Build an equipment list with real sizes

For each piece, write width, depth, height, fuel or power, and water or drain needs. Pull the numbers from the manufacturer’s spec sheet, not a guess. A few real examples:

• Star-Max 636MF griddle: 36 inches wide, 29 inches deep, 84,900 BTU of gas.
• Pitco 35C+S fryer: about 15 inches wide, 30 inches deep, 90,000 BTU.
• True TSSU-48-12 prep table: 48-3/8 by 30-1/8 inches, 5.8 amps at 115 volts.
• Advance Tabco K7-CS-21 three-compartment sink: 58 by 19-1/2 inches with two drainboards.

The food truck equipment list groups the usual pieces by category with more sizes.

Step 3: Measure the interior

Measure the finished inside, wall to wall and floor to ceiling, and mark the wheel wells, cab door pockets and rear door. On a Morgan Olson step van body, the rear wheel boxes are 44 inches long with a 41-inch aisle between them, and the cab doors slide into the first 32 inches of each side wall. The food truck dimensions guide lists step van and trailer sizes if you haven’t bought the vehicle yet.

Step 4: Group equipment into zones

Split the floor into cold storage and prep, cooking, service and cleaning. Put the cooking zone where the hood will go, the service zone at the window, and the cleaning zone where the tanks can sit below it.

Then check the flow. Food should travel from refrigeration to prep to the line to the window without doubling back. Dirty utensils go back to the three-compartment sink. The FDA Food Code wants a hand sink placed for convenient use in prep, dispensing and dishwashing areas, so put one where the cooks can reach it without leaving the line.

Step 5: Place water, power and gas

This is where layouts usually get redrawn.

Water. Size the fresh tank for your hand sink, dish sink and any product water. Then make the wastewater tank larger. The FDA Food Code 2022 sets the waste tank 15 percent larger than the fresh tank, and Los Angeles County asks for 50 percent larger. The food truck sink requirements guide covers the math.

Power. Add up the amps or watts of everything electric that runs at the same time. A generator such as the Cummins Onan QG 5500 LP puts out 5,500 watts at 120 volts. Los Angeles County wants generators and compressors in an area completely separated from food prep and storage.

Gas. List the BTU rating of each gas appliance so the builder can size the propane system. The NFPA food truck fact sheet asks that cylinder valves be reachable without tools.

Step 6: Check the aisle and clearances

Measure the narrowest gap between facing equipment, usually the griddle and the prep table across from it. California requires at least 30 inches of unobstructed aisle and 74 inches of clear height over the aisle in occupied mobile food facilities. Other states use plan review instead of a fixed number.

Also check that doors open. Refrigerator doors, oven doors and the three-compartment sink drainboards all need room in front of them.

Step 7: Talk to the health department before you build

Requirements change by state, county and sometimes city, so ask for your local mobile food unit plan review packet before anyone cuts metal. Common requests, from the NACCHO mobile food unit factsheet and county guides in Arizona, Washington and California, include:

• Plans drawn to scale. Los Angeles County asks for 1 inch to 1 foot.
• A top view of the equipment layout and a side view of the plumbing.
• The menu.
• Fresh and wastewater tank dimensions.
• Equipment makes and model numbers.
• Wall, floor and food contact materials.

Fire officials may have their own review. King County notes that Seattle’s fire department approval is needed for propane, charcoal, wood or oil frying, and the NFPA fact sheet lists hood suppression, extinguishers and propane checks. See plan review for how the process usually runs.

Step 8: Draw the final plan to scale

Now draw it. In the free food truck layout planner:

1. Pick a vehicle (14 to 20 ft step van, a 6x12 to 8.5x24 trailer, or a cart) and type your real interior length and width.
2. Drag equipment onto the 6-inch grid. Each item starts with typical dimensions you can edit to match your spec sheets.
3. Rotate, duplicate and label items, and watch the live clearance between them. The tool warns when two items overlap.
4. Open the requirements checklist to make sure you have a hand sink, a three-compartment sink, fresh and wastewater tanks, a hood over cooking and a fire extinguisher. Confirm each with your health department.
5. Export the plan as PNG, SVG or a printable sheet with the equipment list.

Plans save in your browser, with no account needed. Bring the printout to your builder for a quote and to the health department for plan review, and expect a round of changes. That’s normal, and it’s cheaper on paper than in steel.