Nomad Drive Tool Rack: What Attaches and What Doesn’t

Players report Nomad Drive tool racks accept grinders and polishers through placement mode, while shovels, metal detectors and crowbars won't attach.

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Tool racks in Nomad Drive are vehicle-mounted holders meant to keep tools such as the grinder, polisher, shovel, metal detector and crowbar off the floor of your RV or hippie van. The short version, based on the Steam Community "tool rack" discussion, is that racks work for only a couple of tools. Holding a tool and using the rack's interact prompt reportedly does nothing — the tools that do attach go on through placement mode (R), and the grinder and polisher are the ones players report working that way. The shovel, metal detector and crowbar are reported not to attach, and at least one player's attempt to hang flashlights on a rack also failed.

Which tools players report working

The thread's replies break down fairly cleanly:

Grinder and polisher — reported to mount on a rack using placement mode (the R key), not the hold-and-use prompt.
Shovel, metal detector, crowbar — reported not to attach to tool racks at all.
Flashlights — one player wanted to store all of them on racks and found they wouldn't go on either.

So if you're carrying a full toolkit, expect the rack to cover your cleaning and polishing gear rather than everything you loot. Tools that won't mount have to live in crates and other containers for now.

Nomad Drive official screenshot

The crowbar oddity on the hippie van

One detail from the same thread is worth knowing if you're trying to tidy up a specific vehicle: a crowbar reportedly sticks to the side of the hippie van but not to the side of the RV. That suggests the available attachment points differ from vehicle to vehicle, so a spot that works on one rig may simply not exist on another. It doesn't make the crowbar a rack tool — it just means side-mounting is inconsistent between the two vehicles players were using at the time.

Racks found out in the world

Racks also appear as part of locations rather than as pickups. In a demo playthrough covering the RV move-in, the player tries to take the racks at a gas station stop and finds they can't be removed, treating them as scenery instead. That's one player's attempt rather than a rule, but it lines up with the idea that racks are something you mount or use where they already exist, not a loose item you haul around.

Nomad Drive official screenshot

If a rack won't take your tool

These are suggestions based on what players describe, not tested features:

Try placement mode (R) instead of walking up and pressing the interact prompt. The prompt reportedly produces nothing.
Try a different vehicle or a different side of the same vehicle — the crowbar-versus-hippie-van report is the clearest example of attachment points varying.
Keep the fallback in mind: crates and other storage in your vehicle hold tools fine, and the rack is a convenience, not the only option.

Version and demo caveats

The Steam thread posts are dated 30 June and don't state a game version, and the linked playthroughs are of the Nomad Drive demo, so the exact behaviour is best treated as demo-era reporting. A later build could accept more tools, or fewer. Nothing in the thread or videos indicates which build the players were on, so if a rack behaves differently for you, the specific tools listed above are the most likely thing to have changed.