TA Petrol customer service contacted me today to get more info on what happened – that was a promising sign. But TA Paulsboro still declined to cover the warranty. They didn’t want to take responsibility for their mistake and were afraid they potentially damaged my engine.

So I ordered a tow from Smiley’s in South Hill. I had them come the same time that the recovery driver from Schneider’s arrived to deliver the trailer to Houston.

But there was one small problem. I couldn’t unhook from the trailer. The fifth wheel latch was giving me trouble and the kingpin wouldn’t open. Normally, I would just reverse the truck to jiggle and unlock the latch. But since I was low on oil, I couldn’t start the truck.

So Mr. Smiley took a chain and connected to the front right corner of the trailer and pulled it forward, while I released my brakes and slowly rolled down an incline – that did the trick.

Before we unhooked from the trailer, Smiley connected his air to my secondary air tank so that I could have some air – at least 100 psi. This is an interesting setup since I can use this air to power my pneumatic tools such as my impact gun.

Mr. Smiley also had to disconnect my drive shaft to ensure that we don’t damage the transmission. He was able to remove the bolts with an 1/2 inch drive extendable ratchet – an impact wrench was not needed.

I was surprised since the unscrupulous Charlotte wrecker who towed me last year didn’t bother to do this.

When Smiley’s dropped the oil pan, they could see that the gasket was severely damaged on both sides

When we got the truck in the shop, we added oil, and after 4 gallons, the starter turned easily. Oh my Goodness, I was expecting the worse.

Now that my truck was in the shop, they would have to drop my oil pan and install a new gasket. Smiley’s was nice enough to drive me to the Fairfield Inn in South Hill to wait out the repair job.