tow truckAfter my rant about service, this isn’t guaranteed by a long shot, but it’s there for an emergency and one more source of info. Flat tire? Dead battery? Need a tow? In a strange area? Go to truckdown.com. Their website can be accessed by cell phones and other small screens.

I had to get a steer tire put on after I ran over a pallet in a parking lot. I thought I was going to miss it, but hit the corner just right and it sliced the sidewall. I’ve done dumber stuff, but at least not lately.

My first source for emergency service is the book that lists all the truck stops. It has phone numbers and lets you know if the truck stop has road service or a garage or a number of other facilities.

My next stop is getting online and searching the online yellow pages and even google maps.

I found this service truck by asking one of the truck stops close-by. Just by luck it was a good choice. He was a two truck operation, nice guy and he asked me how I found him, then he told me about truckdown.com saying he spent a bunch of money to be listed and advertise on there. This guy seemed honest and for a steer tire on a service call, it was a decent price.

You have to be careful when calling road service. Some of the bigger companies will say they will be there in an hour when they really meant to say, all of their trucks are out and busy. It’s a tough call when you’re in a strange town or worse, in the middle of nowhere.