Bad News - the Engine is Blown

We received a call the following day. The service guiy said ":I have terrible news. Your engine in blown. There is no compression at all on the #8 cylinder and she's leaking oil. Basically you will need to replace the engine - which will cost you about $5000."

I sat down and said I'd have to call him after we looked at our options and that a $5,000 engine replacement was clearly not one of them.

I took the family to lunch and we all had a very rational discussion as to our next plan of action.

There were two basic paths to follow:

a) fix the truck
b) rent a box truck and unload the truck and trailer into it
c) rent a vehicle capable of towing the trailer
d) buy another vehicle capable of towing the trailer

TODO - add details of the analysis here