When you have a flat tire, you may not want to fix it yourself. You can call most tow truck companies to have someone come out and change the tire for you. It’s not cheap, but if you are not sure what to do or are wearing nice clothes that you can’t afford to get dirty…
The tow truck driver will use your spare tire and possibly your car jack to replace the flat tire. If you don’t have a spare, you may be facing a tow to a service station or car repair shop. If you end up having to be towed, you might need to consider which type of tow truck you may need.
When you think of a tow truck, you most likely think of the type of truck (seen in the picture above) called a wrecker, which uses a winch and chains hooked to the underside of your car to lift two wheels off of the ground.
The second type of tow truck also lifts your car by two wheels but uses a hydraulic arm to scoop up and secure the wheels rather than hooking to the underside of the car. Both of these types of tow trucks work well if you have a front-wheel drive and not too long of a distance to tow your car.
The third type is known as a flatbed and it pulls the entire car onto it’s bed as seen in the picture to the right.
This type of tow truck is a better way to transport your car in many situations and is absolutely necessary if you have a 4-wheel drive vehicle.
Here is a good article on this: 5 Towing Situations that Require a Flatbed for towing your car or SUV.
When calling for a tow truck, the company should ask you several questions before agreeing to tow your car.
- What year, make and model of car is being towed?
- What type of problem are you having? Accident, flat tire, stuck, etc.
- Where is it being towed? To your home, a shop or the dealership.
- Do you have insurance that covers repairs and towing? If not, how will you be paying?
If YOU DIDN’T CALL for a tow truck… please be very careful – there are unscrupulous operators out there who will seem to just want to help but are actually scam artists who will cost you a ton of money.
See the following news video report on Tow Truck Scams.
Conclusion: Final cost for a tow truck can be pretty expensive. Even with insurance, you may have to pay $50-$100 or more if you exceed the allowed towing distance or have a co-pay fee for changing the tire.