Most roadside calls never need a tow
A dead battery, a locked door, a flat tire, an empty tank. If that is all it is, Wimberley Towing sends a roadside technician rather than a wrecker, and the call usually ends with you driving away under your own power. We keep two roadside technicians on the team for exactly this, and it is almost always the cheapest call you can make.
The reason roadside assistance matters more out here than it does in a city is distance. A stall on Ranch Road 12, or on Highway 290 west of Dripping Springs, is a long way from anywhere. Waiting two hours for a tow truck that then turns out not to have the right equipment is how a twenty minute problem becomes an afternoon.
Jump starts
A dead battery is the single most common roadside call we get. If you left the lights on, left a door ajar, or the car sat for a fortnight, a jump start gets you moving and there is no tow to pay for at all. Drive it for twenty minutes afterwards so the alternator can put something back, and get the battery tested soon.
If the engine turns over slowly, dies again within minutes, or the car was fine yesterday and is completely dead today, the battery may be at the end of its life or the alternator may not be charging. We will get you off the shoulder either way, and we will tell you honestly on scene that it is likely to happen again rather than let you find out tomorrow. See jump start service.
Flat tires
Changing a wheel is not complicated. Doing it on a narrow shoulder on I-35 through Kyle, with traffic passing a metre from your back at seventy miles an hour, is genuinely dangerous, and that is the real argument for calling rather than kneeling beside a live lane. Caliche shoulders and soft verges are also exactly where a scissor jack sinks or tips.
Plenty of newer cars ship with an inflator kit instead of a spare, and a sidewall tear will not seal. If there is nothing to fit, the car goes on a deck to a tire shop instead, and dispatch will tell you that up front rather than send a technician who cannot help. See flat tire change.
Keys locked in the car
Keys on the driver seat with the doors locked. Keys in the boot. Engine running in a car park. It happens constantly and nobody on our team is going to make you feel stupid about it. We use purpose-made tools on the door rather than force on the glass, because a modern car has side airbags in the door and wiring in the pillar. We are not going to break your window.
If there is a child or a pet locked in the car, say so the moment you call. In a Texas summer the inside of a locked vehicle gets dangerous quickly, and that call stops being a routine unlock. If it is already serious, call 911 first. See car lockout service.
Out of fuel
In a city, running dry is embarrassing. On US 281 through Blanco County, or on the 290 run between Dripping Springs and Johnson City, it means you are a long way from a pump with no footpath and no shade. We bring enough to get you to a station.
If you have put the wrong fuel in, do not start the engine and do not turn the key. If it has not run, the fuel is sitting in the tank and it is a drain and a clean. If it has run, it is through the pump and the lines and it becomes a workshop job. Leaving it switched off is the single most useful thing you can do. See fuel delivery.
What to tell dispatch
Three things, and they decide everything about what happens next:
- Where you are. A mile marker, a cross street, or a landmark. On the corridors, tell us your direction of travel as well.
- What you are driving. Make, and whether it is loaded. It changes which truck we send.
- Whether you are somewhere safe. On the shoulder, in a live lane, or off the road entirely. That last answer changes how fast we come and what we bring.
When roadside turns into a tow
Sometimes the jump does not take, the tire is shredded rather than flat, or the car will not start for a reason no amount of cable will fix. The same company that came out can put it on a deck, so you are not making a second call to a second business. See towing services.
And if the vehicle has left the pavement, it is a winch job rather than a lift, which is off-road recovery.
Where we run
Three yards, in Wimberley, Kyle, and Blanco. The Kyle yard sits on I-35, which is the corridor that produces most of our roadside calls, and it puts Kyle, Buda, and San Marcos within a short run. The Wimberley yard on Ranch Road 12 covers the back roads, and the Blanco yard covers the US 281 corridor.
Wimberley Towing has been family owned since 2015 and our drivers are WreckMaster certified. Dispatch answers 24 hours a day at (512) 375-1215.