Need a tow? 24/7 towing in Boulder, CO
Wheel-lift and flatbed towing. Winch-outs from snowbanks and ditches. Battery jumps, tire swaps, fuel runs, lockouts. Day or night, from Pearl Street up the canyon and out to the plains towns.
A Boulder towing call starts with where you are
Boulder Towing Company never closes. Four facts start the job: your location, the car, the fault, the drop-off. They settle wheel-lift or flatbed. They fix one price. They set the arrival window too, and you hear both in the same conversation.
Arrival times vary too much to post. A Martin Acres side street is one drive. The Diagonal at Jay Road is another. A snowbank halfway up Boulder Canyon is a third. You get the window by phone, once we know which one it is.
What we need to hear
- Location. Street and nearest corner. The parking lot's name. On a highway: your heading and the interchange you came through. In the canyon, a landmark or mile marker.
- Year, make and model, and whether it is all-wheel drive, four-wheel drive or electric. That answer decides which tow truck leaves.
- Symptom. Quit running. Crash. Buried in snow or down in a ditch. A flat. A battery gone dead. Doors locked, keys inside.
- Delivery point. Your mechanic, a dealer or home. Not sure yet? Tell us that too.
Wheel-lift, flatbed, or just a fix
A car or pickup driven by two wheels usually gets the wheel-lift. A cradle lifts the driven axle. Straps lock those tires in. The free axle rolls behind. This is our compact tow truck. It fits a tight garage on The Hill or a narrow block off Pearl. It is wrong for anything low.
Deck duty: AWD, 4WD and EVs, plus any car too damaged to roll. The rollback's bed angles down to street level, and the winch hauls the car onto it. From pickup to drop-off, its wheels never touch asphalt. Subaru's 2020 Legacy guide says incorrect towing can harm the AWD system and points owners to a flatbed. Tesla's Model 3 manual agrees. The details are on flatbed towing for Subarus, Teslas and other AWD cars.
Often nothing gets towed. Cold is hard on batteries: by AAA's figures, 32°F takes about 35 percent off a battery's strength and 0°F about 60 percent. Batteries that only click, tires ripped on curbs, tanks run dry, fobs locked in on the front seat: all of it is roadside help for batteries, flats, fuel and lockouts. A car that neither starts nor moves needs Boulder emergency towing.
Both types of rig are light-duty. Sedans, wagons, SUVs, vans, pickups and motorcycles are their range. On board: dollies, a winch, straps, chocks. Anything heavier we decline during the call, and no rig rolls for it.
Free quote
Boulder breakdowns sort into five tow truck jobs
Match your problem to a card. Behind each: our equipment for that job, what pushes the quote up or down, and the line between a curbside repair and a hookup.
Emergency towing
Wrecks and dead engines, midnight included: US 36, CO 119, CO 93, the Diagonal, any block in town.
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Roadside assistance
Frozen battery? Shredded tire? Dry tank? Keys inside? We sort it at the car, and you keep driving.
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Flatbed towing
The deck carries AWD, 4WD, EVs, low cars and non-rollers. Nothing spins on the road.
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Winch-outs
Plow ridge, ditch, canyon pullout. Most cars come out on the cable and drive away. The broken ones ride the deck.
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Tow prices
Colorado's PUC caps police and private-lot tows under 4 CCR 723-6. Your own tow gets a phone quote. Here is how it adds up.
Learn moreBoulder has one turnpike in, one canyon out and a lot of wind
The city stands at 5,430 feet, right where the plains run into the Front Range. US 36 is the road in from Denver. It has been the Denver-Boulder Turnpike since January 1952. On the south side it meets Foothills Parkway. It passes the CU campus as an expressway to the Baseline Road interchange. Then it turns into 28th Street, four lanes through town.
Still rolling? Steer for the shoulder, flashers blinking. Everyone climbs out on the shoulder side, then over the rail or up the embankment. Then phone us. Dead in a moving lane? 911 comes first. Seat belts stay on and flashers keep going. Our hookup waits until the lane behind you is shut. C.R.S. 42-4-705, Colorado's Move Over law, obliges passing traffic to vacate the lane beside a stopped car or slow down. Do not count on it.
CO 119 up the canyon
Canyon Boulevard leaves downtown and becomes CO 119. It follows Boulder Creek up Boulder Canyon for 15 miles to Nederland, 8,235 feet up, on grades as steep as 10 percent. CDOT scaled loose rock during the rebuild after the 2013 flood. The road still closes. On April 27-28, 2021, five boulders the size of trucks came down at the Narrows near mile point 32, and traffic detoured over CO 72. Slide off the shoulder up there and the winch goes on before any hook: winch-outs from Boulder Canyon shoulders.
Golden one way, Longmont the other
Broadway is CO 93 in town. South of the city it runs 18.8 miles to Golden, through wind country. NCAR clocked a 137 mph Chinook gust in the January 1982 windstorm. On December 30, 2021, the day of the Marshall Fire, gusts hit 115 mph at Highways 93 and 72. CO 119 comes back as the Diagonal Highway. It leaves 28th Street and runs as an expressway from Foothills Parkway to Longmont and I-25, exit 240. Then there is parking. CU Boulder enrolled 38,808 students in fall 2025. The campus lots, The Hill along 13th Street, the downtown lots off Pearl Street and the Table Mesa Park-n-Ride on US 36 are where we find the dead batteries, lockouts and tight-quarters tows.
Upslope snow
NOAA's 1991-2020 normal for a Boulder snow season is 89.71 inches. The heavy storms are upslope ones, Gulf moisture driven up the face of the Front Range. The March 13-14, 2021 storm left 15 to 20.7 inches in town and drifts seven feet high. After a storm the phone fills with Shanahan Ridge driveway slide-offs, cars sunk to the headlights in drifts, and cars the plow sealed against the curb. The traction law, C.R.S. 42-4-106, is automatic on I-70 from September 1 to May 31. On US 36, CO 93 and CO 119 it applies only once CDOT activates it and the signs are up. Then an AWD or 4WD car needs winter, all-weather or M+S tires with 3/16-inch tread, or chains. Break it and you face fines and surcharges, and more if you block a lane.
A Boulder tow is priced on the phone, not at the curb
You get one number by phone. The tow truck leaves once you accept it, and the bill matches it. Only a surprise on arrival changes it. A car described as a front-drive sedan shows a Subaru AWD badge. A reported flat is really a car axle-deep in a snowy ditch. Then we stop and reprice. The extra work waits for your yes.
State caps exist, but only for tows nobody requested. Under 4 CCR 723-6 the Public Utilities Commission sets rate ceilings for nonconsensual tows: impounds from private property and tows police order. Calling us yourself makes the tow consensual. You pay the figure you agreed to, and the carrier must still disclose every rate and charge first, estimated mileage and storage included. Our price page lists the PUC's figures.
Three things move it
- Distance. Loaded miles, pickup to drop-off.
- Deck or wheel-lift. Flatbed for AWD, EVs and non-rollers. Wheel-lift for everything else.
- Scene time. A quick hookup on dry pavement, or winching, a snatch block or dollies first.
Each line item is explained in the Boulder cost breakdown.
Five Boulder ZIP codes, then out to Golden, Lyons and Nederland
The 2020 Census counted 108,250 people in Boulder, on 26.33 square miles. The five ZIP codes: 80301 for Gunbarrel and the northeast, 80302 for downtown, 80303 east, 80304 north, 80305 south. We cover every one. Downtown and Pearl Street. The Hill and campus. Chautauqua below the Flatirons. Table Mesa, Martin Acres and Shanahan Ridge in South Boulder. And Gunbarrel, an unincorporated community of 9,554 northeast of town.
Out of town, the distances below are approximate driving miles from Boulder, canyon included. The farther the town, the higher the quote:
- Gunbarrel: 7 miles
- Superior: 8 miles
- Niwot: 9 miles
- Louisville: 9 miles
- Lafayette: 11 miles
- Broomfield: 13 miles
- Erie: 14 miles
- Longmont: 15 to 16 miles
- Lyons: 16 miles
- Nederland: 17 miles, top of the canyon
- Golden: 20 miles
- Denver: about 30 miles. The airport: about 42
Farther than Golden or Lyons? Worth a call. We take some of those runs and pass on others, and the mileage cost comes with the answer.
Frequently asked questions
Tow truck in Boulder at 2 a.m. - anyone answering?
Yes. Boulder Towing Company keeps no office hours, and 2 a.m. carries no night rate. Arrival depends on the drive, and the canyon, the Turnpike and a Table Mesa side street are three different trips. So the window comes once we know your location.
Colorado tow price caps - do they cover my Boulder tow?
Only if someone else ordered it. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission caps rates under 4 CCR 723-6 for nonconsensual tows, meaning private-property impounds and tows ordered by law enforcement. A tow you request is consensual. The charge is whatever figure you accept, and the carrier must disclose all rates and charges first, estimated mileage and storage among them.
Boulder Towing Company's own number comes by phone, all in. Miles, wheel-lift versus flatbed, scene time and any winching before hookup shape it.
Boulder street parking, car vanished. Which yard has it?
Boulder Police dispatch keeps that record. Call the non-emergency number, 303-441-3333, to learn the towing company and where the car is kept. On unincorporated county roads, outside city limits, ask the Boulder County Sheriff at 303-441-4444 instead.
A private-property tow falls under Colorado's Towing Bill of Rights. The carrier has 10 days to notify you. It must hand back your personal property when you ask. It must also release the car for a capped partial payment, with the balance settled later.
Does a Subaru or a Tesla always ride the flatbed with you?
Flatbed only, at Boulder Towing Company. Every AWD, 4WD or electric car we move rides the deck, not its own wheels. Subaru's 2020 Legacy guide says incorrect towing can damage the AWD system and recommends a flatbed. Tesla's Model 3 manual puts the flatbed first and treats rotating tires in transit as a hazard. So make and drivetrain come up early on every call.
Lyons, Nederland, Erie - too far for you?
No. Boulder Towing Company covers every Boulder neighborhood and runs to Gunbarrel (7 miles), Superior (8), Niwot (9), Louisville (9), Lafayette (11), Broomfield (13), Erie (14), Longmont (15 to 16), Lyons (16), Nederland (17) and Golden (20). Denver is about 30 miles and the airport about 42. All are approximate road miles. Past those, the quote grows with the mileage; give us the address and you hear it.
Calling from a Boulder street or the canyon? Open with these
They fix the price and decide the equipment.
- Street or highway: the corner, the lot, or the interchange you last cleared
- Model and drive: make, year, and which wheels do the driving
- What failed: no start, crashed, snowbound, flat tire or lockout
- Delivery point: your garage, a dealership or a mechanic; unsure is fine