Need a tow? Flatbed towing in Boulder, CO
A driveline that must not turn needs a deck. Subarus, Teslas, lowered cars, classics and motorcycles get one from our flatbed tow truck, around town or up Boulder Canyon, any hour.
Every Boulder flatbed call turns on which wheels drive the car
When no wheel may turn on the pavement, we send the flatbed. AWD wagons, EVs, lowered cars, classics, motorcycles, and crash-damaged cars that neither roll nor steer all qualify. Boulder Towing Company runs through a short list of questions first, and the replies choose between deck and wheel-lift.
The questions: make, model, year. AWD, 4WD, EV, hybrid, lowered or motorcycle. Free-rolling or locked? Steering or stuck? Where now, where to? A front-drive trim and an AWD trim of one model share the same body; only one of them can ride a wheel-lift. In a garage we also need the clearance overhead and how steep the ramp out is.
Car stopped in traffic, or on the US 36 or Diagonal shoulder? Open with that fact. The call becomes a highway emergency tow and gets routed and staged differently. C.R.S. 42-4-705, the Move Over law, requires passing drivers to give a stopped tow truck a lane or slow down. We set up expecting drivers to ignore it.
Price and arrival window come by phone, at any hour. A 3 a.m. flatbed costs the same as a noon one; Boulder Towing Company never closes. Upslope snow stretches the window.
Loading starts with the camera: we photograph the car. The rollback backs in square to it and tilts its deck down. The cable attaches at the recovery points or around two tires, and the winch walks the car up slowly. Deck flat, a strap on every tire, and off it goes.
Miles, canyon grades and loading time set a Boulder flatbed price
A flatbed you order is, in Colorado's terms, a consensual tow. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission, under 4 CCR 723-6, caps rates only on nonconsensual tows: impounds from private property and tows the police order. You owe the amount you accepted. State law still makes us disclose every rate and charge, mileage included. We add it up for you, up front.
Mileage leads. A car moved from Martin Acres to a 28th Street garage stays local. Superior at 8 miles, Louisville at 9, Longmont about 16, Golden about 20 and Denver about 30 carry per-mile pricing. Nederland is just 17 miles away, but every one of them climbs Boulder Canyon at up to 10 percent. The price reflects the road, not the map.
Delivery terms add minutes. Dealers with key-drop rules, a body shop behind a locked gate, a narrow block with no space to tilt the deck, a late-night drop: we price the extra time into the quote.
Then loading. Free-rolling with working steering, a car comes aboard on one smooth draw of the winch. If not, because the steering is locked, a brake has seized or the parking pawl is jammed on a slope, the stuck corner rides on dollies, a cost we name up front. A car in a plow berm, or down the bank on Sugarloaf Road, gets pulled back to the road by winch before loading, and that pull carries its own price.
Winter can reroute us. A posted traction law on US 36 or CO 119, or a canyon closure after rockfall, changes the route and the clock. Our flatbed pricing by mile and route page has more, plus the state maximums for nonconsensual tows.
Four kinds of Boulder vehicle never touch our wheel-lift
Subarus and other AWD cars
Lift one end of an AWD car and leave the other on the street, and the turning tires force the entire driveline to move, because the center differential couples front to rear. Subaru's 2020 Legacy guide explains that since its all-wheel drive sends power to every wheel, the wrong kind of tow can damage the system, and it recommends a flatbed truck. AAA likewise names the flatbed as the right tow for AWD and 4WD vehicles.
There is an irony here. When CDOT posts the traction law on a Boulder-area highway, an AWD or 4WD car may pass on winter, all-weather or M+S tires with 3/16 inch of tread or more. The drivetrain that qualifies you in a storm is the one a wheel-lift would harm. AWD means the deck.
Teslas, EVs and hybrids
Tesla ranks the flatbed first in its Model 3 manual. Spinning tires in transit are off-limits there, with serious damage and overheating as the stated risk. Dollies under a wheel-lift get a 35-mile ceiling, and the warranty excludes harm from a botched transport. In Tow Mode the brake stays disengaged while the cable pulls, and the wheels may creep, under 5 mph, for something short of 30 feet. So we ask: does the car still power up? Hybrids and plug-ins ride the deck too.
Low cars and classics
A slammed car or a long-nosed classic sits too low for a boom to get under the bumper, and steep loading ramps scrape it. AAA's own comparison marks the wheel-lift down for classics, exotics and luxury models and prefers the deck for anything riding low. Clearance is the whole problem, so we plan the approach. The rollback parks downhill of the car and the deck drops to its flattest setting. On a pitched driveway a plank goes under the ramp's edge. One person runs the winch at a crawl, another watches the spoiler. Only tire straps touch the car; J-hooks stay in the box.
Motorcycles, strapped upright
The bike stands upright, front tire locked in a chock. Four straps hold it: two up front pulling ahead, two at the back pulling rearward, the arrangement U-Haul recommends so a bike cannot shift. Soft extenders take the hooks, never the handlebars, which U-Haul describes as too weak and flexible for it. Straps stay off brake lines and wiring. We squeeze the suspension down without bottoming it, since that hurts the forks, then even out the tension, lock the ratchets and tie off the tails.
Short hops can take the wheel-lift; Denver runs take the deck
Sometimes the deck is overkill. AAA's advice for a front-driver is to lift the end that pulls and let the back follow on its own tires. Our smaller wheel-lift truck handles a Martin Acres car bound for an Arapahoe Avenue garage in short order, and it fits tight alleys and low parking structures.
Then there are dollies: a pair of small wheeled cradles under the unlifted axle so no tire turns. Two cases call for them. A front-drive car with its nose caved in must come up by the tail. And an EV sometimes sits where a flatbed cannot get in; Tesla allows 35 miles on dollies, no more.
Often the car needs no ride at all. Cold is why: by AAA's figures, cranking strength drops roughly 35 percent at 32°F and 60 percent at 0°F, enough for a 12-volt to die overnight. Flats with healthy spares and empty tanks round out the list. Those get roadside fixes for batteries, spares and fuel instead of a tow truck.
Denver, Nederland and farther
For distance, the deck is mandatory. Thirty miles on a wheel-lift is thirty miles of wear on one axle; on the deck it is zero. Denver, about 30 miles down US 36, is a flatbed trip. So are Nederland, 17 miles up Boulder Canyon on grades up to 10 percent, and Eldora at 21, for another reason too: a car strapped to the deck ignores the grade and the snowpack. Mileage sets that price, and you get a drop-off window along with it.
Shop drop-offs
We ring the shop before we arrive. Some dealers want keys in a drop box, some body shops want the car in a certain bay; we follow their rules. Our photos from pickup and drop-off go in the job file.
Keep the key, or the phone that acts as one, within reach; the driver needs the doors open and the car awake. Leave the shifter and the brake alone until you are asked, because a freed car on a grade rolls. Neutral and Tow Mode wait for the driver's word. Clear out sunglasses, bags and the garage clicker first.
The deck goes to Boulder streets, US 36 and the mountain roads
In town the flatbed goes everywhere. Gunbarrel and the 80301 side. The Pearl Street blocks from 11th to 15th. The Hill along 13th Street. Chautauqua below the Flatirons. South through Table Mesa, Martin Acres and Shanahan Ridge to the Table Mesa Park-n-Ride. And the through routes: US 36 and 28th Street, Broadway as CO 93, Canyon Boulevard as CO 119, the Diagonal toward Longmont.
Then the mountain roads. Flagstaff Road winds 9 miles up to Gross Reservoir through hairpins. Magnolia Road averages 9.1 percent, with inside corners at 25 percent, before the pavement gives way to dirt. CO 119 has closed for rockfall, as in April 2021, when five boulders the size of trucks fell at the Narrows. Off the road on any of them, you need a winch before the deck. Whether a light-duty flatbed can reach you is something we answer on the phone.
Nearby towns get the flatbed too. Gunbarrel, about 7 miles. Superior, 8. Niwot and Louisville, 9. Lafayette, 11. Broomfield, 13. Erie, 14. Longmont, 15 to 16 up the Diagonal. Lyons, 16 on US 36. Nederland, 17 up the canyon. Golden, 20. Denver, about 30. Denver International Airport, about 42. Figures are downtown to downtown; billing follows the road the tow truck really drives.
Two kinds of pickup repeat all winter. One is a car parked through a CU Boulder break (38,808 students in fall 2025) or through a February storm, the month Boulder's snowfall peaks at 14.78 inches, now with a battery no jump can revive. The other is a car at a US 36 Park-n-Ride. Name the lot; a row number helps.
Frequently asked questions
Why won't you tow my Subaru on a wheel-lift?
In an AWD car the center differential couples both ends of the drivetrain. Let one axle ride on the road and the entire system spins with it. Subaru's 2020 Legacy guide says the wrong kind of tow can damage its AWD system and recommends a flatbed. Every AWD or 4WD vehicle Boulder Towing Company moves gets the deck for that reason.
Can a Tesla with a black screen be towed out of a Boulder garage?
Yes, on the deck, where Tesla's Model 3 manual wants it: that manual rules out moving the car on spinning tires and caps dolly towing at 35 miles. A car that still wakes goes into Tow Mode, which keeps the brake off for the winch. A car that stays dark needs a mention on the phone, with make and model, so the driver arrives ready.
Motorcycle dead on a Flagstaff Road hairpin. Who hauls bikes?
We do. Motorcycles go on the deck only; AAA gives the wheel-lift poor marks for bikes, and Boulder Towing Company agrees. The bike stands in a front-wheel chock with four straps, two pulling forward and two pulling back, hooked through soft extenders instead of the handlebars and tightened short of bottoming the suspension. On Flagstaff Road, tell us which hairpin you are near.
Can you flatbed my car from Boulder to Denver?
Yes. Denver, about 30 miles down US 36, is a flatbed run Boulder Towing Company makes, and so are Golden, Nederland and points past them. Local tows cover Boulder County. Past the county, we price by the mile and tell you the number first, and canyon grades or a posted traction law add time. Because you asked for the tow, it is consensual: you pay the figure you approved, not the PUC's cap for nonconsensual tows.
Slammed car, low front splitter. How do you load it?
Carefully, and never on the wheel-lift: AAA's comparison ranks that rig low for classics, exotics and luxury cars, and Boulder Towing Company keeps slammed, vintage and low-clearance cars off it. We tilt the deck to its flattest, slide boards under the ramp edge on a sloped driveway, winch at a crawl, and strap the tires. Nothing hooks the frame.
Booking the deck in Boulder? We need this first
You get a total during the same call.
- Build and drivetrain: year, make, model; flag AWD, EV, a slammed ride or two wheels
- What still works: rolling, steering, and for an EV, powering on
- Where it waits: street corner, lot and space number, or highway and interchange
- Final address: your mechanic, a dealer lot, home, or somewhere past Boulder