Need a tow? 24/7 towing in Thousand Oaks, CA
A car dead on the 101, a flat on Kanan Road, keys locked in at a trailhead: wheel-lift and flatbed tows, winch-outs, jump starts and fuel across Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and Westlake, at any hour.
Stranded in Thousand Oaks: the details that choose the tow truck
Your car has stopped somewhere between Newbury Park and Westlake, and it has to move. The quickest way to a tow truck is a call that covers four details - your position, the car, what stopped it and where it ends up - because Thousand Oaks Tow Truck cannot pick the equipment, price the job or name an arrival window without them. Cover them and you have all three before anything leaves, day or night; the arrival window is never printed here, since traffic and the hour change it.
Four details for the dispatcher
- Your position. A street with its cross street, the name of the lot, or the freeway plus your direction and exit number.
- Year, make and model, and how power reaches the road: front-drive, rear-drive, all-wheel, four-wheel or electric. The wheel-lift or flatbed choice follows from it.
- What stopped it. A breakdown, a collision, wheels off the shoulder, a flat, a battery that is dead, or keys shut inside.
- Where it ends up - your shop, a dealer, home, or undecided; if undecided, we agree on it before anything is hooked up.
The wheel-lift and the flatbed
Picture a front-wheel-drive sedan stalled at the curb on Hillcrest Drive, or a light pickup that drives only two wheels. Either one goes on the wheel-lift: a cradle slides under the driven tires and raises them, while the other pair keeps rolling on the road. Hooking up takes little time, and this shorter tow truck squeezes into curbside gaps and tight lots that would defeat the longer deck.
The flatbed handles the rest. Its deck tips down until the edge meets the pavement, the winch pulls the car up onto it, and the car makes the entire trip with its tires off the road - the only acceptable method for anything all-wheel drive, four-wheel drive or electric, and for any car that sits low or cannot roll. Why the carmakers insist on it is explained on our flatbed page for AWD cars and EVs.
We run light-duty tow trucks - cars, SUVs, pickups, vans and motorcycles - and if a job is beyond a light-duty tow truck's rating we say so on the phone.
Plenty of callers drive away without a tow. Thousand Oaks has recorded 119 degrees, and AAA ranks heat as the leading cause of battery failure, so the sedan that stays silent in The Oaks mall lot in August usually leaves on a jump pack. Cut tires, dry tanks and keys locked inside get the same kind of visit, all covered on the page for roadside assistance in Thousand Oaks. Only when our attempt at the car fails does the job turn into a 24-hour emergency tow.
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Whatever stopped the car: the five services our Thousand Oaks tow trucks cover
Each card opens a page built around one kind of trouble, with the gear we bring for it, how it is priced, and whether a fix at the curb could save you the tow.
Emergency towing, day or night
When the car quits or crashes - on the 101, the 23, Kanan Road or a side street, at 2 p.m. or 2 a.m. - a tow truck comes, and the arrival window is stated by phone.
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Roadside assistance at the curb
Dead battery, flat tire, empty tank or locked door: fixed where the car sits, so you drive it home yourself.
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Flatbed towing, nothing turning
Electric cars, all-wheel and four-wheel drives, lowered cars, motorcycles and wrecks that will not roll ride the deck with every tire in the air.
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Winch-out and canyon recovery
Two wheels over a canyon edge, a car sunk in a dirt turnout, a ditch: the winch cable brings it back to the asphalt slowly, and many cars drive off afterward.
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Towing prices explained
Where a towing quote comes from, and what a tow yard may bill when a lot owner or an officer called the tow truck.
Learn moreThe Conejo Grade, the canyon roads and the trailhead lots: where Thousand Oaks cars stop
Picture a car losing power past Wendy Drive on the way to Camarillo. US 101, the Ventura Freeway, runs through the city from exit 40 at Westlake Boulevard to exit 47C at Wendy Drive, and past that last exit comes the Conejo Grade: a 7 percent climb to an 841-foot summit, CHP truck scales at the top on each side, and nowhere to leave the freeway until Camarillo Springs Road. A stall there means loading from the shoulder while big rigs labor past.
Two situations, two different moves. If the car died where traffic is still passing and cannot coast out, the safest place is your seat, belt fastened and flashers going, and the first call goes to 911; our tow truck works the scene only once the CHP holds that lane. If the car can still creep, nurse it onto the shoulder, flashers on, and get everybody out through the doors facing away from the lanes and back from the traffic before phoning anyone. California's Move Over law tells drivers to switch lanes, or ease off, when they come up on a tow truck parked with its amber lights going, but plan your wait as if they will not.
Two canyon routes head south to the ocean. SR 23 leaves the 101 in both directions: northward it is the Moorpark Freeway, where traffic goes whenever the Grade is shut; southward it is Westlake Boulevard for roughly two miles, then Decker Canyon Road, a steep, twisting descent through the Santa Monica Mountains to Pacific Coast Highway. Kanan Road, which also begins at Westlake Boulevard, runs 19 miles to PCH through three tunnels, tops out at 1,800 feet and is Malibu's primary evacuation route.
When an SUV slips two wheels into the brush beside a canyon shoulder, a pickup settles into the loose dirt of a turnout, or a car bogs down in mud after one of the storms that bring the valley its 17.35 inches of rain a year, the fix is a winch-out on the canyon roads: a slow cable pull back onto the pavement, with a tow only when the car cannot drive.
Hours in a trailhead lot
A hiker returns at 3 p.m. to a silent engine, or to keys in plain sight on the seat. The Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency manages about 12,400 acres around the city with more than 150 miles of trail, and its trailhead lots hold cars in the sun for hours: Wildwood Regional Park's 58 stalls at the west end of Avenida de los Arboles, closed at dusk, and Los Robles at the south end of Moorpark Road. A dome light left on or a locked door is nearly always fixed on the spot.
When a Santa Ana brings fire
Some days the road itself is gone. A Santa Ana is a strong, hot wind off the inland deserts that carries dust, and in the Conejo Valley it means fire weather. On November 8, 2018, the Hill Fire shut the 101 in both directions between Wendy Drive and Pleasant Valley Road and pushed traffic onto the 23; the Woolsey Fire broke out that same afternoon and burned 96,949 acres and 1,643 structures. A closure of that kind stretches every arrival window that depends on the route.
Ordering your own tow in Thousand Oaks: how the price gets settled
You hear the price before anything moves. Thousand Oaks Tow Truck sets one total for the job on the call, and no tow truck is sent until you have it. Occasionally the car we find is not the car you described: the 'front-wheel-drive' hatchback wears an AWD badge, or the 'flat tire' turns out to be two wheels in the dirt. Then work stops, you hear the revised total and the reason for it, and nothing more happens until you agree.
Four inputs set the total: the time we spend at the scene, any winching or other labor before the car is hooked up, the choice of flatbed or wheel-lift, and the miles. A run from Westlake to a shop on Thousand Oaks Boulevard and one from a Kanan Road turnout to a Woodland Hills dealer differ on distance alone; each factor is set out in what shapes a Thousand Oaks towing quote.
State law leaves the price of a tow you request alone and saves its rules for tows other people order. Picture a car hauled off a Thousand Oaks apartment lot: Vehicle Code section 22658 caps that bill at the local law-enforcement or CHP-approved rate, halves it if the owner shows up while the car is hooked but not yet gone, keeps the storage yard within 10 miles, and charges just one day of storage when the car leaves inside 24 hours. The CHP keeps the rates it approves unpublished, which is why this site shows no dollar amounts.
Section 22651.07 applies no matter who towed the car: you are owed an itemized invoice before paying, and your belongings back, free, whenever the yard is open for normal business.
From Newbury Park to Oak Park: the towns our Thousand Oaks tow trucks reach
We cover every neighborhood of Thousand Oaks - Newbury Park including Dos Vientos and Rancho Conejo, Westlake on the Ventura County shore of the lake, North Ranch, Lang Ranch and Wildwood - along with Lynn Ranch and Oak Park just past the city limits. That is Ventura County's second-largest city: 126,966 residents at the 2020 Census, 55 square miles of the Conejo Valley, and ZIP codes 91320, 91360, 91361 and 91362.
Rough road miles from central Thousand Oaks:
- Westlake Village, roughly 3 miles
- Newbury Park, roughly 5 miles
- Agoura Hills, roughly 5 miles
- Oak Park, roughly 10 miles
- Simi Valley, roughly 10 miles
- Moorpark, roughly 11 miles
- Camarillo, roughly 13 miles
- Calabasas, roughly 13 miles
- Woodland Hills, roughly 15 miles
- Malibu, roughly 18 miles
- Oxnard, roughly 21 miles
- Ventura, roughly 29 miles
- LAX, roughly 41 miles
Kanan Road or Decker Canyon leads to Malibu, the 23 and the 118 to Moorpark and Simi Valley, and the Conejo Grade to Camarillo, Oxnard and Ventura, so shutting any one of those routes changes how soon we can arrive.
A town missing from this list is not automatically out of range. Call and ask: a job we can take is priced by the mile, and one we cannot is declined on that first call, before any waiting.
Frequently asked questions
Do you answer calls in the middle of the night?
Thousand Oaks Tow Truck answers at 3 a.m. as at any other hour, and a call then is quoted and handled exactly like one at lunchtime. How soon we reach you depends on your location and on how the 101 is flowing, so the arrival window comes by phone, never as a minute count printed on this site. The Freeway Service Patrol covers the 101 only in weekday commute hours and never takes a car to a shop or a home; every other hour belongs to private tow companies like ours.
Does California fix the price of a tow?
California leaves the price of your own tow to you and the company. With no state price list to follow, Thousand Oaks Tow Truck builds one total per job by phone. It weighs four inputs: the truck type your car requires, the mileage to the drop-off, our minutes on scene and any winching beforehand. The Vehicle Code steps in only when someone else orders the tow, and it sets rules rather than prices. Off private property, a charge above the local law-enforcement or CHP-approved rate is excessive; catching the car while it sits on the hook but still inside the lot cuts what you owe to half at most; and a car out of the yard within 24 hours pays one day of storage.
Where are Thousand Oaks tows recorded?
Call the Thousand Oaks Police Department's business line, (805) 494-8200, or go to the station at 2101 East Olsen Road. Deputies of the Ventura County Sheriff police the city under contract, their tows are logged at that station, and section 22658 requires a company towing from private property to report to local law enforcement as well - so one number covers both kinds.
At the yard you are owed an itemized invoice before paying and your belongings back at no charge during business hours. A police impound adds one more cost, an administrative release fee the City sets, billed on top of the yard's charges. To challenge a police tow, ask for a post-storage hearing no later than 10 days after the notice.
What do carmakers say about towing AWD cars and EVs?
Carmakers say to keep them off the wheel-lift, and Thousand Oaks Tow Truck keeps all three kinds - all-wheel drive, four-wheel drive and electric - off it and away from dollies. Power reaches every wheel on the first two and comes from motors on the third. Subaru's manual forbids towing its all-wheel-drive models with the front pair up and the rear pair rolling, or the reverse; a Nissan service bulletin says dollies harm the drivetrain on its 4WD and AWD automatics; and Tesla points Model 3 owners to a flatbed as the preferred transport. That is why the drivetrain is one of our first questions on the phone.
Where does your service area end?
Thousand Oaks Tow Truck runs as far as Ventura, about 29 road miles along the 101, and farther by arrangement. Inside the city we cover everything from Newbury Park to Westlake, plus Lynn Ranch and Oak Park. Rough distances to the towns around us: Westlake Village 3 miles, Agoura Hills 5, Simi Valley 10, Moorpark 11, Camarillo and Calabasas 13, Woodland Hills 15, Malibu 18 and Oxnard 21, all road miles between town centers. Anything past that is priced by distance when you call.
Before you dial: the four details that price your tow
Cover these and the total we give you holds when the tow truck arrives.
- Your position: a street and its cross street, the lot's name, or the freeway exit and direction
- Year and make: plus the model and any all-wheel, four-wheel or electric drive
- What stopped it: stalled, hit, off the pavement, a flat, a dead battery or locked keys
- Where it ends up: your mechanic, a dealership, home, or still open