Broken Down on the Conejo Grade: Free Patrol or Private Tow?

Published 17 September 2026

Stopped on the Conejo Grade shoulder, most drivers have the same question: is a free truck coming, or do I have to pay for one? The answer turns on the hour, the day and where the car has to end up. The Ventura County Freeway Service Patrol does exist and costs nothing, but a driver stranded at 7 p.m. on a Saturday runs into its limits straight away.

What follows starts on the Grade itself and works outward: first the free patrol and its limits, then the CHP's four-hour rule, then the day fire closed the road, and finally the cases no free service will touch.

US 101 leaves the Conejo Valley over the Conejo Grade and descends to Camarillo and the Oxnard Plain on a 7 percent grade that peaks at 841 feet. Driving toward Camarillo, the last exit is 47C at Wendy Drive; exits 48 and 49 do not exist, so the next way off is exit 50, Camarillo Springs Road. The Conejo Valley Guide puts the stretch at four miles, and a car that stalls on it has nothing but shoulder the whole way.

The CHP's Conejo truck scales occupy the summit on both sides of the freeway; they are a commercial vehicle enforcement facility closed to the public, so they offer no place to pull in and wait.

Tell us your direction and approximate position - climbing from Newbury Park, at the crest by the scales, or descending toward Camarillo - because the tow truck must enter on your side of the freeway and cannot turn around between the exits.

The Ventura County Transportation Commission runs the Freeway Service Patrol, with Caltrans paying 75 percent and VCTC 25 percent. Beat one covers the 10.5 miles of US 101 between the Los Angeles county line and Camarillo Springs Road, taking in all of Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park, with the Conejo Grade at its western end.

You summon it by dialing 5-1-1, and when it covers your situation a free truck is the obvious choice; we tell anyone who reaches us from the 101 in those hours to use it. It operates Monday through Friday, apart from certain holidays, from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m. and 2 to 6 p.m., and during those windows an FSP truck will:

• Hand over a gallon of gas when the tank is empty.
• Jump a flat battery back to life.
• Top up the radiator and tape a leaking hose so you can drive on.
• Fit your spare in place of a flat.
• Tow the car at no charge to a CHP-approved drop location clear of the freeway.

For breakdowns outside those hours or off the beat, the Ventura County FSP page directs drivers to CHP dispatch at 805-477-4174; the CHP's Moorpark Area, which patrols the 101 between the county line and Camarillo Springs Road, decides the fate of a car stopped in a moving lane.

Most FSP assists finish at the drop location, which is exactly where a private tow picks up: the car sits off the freeway, safe but still broken, and getting it from there to a Newbury Park shop is a paid tow. The limits do not bend:

• Weekday commute hours only. At night, on weekends and on holidays, no FSP truck patrols the Grade.
• The 101 only. The Moorpark Freeway, Westlake Boulevard, Decker Canyon, Kanan Road and every other surface street lie outside its beats.
• No delivery to a shop or a home. The free tow stops at the drop location, and FSP drivers will not suggest a tow company or a repair shop.
• Cars only. A motorcycle broken down on the Grade always needs a private flatbed tow, whatever the hour.

A car on the shoulder with its hazards flashing counts as a breakdown; the same car in a moving lane counts as a hazard, and CVC 22651(b) lets an officer remove it for obstructing traffic. CVC 22651(f) also allows an officer to order the removal of a vehicle left standing for more than four hours within a freeway's right of way. A CHP-ordered tow ends at the rotation company's yard, billed at rates the CHP Area approves and keeps unpublished; the daily charges that yard may add are covered in our guide to tow lot fees per day in California.

Sometimes the Grade is simply closed. The Hill Fire broke out at 2:03 p.m. on November 8, 2018, at Hill Canyon Road and Santa Rosa Road; the 101 shut in both directions between Wendy Drive and Pleasant Valley Road, traffic was sent onto the 23, and Dos Vientos was evacuated. Twenty-one minutes later the Woolsey Fire began, eventually burning 96,949 acres and 1,643 structures.

On a day like that, our tow truck takes whatever detour the CHP keeps open, the price is based on that detour, and any arrival window has to be reset.

Combine those limits and five situations leave a private tow as the only choice: nights, weekends and holidays; the 23, Westlake Boulevard, Decker Canyon or Kanan Road; any motorcycle; any tow that must end at a shop or your driveway; and the onward leg from the drop location. For exactly those cases, our all-hours towing service in Thousand Oaks sends a tow truck to a Saturday breakdown at 7 p.m. with no more fuss than to one at noon.

Not all of them end in a tow. A battery worn out by summer - AAA lists heat as the top cause of battery failure, and the local record is 119 degrees - needs only a jump, and a flat with a sound spare needs only a tire change, though on a 7 percent shoulder we may carry the car on the flatbed to level ground first: roadside help and short tows on the Conejo Grade.

In short: on a weekday within the patrol hours, dial 5-1-1 first, remembering that the drop location is not where your car needs to end up. Otherwise, phone us with your direction and the exit you last passed, and you will hear the total and the arrival window in that one call, with no yard and no daily storage waiting at the far end.