Towing from Yanchep and Two Rocks: distance is rarely the actual problem

Half the calls we get from Yanchep and Two Rocks start with an apology. “Sorry, I know we are a fair way out.” It is a very Perth thing to say, and in this case it is not really true. From our base in Clarkson, the run up the freeway extension to Yanchep is a short one, and Two Rocks is not much further.

What does change at the northern end is not the distance to you. It is the distance from you to everywhere your car might need to go afterwards.

The bit that actually costs time

A tow has two legs: getting to you, and taking the car where it needs to go. In the northern suburbs the first leg is short. The second is the one worth thinking about before you decide.

If your car needs a specialist — a transmission shop, a dealer service department, a marque specialist — that is often a run south to Wangara, Osborne Park or further. That is a completely normal tow and we do it constantly. But it is worth knowing in advance rather than discovering it when the truck is already loaded.

What we get called for up here

• Commuter cars. The Yanchep-to-city run is a long daily drive, and cars doing it rack up kilometres fast. We see a lot of tired suspension, tired cooling systems and tired clutches.
• Beach and dune country vehicles. The tracks around Two Rocks and the northern beaches produce their share of bogged 4WDs and staked tyres.
• Caravans and boats. Plenty of people up here tow something. A tow vehicle that fails with a van behind it is two problems, and we would rather know about the trailer on the phone.
• New estates with unfinished roads. Yanchep and the northern estates are still being built, and half-built streets, verge sand and no through access all affect how a truck gets to a driveway.

The new-estate problem, specifically

This is worth its own paragraph because it catches people out. In a new estate, a residential street can be sealed but the verges are raw sand, driveways are short and steep, and there is often only one way in and out because the connecting road has not been built yet.

A tilt tray needs a flat, firm run of about a truck-and-a-half in length to load safely. On a narrow new street with parked trade vehicles, that space might be around the corner rather than outside your house. It usually means we roll or winch the car a short distance to somewhere workable, which is routine, but it is why we ask what the street is like when you call.

Long tows that are not breakdowns

Not everything from the northern end is an emergency. A decent share of what we move out of Yanchep and Two Rocks is planned: a car bought privately that needs to get to a new owner, a project car going to a workshop, a second car moving with a family, or a vehicle going to a dealer for a trade-in.

Those are booked jobs rather than call-outs, and they are easier for everybody when they are scheduled. That is what vehicle transport covers, as opposed to 24/7 towing when something has gone wrong right now. The Yanchep area page has the local coverage detail.

The short version

• You are not too far away. The northern end is our patch, not the edge of it.
• Know where the car is going before we load it, and ring the workshop first if you are unsure.
• Tell us about the street — new estate, sand verges, narrow, no through road. It decides how we approach.
• If you are towing a caravan or a boat when it happens, say so immediately. It changes the whole job.