Category: Blog

Somewhere in the past decade, a growing number of new vehicles started arriving without a spare tire in the trunk. No spare, no jack, no lug wrench. Drivers who discovered this during a breakdown were often genuinely surprised, not because the manufacturer forgot to include it, but because the vehicle came equipped with run-flat tires instead, and the manufacturer decided a spare was no longer necessary.

That decision makes sense on paper. Run-flat tires are specifically designed to keep a vehicle moving after a puncture, which is the main reason a spare exists in the first place. But “designed to keep moving after a puncture” comes with a set of conditions and limitations that don’t always make it into the sales conversation when the car is new. Understanding what run-flat tires can and can’t do, and whether a spare is worth carrying anyway, is genuinely useful information for any driver, regardless of what’s currently in their trunk.

What Run-Flat Tires Actually Are

A run-flat tire looks like a regular tire from the outside. The difference is internal: run-flat tires have significantly reinforced sidewalls, thick enough to support the vehicle’s weight even after the tire loses air pressure completely. Where a regular tire collapses when punctured, making the vehicle undrivable within seconds, a run-flat holds its shape and keeps the car rolling.

Most vehicles equipped with run-flat tires also include a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), which alerts the driver when air pressure drops, so the tire can be inspected quickly. This matters because one of the counterintuitive aspects of run-flat tires is that a punctured one can feel almost identical to an intact one at highway speed. Without a TPMS alert, many drivers wouldn’t notice the difference until the tire deteriorated beyond its limits.

What Run-Flat Tires Can and Cannot Do

The key figure to know: when punctured, run-flat tires may allow you to drive up to 50 miles at speeds up to 50 mph. That’s the standard manufacturer guidance, and it’s consistent across most major tire brands. The intent is to give you enough range to reach a tire shop or a safe location rather than being immediately stranded on the shoulder of a highway.

The distance and speed limitations of run-flat tires can vary depending on several factors, including the tire’s brand and model, the type of damage sustained, and the driving conditions. A small puncture in the center of the tread is a different situation from a sidewall gash, and a heavier vehicle puts more stress on the tire’s support structure than a lighter one. The 50-mile figure is a general guideline, not a guaranteed outcome in every scenario.

What run-flat tires cannot do is equally important. They cannot be repaired after being driven on while flat, the structural stress on the reinforced sidewall during extended use without air pressure typically renders the tire unusable, meaning replacement rather than repair is the only option once a run-flat has been driven on after a puncture. They also cannot handle damage that’s severe enough to compromise the sidewall structure itself, such as a large tear or a blowout rather than a puncture.

The Case for Still Carrying a Spare

Run-flat tires solve one specific problem well: getting a driver off a highway shoulder and to a shop without stopping to change a tire on the roadside. They don’t solve every flat tire situation, and there are a handful of scenarios where a spare would still be useful even on a vehicle equipped with run-flats.

The 50-mile range assumes you’re within 50 miles of somewhere useful: a tire shop that stocks your specific run-flat size, or at least a safe place to wait for help. In rural stretches of Florida or on a long highway run through Orange County at an inconvenient hour, 50 miles of range at 50 mph doesn’t always land you where you need to be.

Run-flat tires are also significantly more expensive than regular tires, and not every tire shop carries every size. A driver who arrives at a shop needing a run-flat replacement in an uncommon size may find the shop doesn’t have one in stock, which means waiting for an order rather than driving away. A spare, even a compact temporary spare, sidesteps that wait entirely and gets the vehicle to wherever the driver was originally headed.

When Run-Flat Tires Still Leave You Stranded

There are situations where run-flat tires provide no advantage over regular tires and leave the driver in exactly the same position: needing help.

A blowout, where the tire fails suddenly and completely rather than deflating gradually from a puncture, can compromise even a run-flat’s ability to support the vehicle. A sidewall that’s been cut or torn rather than punctured may not hold shape the way the reinforced structure is designed to. And a vehicle that sustains two flat tires simultaneously, which happens in certain road hazard scenarios, is beyond what any single run-flat is designed to handle.

In these situations, a vehicle with run-flat tires is in the same position as a vehicle with regular tires and no spare: it needs a tow rather than a tire change.

Regular Tires and the Spare Question

For drivers on regular tires, the spare question is more straightforward. Without a run-flat’s post-puncture range, a flat tire on a regular tire is immediately a roadside stop: the vehicle either gets a spare installed or gets towed.

The complication here is that many drivers haven’t checked their spare in years. A spare that sits unused in the trunk accumulates age and slow pressure loss without anyone noticing, which means the spare that’s supposed to solve a flat tire problem can turn out to be flat itself. Checking your spare’s pressure periodically, the same way you’d check your regular tires, is the only way to know it’ll actually be useful when you need it.

What This Means for Roadside Assistance

Whether your vehicle has run-flat tires or regular ones, the situations where you’d call for roadside assistance look similar: a flat that’s beyond what you can handle yourself, a spare that isn’t usable, or damage that rules out driving on any tire. The difference is that run-flat drivers often arrive at that call later, after using up their 50-mile window, which sometimes means they’re farther from home or a familiar area than a regular-tire driver who stops immediately.

If you’re in the Orlando area and a flat tire, run-flat or otherwise, has left you without good options, Fred Wise Roadside Assistance can get a technician to your location to install your spare, or arrange a tow if the tire situation means the vehicle shouldn’t be driven further.

Most drivers assume that once a tow truck arrives, the hard part is over. The vehicle gets hooked up, driven to its destination, and handed back in the same condition it left in. That assumption is usually correct: a properly executed tow, by someone who knows what they’re doing and uses the right equipment for your specific vehicle, shouldn’t add any new problems to the ones that already stopped you on the road.

The word “usually” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. When a tow goes wrong (wrong equipment, wrong method, wrong attachment point or just a rushed hookup), the damage it causes can range from cosmetic scratches to mechanical failures that cost significantly more to fix than the original breakdown. Understanding what can go wrong, and why, helps you recognize a careless tow before it happens rather than discovering the consequences afterward.

Drivetrain and Transmission Damage

This is the most serious category of incorrect towing damage, and the one most likely to result in a repair bill that dwarfs the cost of the tow itself.

The drivetrain, the system that transfers power from the engine to the wheels, is designed to operate under specific conditions. Towing a vehicle with its drive wheels rolling on the road while the engine is off bypasses those conditions entirely. On a rear-wheel-drive vehicle towed from the front, the rear wheels are left to spin freely with the driveshaft connected, which can damage the transmission. On an all-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive vehicle, all four wheels are mechanically linked, meaning no set of wheels can spin freely without engaging the rest of the drivetrain. Towing an AWD or 4WD vehicle with any wheels on the ground, which is what wheel lift towing does, can cause severe transmission and transfer case damage, the kind that requires a full replacement rather than a repair.

This is precisely why flatbed towing exists as a method: it removes the vehicle’s wheels from the road entirely, eliminating drivetrain stress regardless of the vehicle’s configuration. Choosing wheel lift towing for an AWD or 4WD vehicle isn’t a minor oversight. It’s a mistake that the owner of the vehicle pays for long after the tow is finished.

Suspension and Steering Damage

Suspension and steering components are built to handle the forces that come with driving: acceleration, braking, cornering, and absorbing road imperfections. They are not built to handle being a primary attachment point for a tow.

When a tow truck hooks onto a suspension component (a control arm, a tie rod, a strut) rather than the vehicle’s designated frame or tow points, that component takes on load it was never designed to bear. The result can be bent or cracked components, damaged bushings, or a steering alignment that’s off enough to make the vehicle unsafe to drive even after it reaches its destination. Suspension damage from an incorrect hookup isn’t always immediately visible; a vehicle that looks fine after a tow might pull to one side or handle erratically in ways that only become obvious once it’s back on the road.

Steering damage follows the same pattern. If a vehicle’s front wheels aren’t locked straight during a wheel lift tow, the steering system can be placed under lateral stress during transport, especially through turns. A tow truck driver who doesn’t check wheel alignment before pulling away is leaving your steering components to manage forces they’re not designed for.

Undercarriage and Frame Damage

The undercarriage of a vehicle is a collection of components that most drivers never see and rarely think about: exhaust pipes, fuel lines, brake lines, and structural crossmembers that run beneath the body. When a vehicle is winched or dragged rather than lifted cleanly, or when a flatbed’s loading angle is too steep for a low-clearance car, the undercarriage makes contact with the ground or with the equipment in ways that cause real damage.

A low-clearance or lowered vehicle loaded onto a flatbed without the proper approach angle will scrape its front splitter, undertray, or exhaust system against the edge of the ramp. Brake lines and fuel lines run close enough to the surface that a careless drag can puncture or crimp them. Frame contact with towing equipment at the wrong point can cause bends or stress fractures that aren’t visible without inspection but compromise the structural integrity of the vehicle.

Cosmetic Damage: Body, Bumpers, and Trim

Not all incorrect towing damage is mechanical. Straps attached to plastic bumper covers, trim pieces, or wheel arch liners instead of structural mounting points can crack, tear, or deform those components under load. A strap that’s routed incorrectly across a painted surface can leave pressure marks or scratches. A wheel lift that isn’t positioned correctly against the tire can scuff the sidewall or make contact with the rim.

These are the categories of damage most likely to show up immediately after a tow and also the easiest to dismiss as minor. A cracked bumper cover or a scratched rim doesn’t feel as serious as a damaged transmission, but it’s still damage that wasn’t there before the vehicle was loaded, and damage that was caused by how the tow was handled, not by the original breakdown.

Electrical and Brake System Damage

Electrical and brake system damage from incorrect towing is less common than drivetrain or suspension damage, but it happens in specific situations worth knowing about.

Vehicles with electronic parking brakes can be damaged if the tow truck driver attempts to manually release the brake without understanding how the system works on that particular vehicle. Unlike a traditional handbrake, an electronic parking brake isn’t designed to be released mechanically from outside the vehicle, forcing it can damage the actuator or the brake caliper itself.

Battery drain is a subtler issue. A vehicle left with its electrical system active during a long tow, lights on, a door ajar triggering interior lighting, or an alarm system cycling, can arrive at its destination with a battery too drained to start, adding a jump-start to an already complicated situation.

How Incorrect Towing Happens

Incorrect towing is rarely the result of deliberate negligence. More often it comes from one of three things: using the wrong method for the vehicle (wheel lift on an AWD), rushing a hookup without checking the attachment points, or lack of familiarity with a specific vehicle’s tow points and clearance requirements. Different vehicles have different designated hookup locations. What works for a standard sedan doesn’t necessarily apply to a lowered sports car or a truck with running boards.

This is why it matters who handles the tow, not just that someone shows up. A tow truck driver who asks about your vehicle’s drivetrain configuration before deciding on a method, who takes the time to find the correct frame contact points before attaching anything, and who checks the load before pulling away is doing the job the way it should be done. One who hooks up quickly without those checks might get the vehicle to its destination without incident, or might not.

Incorrect towing is rarely the result of deliberate negligence. More often it comes from one of three things: using the wrong method for the vehicle (wheel lift on an AWD), rushing a hookup without checking the attachment points, or lack of familiarity with a specific vehicle’s tow points and clearance requirements. Different vehicles have different designated hookup locations. What works for a standard sedan doesn’t necessarily apply to a lowered sports car or a truck with running boards.

This is why it matters who handles the tow, not just that someone shows up. A tow truck driver who asks about your vehicle’s drivetrain configuration before deciding on a method, who takes the time to find the correct frame contact points before attaching anything, and who checks the load before pulling away is doing the job the way it should be done. One who hooks up quickly without those checks might get the vehicle to its destination without incident, or might not.

If you need a tow in Orlando or the surrounding Orange County area, Fred Wise Roadside Assistance uses the method matched to your specific vehicle, not just whatever is quickest to set up.

Florida’s rainy season doesn’t sneak up on anyone who’s lived here long enough. Starting around late May, with an average onset date of May 24 for Orlando, and running through mid-October, the season brings daily afternoon thunderstorms that account for more than half of the area’s total annual rainfall. For most residents, it becomes background noise: check the sky by 2pm, keep a rain jacket in the car, expect the roads to be wet by mid-afternoon.

What doesn’t get talked about as often is what those wet roads mean for towing and roadside assistance, specifically, how rain changes the risks involved, both for the driver waiting on the side of the road and for the tow truck handling the hookup. The process isn’t fundamentally different from a dry-weather tow, but the margin for error shrinks, and a few things that are easy to overlook on a clear afternoon matter a lot more when it’s pouring.

Why Central Florida Rain Is Different From What Most People Expect

Drivers who move to Orlando from other parts of the country often expect Florida rain to be similar to what they’re used to: occasional, spread throughout the day, and manageable. The reality is different. Florida’s afternoon storms follow physics, not whims. As land heats up during the day, warm air rises. When it hits cooler air aloft, condensation and cloud formation build rapidly, and sea breezes from both coasts converge over Central Florida around 3 to 4 PM, triggering storms right on schedule.

The result is rainfall that can go from dry to torrential in under twenty minutes, with limited warning on otherwise clear days. Most Florida afternoon storms last 60 to 90 minutes from start to finish, with the heaviest rain and lightning peaking for 30 to 45 minutes before tapering off. That intensity window, brief but heavy, is exactly when drivers are most likely to lose traction, miss a road hazard, or find themselves pulled over on a wet shoulder waiting for help.

What Wet Roads Actually Change for a Stranded Driver

The most immediate risk for a driver pulled over during a Florida rainstorm isn’t the breakdown itself. It’s visibility. When rain is heavy enough to reduce a driver’s ability to see the road clearly, it reduces everyone else’s ability to see a stationary vehicle just as much. A car on the shoulder of I-4 during a heavy afternoon storm is significantly harder to spot than the same car on a dry, clear afternoon, especially for drivers who are already dealing with reduced windshield visibility.

A few things matter more in wet conditions than dry ones:
Hazard lights. They seem obvious, but drivers who pull over quickly during a sudden downpour often forget to turn them on in the rush to get stopped safely. Hazard lights don’t make a stationary vehicle completely visible in heavy rain, but they make it far more visible than nothing, especially to approaching traffic that’s also dealing with rain on the windshield.
Distance from the travel lane. Wet roads reduce stopping distances for other vehicles. Pulling as far off the pavement as safely possible, onto a shoulder, into a breakdown lane, or past the fog line, gives approaching traffic more room to react if they see you late.

Staying in the vehicle. On a dry day, standing outside your car while waiting for a tow might be uncomfortable but manageable. On the shoulder of a busy highway during a Florida afternoon storm, it’s genuinely dangerous. Staying inside the vehicle, with your seatbelt on and hazard lights running, is the right call until help arrives.

How Rain Changes the Towing Process Itself

A wet-weather tow doesn’t follow a different procedure, but it does require more attention at several specific points in the process.

Footing and positioning. A tow truck driver working on a wet road shoulder is dealing with reduced footing, reduced visibility, and potentially oncoming traffic that’s also struggling with the rain. Positioning the truck correctly, far enough off the lane to create a safe working buffer, takes longer and requires more care than in dry conditions.

Strap and chain security. Water doesn’t compromise the structural integrity of tow straps or safety chains, but wet surfaces can affect how well connections seat against the vehicle. A hookup that would be quick and straightforward in dry conditions deserves a slower, more deliberate check in the rain to confirm everything is actually secured rather than just appearing to be.

Traction during loading. For flatbed towing specifically, loading a vehicle onto a wet flatbed bed requires attention to whether the surface provides enough grip during winching or driving the vehicle onto the ramp. A surface that’s slick enough to cause the tires to slip during loading can cause the vehicle to shift unexpectedly.

Shorter stopping distances. Once the tow is underway, the combination of a heavy loaded vehicle and wet roads means the tow truck driver needs more room to stop than usual. This is less something a stranded driver controls and more something to be aware of: a wet-weather tow, especially on highways like I-4 or SR 528, typically takes a bit more time than the same run in dry conditions.

When It’s More Than Just Rain

Florida’s rainy season overlaps directly with hurricane season, which runs from June through November. Most years that overlap doesn’t result in anything more than heavier-than-usual rain. But in years with active tropical systems, roads across Orange County can go from wet to flooded in a short window, and flooding adds an entirely different layer of risk to a roadside situation. Southwest Florida Water Management District

A vehicle that stalls in standing water, something that happens on low-lying stretches of Orlando roads after heavy storms, isn’t just stuck in the rain. Attempting to restart an engine that has taken in water can cause severe internal damage. If your vehicle stalls in or near flooding, the right call is to leave it, get to higher ground, and call for a tow rather than trying to get it moving again. Winching a vehicle out of standing water is a different job than a standard tow and requires appropriate equipment and positioning to avoid making a bad situation worse.

The Season Doesn’t Change What Good Towing Looks Like: It Just Narrows the Margin

Most tows during Florida’s rainy season go exactly the way they should. The rain makes the process less comfortable for everyone involved, and it adds a handful of things to pay closer attention to, but the fundamentals of a safe hookup and safe transport don’t change with the weather.

What does change is how much any single shortcut, a strap that’s not quite tight enough, a vehicle parked slightly too close to the travel lane, a driver who stepped out of their car before help arrived, matters. In dry conditions, a minor oversight stays minor. In the middle of a heavy Central Florida afternoon storm, the same oversight has less room to stay that way.

If you break down during Florida’s rainy season, get as far off the road as safely possible, turn your hazard lights on, and stay in your vehicle. Then call us. Fred Wise Roadside Assistance covers Orlando and the surrounding Orange County area, and we’ll get a tow truck headed your way.

When a tow truck pulls up to help you after a breakdown, most drivers step back, hand over the keys, and trust that everything happens correctly. Few people actually watch the hookup closely enough to know what “properly secured” is supposed to look like, or to notice if something is off. That gap matters, because an improperly secured vehicle isn’t just a minor inconvenience. It can shift during transport, drag on the road, or in the worst cases, detach entirely while moving down the highway. Understanding what proper securing actually involves helps you know what to expect, and gives you the confidence to speak up if something looks wrong.

Why “Properly Secured” Is More Than a Phrase

“Properly secured” isn’t a vague reassurance tow companies say to sound professional. It refers to a specific set of physical connections between your vehicle and the tow truck, each one doing a distinct job. There’s the primary connection, which actually bears the weight and does the pulling. There are safety chains or straps, which exist purely as a backup in case the primary connection fails. And there’s the way your vehicle sits and moves relative to the truck itself, which affects whether it stays stable through turns, stops, and uneven pavement.

Skipping or rushing any one of these isn’t a shortcut that saves a few minutes. It’s the difference between a vehicle that arrives at its destination the same way it left, and one that doesn’t.

Wheel Lift Towing: What Secure Looks Like

With wheel lift towing, either the front or rear wheels of your vehicle are lifted off the ground using a hydraulic lift arm, while the other end continues to roll on its own tires. Properly secured wheel lift towing includes a few specific elements:

The wheels being lifted sit inside a cradle or set of J-hooks and straps designed to grip the tire itself, not the rim or suspension components. Straps should be snug against the tire with no visible slack, and positioned so the vehicle can’t twist or shift side to side once it’s off the ground.

Beyond the primary lift mechanism, safety chains connect separately to the vehicle’s frame or designated tow points, crossed underneath in an X pattern between the truck and the car. This crossing pattern isn’t cosmetic. If the primary connection were to fail, the crossed chains catch the vehicle’s tongue before it can drop and dig into the road.

The truck driver should also check that the vehicle’s steering wheel is either locked in a straight position or the front wheels are properly aligned with the direction of travel, so the vehicle being towed doesn’t wander or resist the tow truck’s movements.

Flatbed Towing: What Changes

Flatbed towing removes one variable entirely, since the vehicle’s wheels never touch the road during transport. But “off the ground” doesn’t automatically mean “secure.” A properly loaded flatbed involves the vehicle being driven or winched fully onto the bed, positioned so its weight is balanced, and then secured using ratchet straps at all four wheels, not just the front or back.

Each strap should be tight enough that there’s no visible movement when the truck accelerates, brakes, or takes a turn. Straps that are loose, twisted, or attached to the wrong point on the vehicle (a plastic bumper cover instead of a metal frame point, for example) aren’t doing their job even if they look attached at a glance. The parking brake is typically engaged as well, and the vehicle should be in park or in gear, adding another layer of stability beyond just the straps themselves.

Signs Something Isn’t Right

You don’t need to be a towing expert to notice when a hookup looks off. A few things worth paying attention to if you’re watching your vehicle get loaded:

• Visible slack in any strap or chain once the vehicle is lifted or loaded. A properly secured vehicle shouldn’t move independently of the truck bed or lift arm.
• Straps attached to plastic components, trim pieces, or anything that isn’t clearly a structural or manufacturer-designated tow point.
• Only one connection point being used, with no visible backup chains or straps. A single point of contact with nothing catching a potential failure is a real gap, not an acceptable shortcut.
• A vehicle that appears to be sitting at an unusual angle, either leaning to one side or tilted more than expected for the towing method being used.

If you notice any of these, it’s reasonable to ask the driver about it directly. A driver confident in their work should be able to explain what’s securing your vehicle and why, without treating the question as an inconvenience.

Why This Actually Matters

An improperly secured vehicle creates risk in two directions. For your car, it means a real chance of cosmetic or mechanical damage from shifting, scraping, or an uneven load during the tow. For everyone else on the road, an insecure connection is a hazard that can result in a vehicle separating from the tow truck entirely, something that has caused serious accidents when it happens at highway speed.

None of this is meant to make you nervous every time you need a tow. Most tows happen exactly the way they should, start to finish, without incident. But knowing what “properly secured” actually looks like means you’re not just trusting the process blindly. You know what to expect, what a correct hookup looks like, and what’s worth asking about if something seems off.

If your vehicle needs a tow in the Orlando area, Fred Wise Roadside Assistance uses wheel lift and flatbed towing methods matched to your specific vehicle, with the connections and safety backups described above as standard practice, not an upsell.

Call (689) 698-3711 to get a tow truck headed your way.