Towing in Shelby Township, MI
Light-duty towing and roadside help for cars, pickups, vans, SUVs and motorcycles in Shelby Charter Township and the towns around it. You hear one total on the call, before a truck leaves.
What we ask on the phone, and what happens once you say yes
Towing in Shelby Township, MI begins with a short call. We ask where the car is, what it is, what went wrong and where it should end up. Before you hang up you know which truck is coming and the one total for the job, and no truck leaves until you agree to that number.
Call 911 first, then us. Stay buckled in with the hazards on until police protect the lane. If the car still rolls, coast it onto the shoulder or a side street; if you must get out, use the door away from traffic and stand well clear.
The four questions
- Where is the car? On a surface road, the nearest mile road and cross road, and which corner. On a freeway, your direction and the last exit sign you passed. In a lot or a park, the entrance you came in by.
- What is it? Year, make and model, and which wheels drive it: front, rear, all four, or an electric motor. That answer settles the truck.
- What happened? A no-start, a stall while moving, a crash, stuck in snow or a ditch, a flat, an empty tank or keys locked inside.
- Where should it go? Your mechanic, a dealer, your driveway, or nowhere yet; if you haven't picked a shop, we settle that before quoting.
Wheel-lift or flatbed
A two-wheel-drive car on sound tires can ride the wheel-lift, drive wheels cradled and strapped, the other axle rolling. All-wheel-drive, four-wheel-drive, electric, lowered and classic cars and motorcycles go on the flatbed deck with every wheel off the pavement, even for a few blocks, and once a trip heads past the nearby towns, every car rides the deck.
We keep to light-duty vehicles. For an RV, a semi, a bus, heavy equipment or a loaded box truck, we'll tell you at the start of the call to phone a heavy-duty operator.
Plenty of calls never need a tow: a battery flattened by a cold night, a flat with a good spare, an empty tank or locked-in keys are roadside fixes done where the car sits. If the fix doesn't hold, the same call becomes a tow.
Free quote
Not urgent? Send the details and we call back
Four kinds of help, all priced on the same call
Choose the one that sounds like your situation. Each page covers the equipment the job takes, what moves its price and the Michigan rules that matter where you're stopped.
Emergency towing, any hour
Stalled on M-53, crashed at a mile-road intersection or dead in your driveway at 2 a.m.? Call and hear the total before a truck heads your way.
Learn more
Roadside help without a tow
A jump on a frozen morning, a spare bolted on, fuel to reach a station, or a locked door opened with car-opening tools.
Learn more
Flatbed towing, wheels off the road
AWD, 4WD, electric, lowered and classic cars and motorcycles ride the deck even across town, and so does every car on a long trip.
Learn more
Winch-outs from snow and ditches
Off the road in a snowbank, a ditch or a soft shoulder? We pull the car back to firm ground, within our light-duty limit.
Learn moreMile road and cross road: telling us where you are in Shelby Township
Shelby Charter Township sits in western Macomb County on the Detroit area's mile-road grid: roads a mile apart, with 8 Mile about eight miles north of Woodward and Michigan avenues downtown and the numbers climbing from there. Macomb County calls most of them by number, so '23 Mile and Schoenherr' or '25 Mile, just east of Mound' tells a driver more in the dark than a house number.
On M-53, the Van Dyke Freeway
Through the township the M-53 freeway runs about a mile east of Van Dyke Avenue, so first tell us which of the two you're on. Exit 17 is Hall Road (M-59), where Utica meets Sterling Heights; exit 20 is 23 Mile, inside the township; exit 23 is 26 Mile, on the Washington Township line. Give your direction, northbound toward Romeo or southbound toward Sterling Heights, and the last exit you passed.
On M-59 and Hall Road
M-59 is a freeway as far east as Van Dyke Avenue in Utica and a divided boulevard, Hall Road, beyond it. Exit 48 is Dequindre Road at the Oakland County line, exit 50 is Mound and Merrill roads on the Shelby and Sterling Heights line, and west of Mound, Dobry Drive is the service drive. Tell us whether you're on the freeway, the service drive or the boulevard.
On Hall Road, add which side of the median you're on. Michigan builds the Michigan left into many divided roads: traffic, our truck included, passes the cross road and U-turns at a median crossover to reach the far side, so if there's a crossover near you, name it.
Mile roads, edges and who maintains them
West of Mound, Auburn Road holds the 21 Mile line; 22 Mile becomes Hamlin Road at Ryan; Ryan Road starts at 23 Mile and runs south. Dequindre Road is the Oakland County line, and the township's road page sets out who maintains what: the Road Commission for Oakland County looks after Dequindre through Shelby, MDOT maintains M-53, and the Macomb County Department of Roads handles maintenance and snow removal on the rest.
- Emergency
- 911
- Shelby Township Police, business line
- (586) 731-2121, listed on the department's contact page
- Metro North Post (Post 21), Michigan State Police
- Covers Macomb and Oakland counties: 248-584-5740
- Macomb County Department of Roads
- 586-463-8671, its number for an emergency road condition
- Road Commission for Oakland County (Dequindre Road)
- 877-858-4804
- MDOT Macomb Transportation Service Center (M-53, M-59)
- 586-421-3920
In a park, name the entrance. River Bends Park is split by the Clinton River, with the eastern section's main entrance on 22 Mile and the western section reached from Ryan Road by River Bends Drive. A small part of Stony Creek Metropark lies in Shelby, and every vehicle entering a Metropark needs a daily or annual pass.
Police reported 1,814 crashes in Shelby Township in 2024, according to Michigan Traffic Crash Facts: 1,513 on what the state's tables call local streets and 290 on state routes. Sixty-one involved deer. The Michigan State Police say deer are most active from April through June and from October through December; if one steps out, brake firmly and don't swerve.
Snow, salt and cold starts in a Macomb County winter
NOAA's 1991-2020 climate normals for the weather station at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, near Mount Clemens, show 32.2 inches of snow in an average year, 10.6 of them in January, and an average January low of 17.9°F.
Plowing follows an order. The Macomb County Department of Roads keeps its crews on state and primary roads until they're clear and safe, then moves to local and subdivision streets; it plows subdivision roads once four inches or more has fallen, and inside subdivisions it salts only entrances, exits, intersections and hills. So a mile road can be bare while your street is still packed, and on ice, the department notes, stopping takes three to nine times the distance.
Cold works on the car itself. NHTSA's winter guidance says battery power drops with the temperature while engines need more of it to start, tire pressure falls as it gets colder, and electric and hybrid cars can lose range. A jump pack is sometimes all a frozen car needs; one that has slid into a snowbank needs a winch line run from a truck on firm pavement, within our light-duty limit.
- Keep the tank close to full all winter, as NHTSA suggests.
- Waiting in snow with the engine on? Clear the exhaust pipe first and run the engine only now and then, so carbon monoxide stays out of the cabin.
- Give plows room. They move slowly, swing wide and stop often, and the county asks drivers to leave them plenty of space.
- Before a winter drive, MDOT's Mi Drive map shows closures, incidents, traffic cameras and active MDOT snowplows.
One total on the phone, before any truck leaves
Four things set the number: which truck the car needs, how many miles the job covers, how long the work takes at the scene and where the car is going, added up into one total on the call. If the driver finds something other than what we heard, say an all-wheel-drive car described as two-wheel drive, or a car stuck in a ditch rather than stalled, work stops until you've heard and accepted a new total.
Tows someone else orders run on other rules. Michigan's Attorney General notes that the fees in a police-ordered tow normally follow whatever the police agency and the towing company agreed, and the Vehicle Code spells out the signs a lot owner must post before towing without consent. Read what a tow costs in Shelby Township and how we total it for those rules and the questions worth asking first.
Shelby Township and the towns around it, by road miles
Shelby Charter Township had 79,408 residents at the 2020 census across 35.2 square miles, with Rochester and Rochester Hills on its west side and Utica and Sterling Heights to the south. We cover the whole township and the towns below; each figure is road miles from central Shelby Township.
- Utica: about 3 road miles; the M-59 freeway ends at Van Dyke Avenue there
- Macomb Township: about 6 road miles, at the geographic center of Macomb County
- Washington Township: about 6 road miles, north across 26 Mile; the M-53 freeway ends inside it at exit 25
- Rochester: about 6 road miles; 24 Mile becomes University Drive, downtown's main east-west street
- Rochester Hills: about 7 road miles, west across Dequindre in Oakland County
- Sterling Heights: about 8 road miles; the M-59 exit at Mound sits on its line with Shelby
- Troy: about 11 road miles
- Romeo: about 12 road miles; the M-53 expressway bypasses the village to the east
- Oakland, Ray and Chesterfield townships: about 12 road miles each
- Clinton Township: about 12 road miles, east along Hall Road to the Groesbeck Highway junction
Not on the list? Ask when you call. If the truck can reach you, the added miles simply go into the same single total.
Frequently asked questions
It's 3 a.m. and my car won't move. Is anyone answering in Shelby Township?
Yes. We answer at any hour, seven days a week, for cars, pickups, vans, SUVs and motorcycles across the township and the towns around it. Give us the location, the vehicle, the trouble and the drop-off, and you'll hear which truck is coming and one total before it leaves. If the car is stopped in a live lane, call 911 first.
I broke down on M-53 in Shelby Township. How do I tell you where I am?
Give your direction, northbound toward Romeo or southbound toward Sterling Heights, and the last exit you passed: exit 20 is 23 Mile, exit 23 is 26 Mile, and exit 17 at Hall Road is just to the south. Say whether you're on the freeway or on Van Dyke Avenue, about a mile west of it. In a travel lane, call 911 before you call us.
How much does a tow cost in Shelby Township?
We quote one total on the phone, worked out from the truck your car needs, the road miles, the time on scene and the destination. There's no rate card because jobs differ: a front-wheel-drive car going a few blocks is not the same job as an all-wheel-drive SUV in a ditch headed to Romeo. You hear the number before a truck leaves.
My car is all-wheel drive or electric. Will you send a flatbed?
Yes. Anything that drives all four wheels or runs on a battery rides the deck, as do lowered cars, classics and motorcycles, however short the trip, with every tire off the pavement. Beyond the neighboring towns the deck is used whatever drives the car. Mention the drivetrain when you call; it decides the truck, and the truck is part of your total.
My car slid into a snowbank on my subdivision street. Can you pull it out?
We can when two things hold: the vehicle is light-duty, and our truck can work from firm pavement. We run the winch line to a solid point on the car, draw it back onto the street and check that it drives. Macomb County plows subdivision roads after the main roads, once four inches or more has fallen, so side streets can stay packed after a storm.
Which towns near Shelby Township do you cover?
The whole township, plus the towns around it. Measured in road miles from central Shelby Township, Utica is about 3; Macomb Township, Washington Township and Rochester are about 6 each; Rochester Hills is about 7 and Sterling Heights about 8; Troy is about 11; and Romeo, Clinton Township and the Oakland, Ray and Chesterfield townships are about 12. Longer trips are priced by distance on the same call.
Before you dial, have these four answers ready
They're what we need to name the truck and give you one total.
- The spot - mile road and cross road, or freeway, direction and last exit
- The vehicle - year, make, model, and front, rear, all-wheel or electric drive
- The trouble - no-start, stall, crash, flat, empty tank, locked out or stuck
- The drop-off - your shop, a dealer or home, or ask us to help you pick