Motorcycle Towing in Chattanooga, TN

Why a motorcycle rides on the deck

A wheel-lift truck picks up one end of a car and lets the other two wheels roll. A motorcycle has nothing left to roll on and cannot hold itself upright, so the whole bike goes onto a flatbed deck instead: front tire in a wheel chock, soft straps holding it upright, no metal hook against paint or chrome. It is the same decision as the way a tow truck in Chattanooga gets matched to the vehicle, with less room for a shortcut. Put the word motorcycle in the request so the tow company can say on the callback whether it carries that gear. If it does not, hearing no at that point costs you nothing.

What to put in a motorcycle request

The form is short, so the Details box does the work. Under "What's this about?" pick "Scheduled tow" for a planned move, or "Something else" if nothing fits, then give enough to price the job sight unseen:

• Where it is. A street address, a parking garage and level, or a driveway. Say if it sits behind a gate, up a steep drive or on gravel.
• What it is. Year, make and model, plus the kind of machine: cruiser, sport bike, touring bike with bags, scooter, trike or sidecar rig.
• What shape it is in. Does it roll? Does the steering lock release, and do you have the key? Mention a flat tire, a bent wheel, a leak, or anything broken in a drop.
• Where it is going. Your shop, a dealer, or your own garage.

How much does motorcycle towing cost in Chattanooga?

This site prints no dollar range for a motorcycle. The job is quoted on the callback, because loading and strapping change more from bike to bike than the mileage does. The car figures the site does print are shown here only as a yardstick:

A motorcycle quote can land on either side of the car numbers. The order is what matters: ask for one all-in figure before the bike is loaded, and turn the job down if nobody will give one. What moves a figure is laid out in the five levers behind a Chattanooga towing bill, and the one that catches riders out is the destination. A storage yard charges by the day, so name your shop or your garage on the first call.

The jobs a callback form fits

Requests sent here get read and handed on inside a day, not inside the hour. That suits a bike that is already somewhere safe:

• a no-start in the garage that has to reach a shop
• a project bike or an auction buy that does not run
• a bike left in a parking lot after a breakdown
• a dropped or wrecked bike headed for a body shop; if it is in an impound lot, read the steps for getting a vehicle released first

If the bike left the pavement on a ridge road, the W Road up Signal Mountain for one, that is recovery work before it is a tow, with its own printed ranges under winch-outs and accident recovery.

Stopped on the interstate with a dead bike

A rider has no cabin to sit in, so the advice to stay belted in the car does not apply. Get the bike as far right as it will go, then get yourself off the road and behind the guardrail if you can reach it safely. If you are hurt, or the bike is in a travel lane, call 911. TDOT's HELP trucks patrol Chattanooga's busiest routes free of charge, seven days a week on set hours: I-24 from the state line west of town to the I-75 junction, I-75 from the Georgia line to exit 11, Highway 153 from I-75 to Hixson Pike, and US-27 from I-24 to Morrison Springs Road. No number summons one; operators stop for the stalled drivers they come across, and TDOT says help is not guaranteed every time. Tennessee's Move Over law covers tow trucks too: drivers coming up on one stopped with its lights flashing must change lanes when it is safe, or slow down. A request here is the step after all that.

What Tennessee asks of a company that hauls for pay

Two state rules are worth knowing before anyone straps your bike down. The Tennessee Department of Revenue says Intrastate Authority is what allows private towing and wrecker services to use the state's public highways for hire, and an applicant has to supply proof of insurance on a liability certificate known as Form E. Whether both are current is a fair thing to ask on the callback. Whether the policy reaches a motorcycle riding on the deck is a second question, and worth asking too.

The other rule is paper. A state law, TCA 55-16-112, appears in the towing standards manual the Tennessee Highway Patrol publishes, and it has a towing company get express written authorization, tow by tow, from the owner or from law enforcement. So expect to sign before loading starts, and check the destination and the price on that form first.

Loading day: what to ask and what to point out

Nobody knows your bike better than you do, and the driver is meeting it for the first time. Before it goes up the deck, ask where the straps will sit and point out anything that should not carry one: fairing plastic, a windshield, saddlebags, aftermarket bars. Say if the bike is lowered or has a long front fender that may not clear a chock. Photograph both sides before loading and again at the drop, and ask for an itemized receipt, the paper an insurer or a roadside plan wants before it pays a towing claim back.