Need a tow? Towing in Nipomo, CA

From the center of Santa Maria to Nipomo is 7 miles by road, approximate: north on the 101 across the Santa Maria River into San Luis Obispo County, past exit 175, where the 166 leaves for Maricopa and Bakersfield, to exit 179 at Tefft Street.

Exit 179 is Tefft Street and 180 is Willow Road; farther north, 182 serves Los Berros Road and Thompson Road. The freeway through town is the Nipomo Mesa Freeway, completed in 1957. The old 101 is Thompson Avenue, which still meets Tefft Street downtown, runs right beside the freeway to the 166 south of town, and is reached from the southbound side at exit 182.

The river is the county line as well. On the far side the sheriff and the CHP office both change, as the rules section below explains, but our side of the call does not: you hear the price and the arrival window first, day or night.

San Luis Obispo County's planners describe Nipomo as bisected by US 101, with traffic in town able to cross the freeway only at Tefft Street or Willow Road. Tefft is the primary route through town, heavily loaded all day and worst at commute times; in 2021 County Public Works widened both Tefft Street off-ramps and added signals to give Tefft more green time, and the same work left South Frontage Road with a right turn only onto Tefft. When the county adopted its West Tefft plan in 2007, it counted about 7,000 vehicles a day on Tefft near Thompson and more than 15,000 near Mary Avenue.

So the side of the freeway matters. Downtown Nipomo is where Thompson Avenue, the old highway, crosses Tefft Street, and since the freeway opened in 1957 the town has grown west from Thompson toward it; the business district along West Tefft Street is west of the 101. A truck that leaves the freeway at the wrong crossing has to come around, and the county's own planners note that calls for service in Nipomo generally get slower responses because of the barrier the freeway makes. Tell us which side you are on and the nearest cross street.

The county's West Tefft plan draws the line at Nipomo Creek: east of it the soils are clay, while the Nipomo Mesa is sandy soil, an ancient dune complex. A tire that drops off the pavement onto that sand digs in with every spin instead of climbing out. Stop after one gentle try and call for a winch-out from Mesa sand; our truck stays on the pavement and the winch line does the work.

Nipomo is not a city. It is an unincorporated census-designated place in San Luis Obispo County, ZIP code 93444, with 18,176 people at the 2020 Census, so neither the Santa Maria police nor any Santa Barbara County agency works there.

The CHP's San Luis Obispo Area patrols the 101 from the Santa Barbara County line north to Highway 58 and names Nipomo among the unincorporated communities it is responsible for. Under the CHP's enforcement policy that means traffic on Nipomo's streets as well as the freeway. The office is at 675 California Boulevard in San Luis Obispo, open weekdays 8 to 5.

The Sheriff's Office serves Nipomo from its South Station at 1681 Front Street in Oceano. No Freeway Service Patrol truck covers this stretch of the 101 either, so a driver stopped near Tefft Street has the CHP and whoever they call.

Towed from the 101 or after a crash

CHP San Luis Obispo Area, (805) 594-8700

Towed by sheriff's deputies

South Station, Oceano, (805) 473-7100; Sheriff's dispatch, (805) 781-4550

Towed from a private lot

Under CVC 22658 the entrance sign must give each towing company's name and number and the local traffic law enforcement agency's phone

A 7-mile run back to a Santa Maria shop is short enough that the vehicle, not the distance, picks the truck. Front-wheel drive goes on the wheel-lift, drive wheels up. All-wheel drive, electric, low or a motorcycle rides the flatbed, and anything sitting in sand gets the winch line before it gets either.

A car that dies in a lane between the river and Los Berros Road, or will not steer after a crash at a Tefft Street ramp, is a crash or breakdown tow on the Nipomo Mesa Freeway: 911 first if it is in a lane, then us.

Light-duty is our limit, meaning passenger cars, pickups, SUVs, vans and motorcycles. A loaded farm truck or a big motorhome needs a heavier truck than ours, and we say so before you wait on us. Distance, the truck and time on scene make up the price, and how a Nipomo tow is priced goes through each.

North, the 101 runs on to Arroyo Grande, the next town up the freeway, and the rest of the Five Cities. South, back across the river, is Santa Maria and everything we tow there, day or night.