A flat tyre never happens at a convenient moment. It happens on the way to work, on the M4 at eleven at night, or on a dark lane with no lay-by in sight. Here is what to do in the first five minutes, what not to do, and how mobile fitting gets you moving again without a recovery truck.
First, get somewhere safe
Your priority is position, not the tyre.
Slow down gradually. Do not brake hard. Ease off the accelerator and let the car lose speed while you steer straight.
Pull as far left as you can. On a motorway, use the hard shoulder and get as close to the verge as possible. If you can reach an emergency refuge area, use it.
Hazard lights on immediately. At night or in poor visibility, this is the single most important thing you do.
Get out of the vehicle on the passenger side and stand behind the barrier. Never stand between your car and moving traffic, and never attempt a wheel change on the hard shoulder of a motorway.
Once you are safe, then think about the tyre.
Do not drive on a flat tyre
It is tempting to limp to the next junction. Do not. Driving on a deflated tyre destroys the sidewall within a few hundred metres, and it frequently damages the alloy wheel underneath as well. A repairable puncture becomes a new tyre, and a new tyre becomes a new tyre plus a wheel.
If the tyre still holds some pressure and you are somewhere genuinely dangerous, move only as far as the nearest safe stopping point and no further.
Why most drivers no longer have a spare
Around nine in ten new cars now leave the factory without a full-size spare wheel. Manufacturers remove them to save weight and boot space, replacing them with a sealant and compressor kit.
Those kits have real limits. They do not work on sidewall damage, they do not work on a tyre that has come off the bead, and they do not work on a cut larger than a nail hole. They are also a temporary measure, not a repair.
That is precisely the gap mobile fitting fills.
How 24 hour mobile tyre fitting works
You call, we locate you. Tell us where you are, your registration and your tyre size if you can read it. If you cannot get to the sidewall safely, the registration is enough.
We confirm a price and an arrival window before we set off. No surprises once we get there.
A fully equipped van comes to you. Tyres, fitting machine, balancer and torque wrench, all on board.
We assess repair first. If the damage is within the central three quarters of the tread and under 6mm, a proper plug and patch repair is usually possible and costs far less than replacement. If it is not safe to repair, we will tell you plainly why.
Fitted, balanced and torqued on the spot. Typically around 10 to 15 minutes per tyre once we arrive.
Why this beats waiting for recovery
Recovery takes your car somewhere. It does not fix your car. You still end up at a garage, still need the tyre, and still need to get home in the meantime.
Mobile fitting solves the actual problem where you are standing. For most roadside jobs you are driving away on the same visit, which is why we are an RAC approved repairer and take referred jobs directly from them.
What we need from you when you call
- Your location, as precisely as you can give it. Motorway marker posts, junction numbers or a dropped pin all work.
- Your registration number.
- What happened, if you know. A slow puncture, a kerb strike and a blowout are three different jobs.
- Whether you are somewhere safe. Tell us if you are not, and we will prioritise accordingly.
Available all night, every night
We operate 24 hours a day across Newport, Cardiff, Bristol, Chepstow and the surrounding areas, including the M4 corridor and the Severn crossings.
If you are stuck right now, call 07505 965373. If you are reading this in advance, save the number in your phone. It is the sort of thing you only look for when you cannot easily search.