The mechanic who drives to Taft Mosswood instead of towing it away.
From American Canyon, east through the Altamont. Calls come off I-5, Highway 99 and the streets either side of them. With Central Valley agriculture around town, the same handful of failures come up again and again. One call and Patrick is on the road.
- East through the Altamont
- Open 24 hours, seven days
- No hourly minimum
- Cars, trucks, farm and heavy equipment
We run out of American Canyon, and east through the Altamont. Because the approach is I-5, we can read the traffic before we commit to a time. Cars, trucks, trailers, farm machinery and heavy equipment all get worked on where they sit in Taft Mosswood, which spares you the cost of moving something that was never going to need a workshop in the first place. That local knowledge is the whole product: anyone can own a toolbox, but knowing what I-5 does at five on a Friday is what makes the arrival time real. The van is loaded before it leaves, so a Taft Mosswood call is usually one visit rather than a diagnosis today and a repair on Thursday.
When you cannot tell how bad it is
A fair number of Taft Mosswood calls open with somebody saying they are not sure this counts as a real problem.
Asking is free, and a straight answer over the phone is often the whole service. We would rather talk you out of a job than sell you one you do not need.
Taft Mosswood runs hard on its machinery
Taft Mosswood runs on Central Valley agriculture. That shapes the call list more than anything else.
Add distribution warehousing at Tracy and Lathrop to that and you get vehicles that work hard on a schedule somebody else set, which is exactly the situation where a breakdown costs more than the repair.
That is why we ask what the vehicle does for a living before we set off, because a truck that runs loaded every day fails differently from one that sits five days a week.
Where the calls come from
What we get called out for in Taft Mosswood
Over a normal month, these are the Taft Mosswood calls that repeat.
Brakes that started making noise
Pads and rotors get done in a driveway or a yard as readily as in a shop, and we would rather look at it early than after something seizes. In Taft Mosswood these come in off I-5 more than anywhere else.
Batteries that died overnight
A vehicle that turned over fine yesterday and does nothing today is usually the battery or a corroded terminal, and both get handled at the roadside. Most of them reach us from I-5 or the streets feeding it.
Lockouts and keys shut inside
A short call that gets you moving again, and no reason to pay for a tow truck to do it. Nothing exotic, and it is finished at the roadside most times.
No-starts with no obvious cause
Starter, alternator, fuel delivery or something electrical. We test rather than guess, which is what stops you paying for the wrong part. With Central Valley agriculture in the mix, this one repeats more here than it should.
Trailers that will not roll
Bearings, lights, brakes and couplings, including on a shoulder when the load still has somewhere to be. Most of them reach us from I-5 or the streets feeding it.
The calls people forget they can make
Not all of this is roadside. A good share of what we do in Taft Mosswood is arranged in advance.
Oil and filter services, brakes, batteries before they die, inspections, and the small faults that are cheap now and expensive later. Done at your house or your yard, at a time that does not cost you a day.
Equipment, not just vehicles
Farm machinery is where a mobile mechanic earns the description, because moving it to a workshop is the expensive part.
In practice that means tractors, gators, sprayers and the implements behind them, diagnosed where the machine is standing rather than after somebody has paid to move it.Which in this area means tractors, gators, sprayers and the implements behind them, and the awkward part is almost never the repair itself but getting a working mechanic to where the machine actually is.
Getting to you in Taft Mosswood
I-5 is the spine of this. It is how we get to you and it is where a good share of the breakdowns happen, because it is the road everything in Taft Mosswood uses.
Off that, Highway 99 and I-205 take the rest. Knowing which of them is moving at a given hour is the difference between a thirty minute arrival and an hour of it.
A shoulder is a bad place to do anything slowly, so the first thing we sort out on arrival is whether the vehicle can be made safe where it is or needs to move first.
Taft Mosswood on the map
Around here
Same trip, different exit. These towns sit alongside Taft Mosswood on our map.
The drive from Taft Mosswood to any of these is short enough that one call usually covers a second vehicle at the same yard.
Wider still, the whole of San Joaquin County and the full service area.
Before you call
Short answers. The phone is faster if yours is not here.
How quickly can you get to Taft Mosswood?
East through the Altamont. You get a real window on the phone before we set out, based on what I-5 is doing at that hour rather than a number that sounds good.
Do you charge a minimum to come out to Taft Mosswood?
No hourly minimum. A ten minute fix is billed as a ten minute fix, which is the whole point of the way we work. The alternative, charging a block of time regardless, teaches people to wait until something is genuinely broken before they pick up the phone.
What hours do you answer?
All of them. The phone goes to the mechanic at two in the morning the same as it does at two in the afternoon, and that is not a voicemail promising a call back. The people who need a mobile mechanic most are rarely the ones calling during business hours, which is the entire reason the number is answered around the clock.
Can you work on Central equipment?
Yes. Taft Mosswood being Central Valley agriculture country is exactly why we carry what we carry. Cars and trucks are the baseline; farm machinery, heavy equipment and fleet vehicles are the rest of the week.
Do I need to get the vehicle somewhere first?
No, and it is worth saying plainly because people assume otherwise: the van carries the work to the vehicle, not the other way round.
Is a weekend call to Taft Mosswood priced differently?
No. Nights, weekends and holidays are the same rate as a Tuesday morning. The hours when nobody else answers are most of the reason this business exists, and charging a premium for them would defeat the point.
Is there work you will not attempt on site?
Sometimes, and we would rather establish that in twenty minutes than after three hours. You are charged for what was actually done, not for the attempt.
Taft Mosswood, day or night.
You will speak to the person who does the work. Describe where you are in Taft Mosswood and what happened, and we will tell you what it costs and when we will be there.