Davis’s mobile mechanic, answering at three in the morning.
From American Canyon, east on 80 past Vacaville. Most of what we answer in Davis is on or near I-80, Highway 113. With row-crop and seed agriculture around town, the same handful of failures come up again and again. One call and Patrick is on the road.
- East on 80 past Vacaville
- Open 24 hours, seven days
- No hourly minimum
- Cars, trucks, farm and heavy equipment
Everything we do starts from American Canyon. For Davis that means east on 80 past Vacaville. We come in on I-80, which is why we can tell you a window on the phone instead of asking you to wait and see. Cars, trucks, trailers, farm machinery and heavy equipment all get worked on where they sit in Davis, which spares you the cost of moving something that was never going to need a workshop in the first place. Patrick has been doing this long enough to know which faults in Davis are a ten minute fix and which are somebody selling you a tow. The van is loaded before it leaves, so a Davis call is usually one visit rather than a diagnosis today and a repair on Thursday.
What we get called out for in Davis
Over a normal month, these are the Davis calls that repeat.
Warning lights nobody can read
We pull the codes on site and tell you plainly whether it is drive-it-home or stop-now. It is a steady share of what Davis calls about.
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. We carry the parts for it because Davis asks often enough.
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. Nothing exotic, and it is finished at the roadside most times.
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. Most of them reach us from I-80 or the streets feeding it.
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. It is a steady share of what Davis calls about.
Booked work, not just breakdowns
Most people find us at the worst moment, but a fair amount of Davis work is booked rather than urgent.
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.
Where the calls come from
The work behind the breakdowns
What a town does for work decides what breaks in it. In Davis that means row-crop and seed agriculture, and the failures follow from it.
There is also UC Davis, which puts a different kind of load on the same machinery.
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.
The call is free
A fair number of Davis 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.
Bigger than a car
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 Davis
Ask where Davis breakdowns happen and the answer is mostly I-80, which is also the road we arrive on.
Off that, Highway 113 and County Road network 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.
Roadside work has one rule before any diagnosis: get the vehicle and the people in a position where traffic is not the biggest hazard.
The Davis map
Around here
Same trip, different exit. These towns sit alongside Davis on our map.
The drive from Davis to any of these is short enough that one call usually covers a second vehicle at the same yard.
Wider still, the full Yolo County and the full service area.
What Davis callers ask
Short answers. The phone is faster if yours is not here.
How quickly can you get to Davis?
East on 80 past Vacaville. You get a real window on the phone before we set out, based on what I-80 is doing at that hour rather than a number that sounds good.
Do you charge a minimum to come out to Davis?
No. There is no hourly minimum and no call-out block to pay for. You pay for the work that gets done, and you hear the price before we start. Plenty of outfits bill an hour whether the job takes ten minutes or fifty, and that practice is most of why people put off calling until a small fault has become a tow.
What hours do you answer?
Twenty four hours, every day. Nights and weekends are ordinary working time here rather than an emergency surcharge, and the late calls are a real part of the week rather than something merely tolerated.
Can you work on row-crop equipment?
Yes. Davis being row-crop and seed 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?
Usually not. We would rather come to the vehicle than have you pay a tow truck to move something we could have fixed where it sat.
Do you charge more to come out to Davis at night?
There is no night surcharge. A two in the morning call is billed like any other, which is the only arrangement that makes sense when the whole promise is that somebody picks up.
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.
One call from Davis and we are moving.
The phone goes straight to the mechanic, whatever time it is. Tell us where in Davis you are parked and what the vehicle is doing, and you will have a price and an arrival window before we hang up.