Flatbed towing, winch outs and roadside help in Arlington and along the Highway 30 corridor, from a Washington County crew.
Arlington is a village of 1,300 people at the 2020 census in the southwest corner of Washington County, which makes it the most populous village in Nebraska. Calhoun Transport covers it from Fort Calhoun on the other side of the county. Arlington sits on Highway 30 roughly eight miles east of Fremont and about fifteen miles southwest of Blair.
The thing that defines this place geographically is water on both sides. The Elkhorn River runs west of the village and Bell Creek runs along the east side, and the hundred-year floodplains of both restrict how the town can grow. The village's own comprehensive plan notes that the only unconstrained direction for expansion is north and northwest.
That geography is not a scenic detail. It is the reason Arlington has a towing story that most towns this size do not, and the reason winch outs here are a category rather than an occasional job.
In March 2019 Bell Creek flooded first and the Elkhorn came up the following day. Highway 30 lost its driving surface and both shoulders, with a hole reported at forty to fifty feet, and Highway 91 to the north was similarly destroyed. For a period the village was effectively cut off, with emergency access running north via Highway 91.
The repair took about ninety days and roughly $1.7 million of state money on the Fremont to Arlington stretch alone. A trip between Arlington and Fremont that normally took ten minutes became a forty-five minute detour. The regional hazard plan records that the southwest part of Arlington, along with rural acreages and farms in the Elkhorn floodplain, was inundated.
The roads have long since been rebuilt, and none of this is a reason to be nervous about driving through Arlington. It matters for a much more practical reason: it establishes what the ground here does. Bottomland along the Elkhorn and Bell Creek sits at low elevation and transitions up into rolling loess uplands, and the low ground stops carrying weight when it is wet.
That is the everyday version of the same fact. You do not need a hundred-year flood to put a wheel through a soft shoulder on a county road after a heavy week of rain. You just need the ground to be what it already is.
Cars, pickups, medium duty trucks and equipment hauled on a flatbed deck, so nothing drags, scrapes or turns a wheel on the way.
Learn moreDead battery, flat tire or an empty tank. The problems that do not need a tow at all, handled where you are parked.
Learn moreCareful recovery after a collision, secure storage for the vehicle, and straight paperwork for whoever is handling the claim.
Learn moreOff the shoulder, into the ditch, buried in mud or snow. Winched back onto the road without tearing up the vehicle.
Learn moreExtra ramps and a shallow load angle for lowered, modified and low-clearance cars that a standard deck would scrape.
Learn moreNon-running vehicles hauled off the property, and select cars bought outright. One call, one pickup, gone.
Learn moreArlington sits at the far southwest of Washington County, closer to Fremont than to its own county seat. That is an awkward position: a Fremont company may treat it as the county next door, and a Blair or Omaha company may treat it as the long way out.
We cover it as part of the county, which means it is on the list rather than an exception to it. Being honest about the drive: Arlington is a longer run from Fort Calhoun than Blair or Herman is, so you will get a realistic time on the phone rather than a hopeful one.
What does not change with distance is the equipment and the approach. A flatbed with proper recovery gear is worth more on a soft Elkhorn bottom shoulder than a closer truck without it, and the pull still has to be done in a way that does not bend the car getting it out.
Yes. It is in Washington County, the same county we are based in, and it is on the published list. It is a longer drive than Blair or Fort Calhoun, so ask for a realistic time when you call and you will get one instead of an optimistic guess.
That is a winch out and it is the most common call we get here. Tell us how far off the road the vehicle is and what it is sitting on. Ground along the Elkhorn and Bell Creek bottoms behaves very differently wet than dry, and that decides the approach.
You should call whoever can actually get to you with the right equipment, and for some Arlington jobs that may well be Fremont. We are not going to pretend geography works differently than it does. What we will give you is a straight answer on time and price so you can compare properly.
Yes. Fremont is about eight miles west on Highway 30 and it is a normal destination from Arlington. Tell us where the vehicle is going when you call, because the distance is most of the price and you should hear the number before anything moves.
Sometimes, and it depends entirely on the ground between the road and the vehicle. A flatbed that gets stuck reaching you has made things worse. Describe how far in it is and what the ground is doing, and we will tell you honestly whether it is a job for us or for a tractor.
Covered, and they are a regular part of the work. County Road 9 and County Road 11 run north from Arlington and the rural network beyond them is mostly gravel. Give us a road name and a nearest crossroad and that is enough to find you.
See every service on the services hub, or every town on the service areas hub.
Tell us where you are, what you are driving, and what happened. Calling is fastest, and it is the only way to get a real price before anything moves.
Tell us what you need. Calling is the fastest way to reach us. You can also text, or send your details below.
Call 402-512-2304Fastest Text 402-512-2304Arrives from your number, so we can reply straight back