Heavy Duty Towing in Wichita Falls, TX

Heavy Duty Towing Wichita Falls starts with the map. The city of 102,316 people (2020 census) is the Wichita County seat and the principal city of a metro area that covers Archer, Clay and Wichita counties. It sits about 15 miles south of the Oklahoma border, 115 miles northwest of Fort Worth and 140 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. When a tractor-trailer breaks down here, the driver is usually on a route that touches one of those three places.

Highways a driver can be stranded on

Interstate 44 ends in Wichita Falls. Wikipedia lists its western terminus at the junction with US 82, US 277, US 281 and US 287, and gives its Texas length as about 14.77 miles. Locals call the city stretch the Central Freeway. A short spur, Spur 325, runs from I-44 and US 287 to the main gate of Sheppard Air Force Base. Four other routes fan out of the city:

• US 287 northwest toward Iowa Park, Electra and Vernon, and southeast toward Henrietta
• US 82 east on the expressway to Henrietta, and west with US 277 on Kell Boulevard
• US 281 south toward Jacksboro
• US 277 toward Abilene, with a project underway to make it a continuous four-lane expressway

State Highway 79 runs through the city, and State Highway 240 ends here. Kell Boulevard (US 82 and US 277) was built as freeway lanes in stages from 1977 to 2010.

What moves through town

Sheppard Air Force Base is the largest employer on the Chamber of Commerce list, at 7,222 people. Arconic lists 1,072 and Vitro lists 934. The state's James V. Allred Unit lists 921. With a base and large plants in town, heavy inbound and outbound loads share the same few highways. Oil built the city too. Continental Oil, now ConocoPhillips, ran refineries here until 1952, and the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway arrived in September 1882. Passenger rail ended in 1967, but freight and trucks still carry the city's goods.

Weather that closes roads

Wichita Falls is humid subtropical, with long, very hot summers. Temperatures reach 90 degrees or higher on about 102 days a year, and the record high is 117 degrees. In 2011 it became the first Texas city to have 100 days at 100 degrees or higher in one year. Hot pavement and tire failures go together. Heavy rain can matter just as much. May 2015 brought 17.00 inches, the wettest month on record. Annual precipitation averages 27.89 inches, with about 59 to 60 freezing nights a year.

Tornadoes

Two storms define local memory. An F5 on April 3, 1964 killed seven people and destroyed about 225 homes. An F4 on April 10, 1979 killed 42 and left 20,000 people homeless. A trailer or bus caught in a storm like that is a recovery job as much as a tow.

Rail, oil and the way the city was built

The city was platted and named Wichita Falls on September 27, 1876, and the first permanent resident arrived in 1879. County seat status came in 1882, the same year the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway arrived. The Handbook of Texas says the Electra field in 1911 and the Burkburnett fields in 1918 shifted the economy toward oil, and that a discovery at nearby Kamay in 1938 helped the city keep growing through the Great Depression. After refining declined, the city recruited new employers: Gates Rubber arrived in 1964, and Sprague Electric and Johnson and Johnson followed in 1966. Each wave of industry added trucks to the same road network.

Air and campus traffic

Wichita Falls Municipal Airport has two daily American Eagle flights to Dallas/Fort Worth. Midwestern State University lists 1,276 employees and United Regional Health Care System lists 2,100. Buses carrying students, patients and military personnel are part of the mix, and a stalled bus is a call where passengers come first.

Calling us from the Wichita Falls side of the line

Tell dispatch the road, the direction, the nearest cross street or mile marker, and which side of the Oklahoma line you are on if you are north of town. Give the unit type, rough weight, whether it is loaded, and who is paying: driver, fleet, broker or insurer. Dispatch answers 24/7 and gives an honest arrival estimate on the call. Call (940) 283-6645 or

Get a Free Estimate

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