Cheap towing in the Jersey City Heights: narrow blocks, steep grades and the lower-cost wheel-lift

Two- and three-family houses, cars on both curbs and barely room for one lane. A wheel-lift slides in, lifts the drive wheels and leaves without shutting the block.

Tell dispatch what you drive. If it is AWD or electric, a flatbed comes and loads from the nearest corner instead.

Staff and visitor cars in the hospital lots at shift change. Batteries more than anything else, and a jump is the cheaper job.

Give the lot and level. If the car needs a tow, the driver meets you at the lot entrance.

The grades falling west off the ridge get slick first in winter. A slide into a curb is a winch-out, and if the car drives off afterward, that is the whole bill.

Parking on a grade with a dead battery is also common. Chock the wheels, say it is on a hill, and the driver comes prepared.

Storefronts, bus stops and double-parked deliveries along Central Avenue, plus the park edges. Flats, lockouts and stalls at the lights.

A garage on or near Central Avenue keeps the tow short. A car headed into Union City or North Bergen is a local run at the same fee.