Furthest north in the network
Fairbanks is the northernmost location Purcell operates, and that shapes what a roadside call looks like here. Distances between places are long, help is further away than it would be anywhere else in the company, and the weather is a participant rather than a backdrop.
None of that changes the service. It changes how much the preparation matters.
Give the location properly
A highway and a mile marker is the ideal. Where that is not available, give the road, the direction you were travelling, the last named place you passed and anything a technician arriving in the dark can use to be certain they have the right vehicle.
Then the tire size and position, read off the sidewall. A technician sent with the wrong size has to return, and in this part of the state that is not a short round trip.
Cold makes a bad tire worse
Low temperatures drop pressure, and an under-inflated tire runs hot and flexes in ways that finish it quickly. A tire that was marginal in October is a tire that fails in January.
The practical version: check pressures cold and check them through the winter rather than once at the start of it. It prevents more roadside calls than anything else available to a fleet here.
Stop when the tire goes
A tire run flat usually destroys the casing, and in Alaska the replacement has the furthest to travel of anywhere in the Purcell network. Stopping where the failure happens keeps the casing in play for retreading and keeps the repair small.
About this store
The Fairbanks store is a commercial location open Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM, managed by Ron Hoffman. Alongside roadside assistance it offers fleet services, heavy-duty truck alignment, car and light truck alignment and tire and wheel balancing, and carries seven tire categories.
The same service elsewhere in Alaska
- 24-Hour Roadside Assistance in Anchorage, AK, (907) 276-7515.
- 24-Hour Roadside Assistance in Wasilla, AK, (907) 376-4755.
See the national roadside assistance page for the other 45 locations.