What to Do If You Get a Flat Tire While Towing A Trailer

A flat tire is a nuisance in a car. Towing, it's two problems at once: a disabled tire and a loaded trailer to deal with on the shoulder, and depending on which vehicle the flat is on, the fix looks completely different.

Most people who rent a trailer never think about it until they're standing on the side of a highway wondering whether there's even a spare, or whether their roadside plan covers the trailer at all. A few minutes of knowing what to do, and what your coverage actually includes, is the difference between a short delay and a very long afternoon.

In the Moment: Keep Control and Get Clear

Don't panic-brake

If a tire lets go while you're towing, ease off the throttle and hold the wheel firmly instead of slamming the brakes, since hard braking with a loaded trailer behind you can make things worse. Let the rig slow gradually, signal, and move right when it's safe to.

Get well off the road

Pull as far onto the shoulder as you can, ideally onto firm, level ground, and get the whole rig out of the traffic lane. Distance from traffic matters more than finding the perfect spot. A tire is replaceable.

Everyone out of the danger zone

Get people and pets away from the traffic side and out from between the tow vehicle and the trailer. Hazard lights on, and set out reflective triangles or flares if you have them, especially on a highway.

Then assess before you touch anything

Which vehicle is the flat on, do you have a spare and the tools, and is it safe to change it right here? If any of those is a no, this is a call-for-help situation, not a change-it-yourself one.

Is the Flat on the Tow Vehicle or the Trailer?

A tow vehicle flat affects your steering

A flat on the tow vehicle, a front tire especially, changes how the rig handles and steers, so keeping control is the first concern. Changing it is a normal tire change, but the loaded trailer behind you complicates jacking and positioning, so chock the trailer wheels and make sure the whole rig is stable before you lift anything.

A trailer flat can hide, then do damage

A trailer flat doesn't always announce itself. The tow vehicle masks the feel, and a trailer can ride on a failed tire far longer than you'd expect, which is how a simple flat turns into a shredded tire, a bent rim or torn-up fender. Watch your mirrors, and if the trailer starts to sway or wobble, treat it as a possible tire and get off the road.

Changing a trailer tire

Chock the tires that are staying on the ground first. On a tandem-axle trailer, there's a useful trick: you can often drive the good tire on the flat side up onto a drive-up ramp made for this, which lifts the flat tire clear of the ground without a jack. Otherwise, jack only at the trailer maker's rated jacking points, on firm and level ground. Read more about utility trailer hitch and towing requirements for the towing basics.

The spare question

None of this works without a serviceable, properly inflated, correctly sized spare and the tools to fit it. Which is exactly what people who tow once in a while tend not to have, and exactly why it's worth checking before you leave.

Why Ordinary Roadside Assistance Often Falls Short

The trailer is the catch

A lot of standard auto roadside plans cover the tow vehicle and not the trailer, and some will tow your vehicle and leave the trailer sitting on the shoulder. If you tow, that's the single most important thing to check in any plan: what actually happens to the trailer.

Insurance is not roadside

Comprehensive auto insurance and roadside assistance are two different things, and having one doesn't mean you have the other. Some insurers offer roadside as an add-on, but again, confirm whether it covers the trailer before you count on it.

What "flat tire service" usually means

On most roadside plans, flat tire service means swapping the flat for your mounted spare, not delivering a new tire. So a plan is only as good as the spare you're carrying, and if there's no spare, the service becomes a tow.

AAA Plus RV and Premier RV

AAA is the plan most people already know, and it has two upgrades aimed squarely at trailers. According to AAA's Plus RV and Premier RV coverage, these aren't standalone plans. They're upgrades added on top of a base AAA Plus or Premier membership, so you pay for the base membership and then add the RV tier on top, which is what makes them cost noticeably more than standard AAA coverage.

What they cover

The upgrade extends your covered service calls to trailers, including utility and travel trailers, along with RVs and motorcycles. For a flat, AAA describes the service as changing the tire using the trailer's or vehicle's own mounted spare. In other words, AAA doesn't bring a new tire to the roadside. If there's no usable spare, the remedy is a tow, and the plans do include towing: Plus RV covers multiple tows up to around 100 miles, and Premier RV includes a longer tow up to around 200 miles.

The fine print that matters

Service on RV and trailer vehicle types carries dollar caps, and AAA's materials put those in the range of a few hundred dollars per service call and roughly a thousand dollars per household per membership year, with the member paying anything above that. There's also typically a waiting period before RV benefits kick in. And because AAA is run by regional clubs, the exact benefits, limits and pricing vary by area, so confirm the details with your local club rather than assuming.

Who it's for

If you tow often, or you run a business that depends on getting a trailer somewhere, the trailer coverage and the longer tows can be worth the premium. For someone moving a rented trailer once a year, it's a lot of ongoing cost for something you'll rarely use, and one of the cheaper options below may fit better.

Other Options Worth Comparing

RV-specific roadside plans

Coach-Net and Good Sam Roadside Assistance are built for people who tow, so they're designed to handle the trailer and not just the tow vehicle. Both will tow the rig to a service center and change a flat using your spare, both typically offer a separate tire-and-wheel or road-hazard protection you can add, and both cover trailers without charging per vehicle type. They're standalone annual plans, often in the low-to-mid hundreds of dollars a year, so it's worth comparing that against the AAA base-membership-plus-upgrade total.

Road-hazard or tire-and-wheel protection

This is separate from roadside entirely. It's coverage that reimburses you for a tire destroyed by a road hazard, often sold by tire retailers when you buy the tires. It pays for the replacement, but it doesn't come change it, so it pairs with roadside coverage rather than replacing it.

An auto insurance roadside add-on

Often the cheapest option, and often the one most likely to cover only the tow vehicle. If you go this route, confirm in writing whether the trailer is included before you rely on it.

The universal baseline: carry a real spare

The cheapest coverage that always works is a serviceable, properly inflated, correctly sized spare, plus the jack, wrench and a chock to fit it. No plan on earth is faster than the spare already sitting on your trailer.

Before You Tow a Rented Trailer

Renting shifts a couple of these checks to before you leave the lot:

• Confirm the trailer has a serviceable, properly inflated spare, and that the jack and wrench to change it are on board, since an occasional rental is exactly where this gets overlooked
• Look at the tires themselves for proper inflation, tread and any visible cracking or dry rot, because trailer tires often fail from age and sitting rather than mileage
• Check the rental terms for how a flat on a rented trailer is handled and who's responsible, so you're not sorting that out on the shoulder
• Keep the rental's contact information somewhere you can reach it

And load it right, since proper weight distribution reduces the stress on the tires in the first place. Read more about how to load a trailer.

What about insurance and damage protection?

This rental protection is separate from roadside and tire coverage, and it's worth understanding on its own.

Before towing a rented trailer, contact your auto insurance provider to ask whether your policy covers liability and towing-related damage claims.

Eligible rentals booked through Big Rentals also include Basic Rental Protection at checkout. This added protection can help limit your financial responsibility for certain damage or theft events during the rental period.

For full details on how Basic Rental Protection works, including deductibles, exclusions, and renter responsibilities, review our FAQ and platform terms.

The Short Version

• If a tire goes while towing, ease off instead of slamming the brakes, pull well clear of traffic onto firm ground, get everyone away from the traffic side, then assess
• A tow vehicle flat affects your steering; a trailer flat can hide and shred the tire or damage the rig, so watch your mirrors and stop if the trailer sways
• Chock before you lift, and on a tandem trailer a drive-up ramp can raise the flat tire without a jack
• None of it works without a serviceable, inflated spare and the tools, which occasional towers often don't have
• Ordinary auto roadside often covers only the tow vehicle and may strand the trailer, so check what happens to the trailer
• AAA Plus RV and Premier RV add trailer coverage on top of a base membership, change the flat with your spare or tow you, and cost significantly more; Coach-Net, Good Sam, tire road-hazard protection and insurance add-ons are all worth comparing
• Renting? Confirm the spare, jack and wrench, and check the tires, before you leave

Browse trailer rentals near you.