Toll tags and RVs?

Holy cow... for $68 or $84 I'd want to be able to stop and camp ON the bridge.  With full hookups!

RVRAC said:

In the Houston area an EZ Tag is required for the MH and the toad.  They are separate tags, both must be purchased.  The one for Class C comes with instructions to place it in the lower part of the windshield close to the middle of it.  You are charged $40 for initial deposit and a monthly report is sent to you by email.  This is what I have.  In IL, we use an I-Pass for all vehicles.  You also need a credit card on file.

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I can tell you from experience that the TX system is very unreliable if you have passes in both the MH and the toad despite what you may be told.  After a trip on the Sam Houston Toll road around Houston we would get separate charges totaling, occasionally, as many as 5 axles (even though both vehicles have 2 axles).  These days we simply remove the toad's pass and put it in a foil pouch.  The axles counters are pretty accurate and usually we get billed for 4 axles.  Even though the pass has adhesive and is designed not be be removable we just use 3M dual lock fasteners to hold it to the windshield rather than the adhesive.  Dual Lock is the same material that EZPass gives you for mounting your pass on your windshield.

Personally, I like Kansas Turnpike the best... you get a ticket when you get on and then you stop and pay when you get off. You dont have a bunch of different toll plazas to have to go through

cadee2c said:

Personally, I like Kansas Turnpike the best... you get a ticket when you get on and then you stop and pay when you get off. You dont have a bunch of different toll plazas to have to go through

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I agree -- it's great. Now if we just figure out how to move it to Chicago.....

cadee2c said:

Personally, I like Kansas Turnpike the best... you get a ticket when you get on and then you stop and pay when you get off. You dont have a bunch of different toll plazas to have to go through

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I like toll roads like the NY Thruway, Mass Pike, etc., where we can get on and never need to stop for tickets or tolls at all. They just read our E-ZPass tag as we roll on by. 

NY_Dutch said:

I like toll roads like the NY Thruway, Mass Pike, etc., where we can get on and never need to stop for tickets or tolls at all. They just read our E-ZPass tag as we roll on by. 

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Best is Missouri where I have yet to see any toll road. Not sure if any exist.

Bill

Bill N said:

Best is Missouri where I have yet to see any toll road. Not sure if any exist.

Bill

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A number of states have no toll roads, Bill, and certainly that's preferable from a traveler standpoint. But where there are tolls, my statement stands...

Bill N said:

Best is Missouri where I have yet to see any toll road. Not sure if any exist.

Bill

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Missouri legislature, for several years, has made overtures that they would like to turn I-70 into a toll road.

I go thru Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio frequently.  The toll thing doesn't really bother me much, but the fact that Indiana and Ohio like to live in the past and still use gates is.  Illinois uses high speed tolling out on the main road for those with EZ Pass.  I was hoping, big time, that when Indiana leased out the the I-80/90 toll road, that it would get upgraded to high speed tolling.

NY_Dutch said:

I like toll roads like the NY Thruway, Mass Pike, etc., where we can get on and never need to stop for tickets or tolls at all. They just read our E-ZPass tag as we roll on by. 

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That's a neat feature, but the Kansas Turnpike is cheaper (a lot) than most places I've found toll roads. Of course it's been in place for a lot of years, but so has the Pennsy, and it's expensive.

Lots of talk about Illinois, but the only tolls you will find here are in the Chicagoland area (uppermost NE corner of the state).  The rest of the state (and that's most of us) let you drive the roads for free. 

Since the topic is about toll tags, references to places without tolls is really pretty irrelevant. 

scottydl said:

Lots of talk about Illinois, but the only tolls you will find here are in the Chicagoland area (uppermost NE corner of the state).  The rest of the state (and that's most of us) let you drive the roads for free. 

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That reminds me Scotty of the last toll road I was on several years ago.  I think it was I-80 on the southern edge of Chicago.  Was sailing along on free interstate and came to a toll booth.  Paid toll for a 5 mile stretch the entirely of which was under reconstruction and limited to one lane in each direction.  After the 5 miles, the interstate continued on free of any tolls.  I think that was nothing more than a toll trap but looking at a map I see it is still the same.

Bill

NY_Dutch said:

Since the topic is about toll tags, references to places without tolls is really pretty irrelevant. 

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Perhaps true Dutch but maybe I am on the Missouri Tourism Commission and trolling for non-toll seekers......lol

Bill

I use to have my GPS set to avoid toll roads. 
Only time it was ever even noticeable to me was going to Fort Pickens in Florida.  In order to miss a toll bridge(and save like $2)over to the island, the GPS routed me to the opposite end of the island where the free bridge is.  This cost me a long stop and go drive across the island to the park.  That coming at the end of an already long day.  Then I got stuck in the campground behind some guy who tried to pull his car and dolly around too sharp a corner and was now waiting for a tow truck to lift his car off the dolly to avoid damage. 
The corner wasn't any problem to me, our Toad had been stolen 2 days before at a campground on the Natchez Trace, so after he cleared the turn I drove right around the turn and set up...now in the dark.  :

Now-a-days I just pay the damn tolls.

I went through Mass, the passes are free with an initial minimum of $20.00. In Ct we have "combination" plates which are required for 3/4 ton and/or commercial type vehicles. It's a $50.00 minimum. As soon as I put my plate in the system it was flagged as commercial, ok, no big deal I'll pay the $50. You also have to order a separate transponder for the RV, a trailer in my case. The idea is the truck gets two transponders, one for towing one for not towing. Within a week or so the passenger plate passes I ordered were delivered, no passes for the truck.

After a few weeks I called and the call taker advised me I was missing information for the truck. They wanted to know if my truck had a GVW of over 9500lbs, answer was easy - no. The next question I found comical although I think they try to trap people.....she asked me if my truck fits in the garage. I said no, because I don't have a garage, she then said if you did would it fit? Laughing to myself I said no, within a week I had two transponders properly marked for towing and non-towing!

I have seen posts where people just use the same pass whether towing or not. Mass offers a discount for tolls in their State which now are all plate readers, no option to pay at all. I think they may nab the plate of the RV and charge if it's not in the EZ Pass system. So all in all it's a better deal and I'm sure more States will be going the way of overhead readers.

NY_Dutch said:

Since the topic is about toll tags, references to places without tolls is really pretty irrelevant. 

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What better solution (when talking about tolls and tags) than to discover that you can drive on road that never need any! ;D

Bill N said:

That reminds me Scotty of the last toll road I was on several years ago. . .I think that was nothing more than a toll trap but looking at a map I see it is still the same.

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You bet it's the same.  When I was younger my dad told me a story about one of the first new tollways around Chicago (1970's or 80's?)... at the time the state said it was a temporary revenue generator to help pay for the road to be finished, and then the tollway would be removed.  Well guess what.  Once they realized how much money it was making, the thing never left.  And of course, hundreds more have since been built!

Old_Crow said:

I use to have my GPS set to avoid toll roads.

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Me too, and one year traveling past Chicago I was convinced I wasn't going to pay the enhanced RV rate of the single tollbooth I'd pass... and I was sure I had the slickest alternate route.  I did avoid the toll, but added 30-45 minutes to my trip on a city road with a ton of red traffic lights, and through a not-so-great neighborhood where my 35' Class A pulling a tow dolly (plus wife and three kids in the rig) certainly got some looks.  On the return trip I decided to just pay the toll, and later found out I was only charged the half-price car rate of 35 cents.  The joke was on me that time!!

The half-price Ipass module for Illinois tolls really is worthwhile.

scottydl said:

You bet it's the same.  When I was younger my dad told me a story about one of the first new tollways around Chicago (1970's or 80's?)... at the time the state said it was a temporary revenue generator to help pay for the road to be finished, and then the tollway would be removed.  Well guess what.  Once they realized how much money it was making, the thing never left.  And of course, hundreds more have since been built!

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Sounds like what used to be  IL I5 (now I-88) in 1975. Moved into an apartment right next to it in 1975 and that's what we were told.