EZPass mounting location

[KE7WOX]

I was wondering where others have mounted their EZ Pass transponders. I got one last weekend and mounted it right below the rearview mirror mount, slightly towards the passenger side and I'm wondering if others have found that location, or one that's close to that, to either work or fail. I've seen a ton of cars with the transponder mounted next to the rearview mount, on the passenger side, but that seems to be more prevalent with the older tags that are the size of a floppy disk. In general I'm just trying to avoid having to pay a $40 toll somewhere due to a poor mounting location.

Or does the location even matter completely? I noticed that my buddy's semi truck has his mounted on the lower part of the windshield, maybe 1/3 of the way between the windshield centerline and the passenger side edge of the windshield.

Any ideas, input or comments?

[Moots1288]

I Know people dont even mount them and just lift them as they go through the toll. I just mounted mine under the the rearview mirror

[ErikSS]

I put mine on the windshield behind the passenger side of the rear view mirror.

[Wahugg]

I gotta ask Felipe, where do you use an EZ pass around Columbus? Parking garage maybe?

[v7guy]

The best spot seems to be right under the rear view mirror center of windshield. Even having it on the dash or holding it in front the driver it sometimes doesn't work. Much like the bumper tags frequently don't work because they're too far down.
On the toll plazas the antennas are mounted center of the lane and point down, and angled a bit towards you as you approach. They're those white squares hanging from the canopy. There also is an issue if your carrying a kayak or some other load on the roof that hangs out over the windshield, it obstructs the signal and you get a lot of failure to read that way. It's most common on trucks with a boom that hangs out over windshield or car carrier trucks that have cars hanging out over the cabs windshield, but does happen with passenger vehicles as well.

On the high speed ezpass (where there's just a gantry over the highway) it's less important, the antennas are "stronger" and pick up the tags more easily in various locations in the vehicle.

[dvanbramer88]

First, if you get a ticket for not paying your toll and you have EZ pass, there is a spot on the form for you to fill out that an EZ pass failure caused the fine. And you're good to go with just the toll you owe 99% of the time. Its happened to my dad a dozen times. They finally offered to send him a new EZ pass transponder after so many failures.

I have my EZ pass on the dash of my truck, center line of the vehicle, all the way against the glass. Never had a problem. My Dad actually keeps his on the driver side of the dash of his truck on one of those sticky pads to keep your shit from sliding around. Hasn't had a problem.

All his failures were in his little Saturn SC1, and were years ago. (Probably had something to do with the height of the car/angle of the windshield.)


And a little EZ pass related humor. It slays me when you see someone who forgot they have an EZ pass stop and frantically press the button for a ticket, while the green light is illuminated. And they wonder why no ticket is coming out. Morons.

I've also seen people forget to hold up their EZ pass (can't afford velcro?) Get the red light, Stop in the toll both, and wave their transponder around like a fool trying to get it to work. I'm like bro, you're 30 feet past the antenna. And they get hyped with you that you won't let them back up, when half the time, I'm already past the sensor and paid.

Now that I think about it, I really don't miss commuting to school.

[NC_IslandRunner]

We have one toll road, and most people avoid it like the plague. It gets you to the airport a whole 3 minutes faster than the old way, not worth the toll if you ask me, probably the reason they advertise it so much is because they spent all that $$ building the thing and now no one will use it!

[KE7WOX]

I gotta ask Felipe, where do you use an EZ pass around Columbus? Parking garage maybe?

I just use it as a fancy windshield ornament. I'm pretty sure there are no facilities here that accept it, even CMH has its own system, which I don't use.

I got it for when traveling, last time I went down to CLT I had to stop on the WV Turnpike to get a drink and change, because I rarely carry cash (or if I do, it's in 20s), the whole thing annoyed me.

So that's mainly it, saves me from having to carry spare cash or factoring in the "I may have to take a toll road".

First, if you get a ticket for not paying your toll and you have EZ pass, there is a spot on the form for you to fill out that an EZ pass failure caused the fine. And you're good to go with just the toll you owe 99% of the time. Its happened to my dad a dozen times. They finally offered to send him a new EZ pass transponder after so many failures.

Interesting, I didn't know that.



My only previous experiences with prepaid tolls were on the Panama City (not-Florida one), where you got RFID cards, just like a metro/bus pass and you just drove up to the booth (or the boothless booth) and waved it in front of the RFID reader.

[v7guy]

I gotta ask Felipe, where do you use an EZ pass around Columbus? Parking garage maybe?

[KE7WOX]

Yeah, our only toll highway is the Ohio Turnpike, whi ch runs way north of us, that's why he was asking.

[Wahugg]

Exactly. There is literally no EZ pass here in Ohio, especially where we live (Columbus) besides the turnpike. Rather than pay that fee I take route 20. Slightly slower but free.

-Wahugg

[Moots1288]

I can't leave the city with out paying a toll

[KE7WOX]

I can't leave the city with out paying a toll

I've heard many horror stories about NYC, apparently using $50s to pay tolls becomes a thing once you've got a Uhaul with a car trailer.

I have yet to take the OH Turnpike, might travel on it next week if I do end up rushing to Toledo after work on Friday to see Sentimental Journey.

For WV, I'd rather pay the tolls than try to bypass them, I might make a few trips down to Charleston over the next few months to go railfanning, so this will come in handy.

[Trail X]

Here's official mounting instructions: https://www.ezpassva.com/pdfs/mounting.pdf

I can't believe how much discussion this has generated.

[v7guy]

I unfortunately deal with EZPass toll plazas on a regular basis, if mounted per the instructions it works 98% of the time at the worst. If it doesn't work, you probably don't have it mounted in the center of the windshield. Or it's on the bumper and been smashed to hell by parallel parkers or for whatever reason the system had a hiccup... the hiccups happen EXTREMELY rarely.

[KE7WOX]

Here's official mounting instructions: https://www.ezpassva.com/pdfs/mounting.pdf

I can't believe how much discussion this has generated.

Those are the instructions that I found, the problem is that they show the tag above the mirror, which is not a good location on our trucks, or off to the side.

I'm by no means familiar with vehicle-mounted RFID toll collection methods, and that's why I was worried about this not working properly, I've seen countless vehicles using an alternate location, somewhat closer to #2, but still different.

[Gordinho80]

This is amazing!!! You can place the damn thing anywhere on the windshield! The sensors will read it!