If you have Onstar and Pikepass

[Red Arrow]

I found this inconvenient answer on the Pike Pass web site. They really need to come up with something better.

12. What if I occasionally pull a trailer?
You can still use a PIKEPASS Sticker. Contact the Customer Service Center at 1-800-745-3727 before and after your trip. If you did not make the class change on your account prior to traveling, you should stop at an attended toll booth on the turnpike(s). A toll collector can make the change for you for that (one way) trip. We are planning to add a function for PIKEPASS online customers to temporarily adjust the class of their vehicles themselves.

[Conan71]

I found this inconvenient answer on the Pike Pass web site. They really need to come up with something better.

12. What if I occasionally pull a trailer?
You can still use a PIKEPASS Sticker. Contact the Customer Service Center at 1-800-745-3727 before and after your trip. If you did not make the class change on your account prior to traveling, you should stop at an attended toll booth on the turnpike(s). A toll collector can make the change for you for that (one way) trip. We are planning to add a function for PIKEPASS online customers to temporarily adjust the class of their vehicles themselves.

Yeah, I'll get right on that...

[patric]

I found this inconvenient answer on the Pike Pass web site. They really need to come up with something better.

12. What if I occasionally pull a trailer?
You can still use a PIKEPASS Sticker. Contact the Customer Service Center at 1-800-745-3727 before and after your trip. If you did not make the class change on your account prior to traveling, you should stop at an attended toll booth on the turnpike(s). A toll collector can make the change for you for that (one way) trip. We are planning to add a function for PIKEPASS online customers to temporarily adjust the class of their vehicles themselves.

Some years ago, I asked that same question of a booth attendant, and he told me the sensor in the road would count my axles and calculate my pikepass toll accordingly.  It came from an OTA employee, and I never had any issues all the years I went through the lane with a horse trailer, so that's news to me. 

[patric]

.

Intuitively, I agree with you. Obviously RFID tags can work fine without being stuck to anything, given that one often finds them inserted in books and what have you these days. I presume the difficulty has something to do with the antenna being designed to be stuck to a windshield and optimized for that particular condition.

Wow, learned something today.  The windshield becomes another capacitor in the tank circuit of the transponder, so it would have to be attached to a piece of glass of a certain thickness to complete the circuit and resonate properly.  Clever.

[sgrizzle]

Which likely means they provide you with a cardboard 'edge' to smooth those bubbles out.

Going to their website, they indicate these can be peeled off rather easily.  If so, I don't have as much of a problem affixing it to my windshield.  But I'll reserve judgment until someone can tell me for sure it's easy to peel off.

They provide no cardboard edge or squegee, you would destroy the electronics.

Mine stuck pretty firmly on first touch.

[Red Arrow]

Some years ago, I asked that same question of a booth attendant, and he told me the sensor in the road would count my axles and calculate my pikepass toll accordingly.  It came from an OTA employee, and I never had any issues all the years I went through the lane with a horse trailer, so that's news to me. 

As I posted earlier, I have a 3 axle Pike Pass for when I tow a trailer. Sometimes I'll take the Creek Turnpike in one direction and drop off the trailer and then, within a half hour, go the other direction without the trailer.  I have occasionally forgotten to change the 3 axle pass back to the 2 axle pass. (I don't remember forgetting the other way.)  I have never seen a 2 axle toll on my 3 axle pass.  I did have a state trooper come along side me once on the Indian Nations Tpk  just after I passed through the high speed Pike Pass lane with my trailer.  He appeared to point a Pike Pass reading device at my car, was satisfied that I had a 3 axle pass and kept on going. 

It's possible that the readers where you have to slow down and wait for the Pike Pass Thanks You light that it counts your axles.

[Mike 01Hawk]

I found this inconvenient answer on the Pike Pass web site. They really need to come up with something better.

12. What if I occasionally pull a trailer?
You can still use a PIKEPASS Sticker. Contact the Customer Service Center at 1-800-745-3727 before and after your trip. If you did not make the class change on your account prior to traveling, you should stop at an attended toll booth on the turnpike(s). A toll collector can make the change for you for that (one way) trip. We are planning to add a function for PIKEPASS online customers to temporarily adjust the class of their vehicles themselves.

LoL.

Gotta <3 the OTC / OTA.

Here's another fun bureaucracy, inefficiency story:

I sold a car in 2009 to a guy in Texas,  a month ago I get a tag renewal form for the car

So I call up a tag agency wanting to know if there was anything that needed to be done on my part legally.  They said, I kid you not: "Well, you could A) come to the agency and pay $10 to have the title updated in our system, or B) you could just ignore the renewal notice when you get them.

Right, I'll get right on that.  

[patric]

OK, now that we know what it takes to make the new Pikepasses portable again, what about Townsend's original question about them interfering with OnStar?

Seems difficult, but not impossible.  While the Pikepass RFID that Conan looked up just occupies one frequency, CDMA devices like Sprint, Verizon and OnStar are spread-spectrum, in that it will search for whatever frequencies are clear enough to handshake with the tower, (even though the Pikepass and OnStar frequencies appear to overlap).   

Looking at OTA's installation video (complete with hokey guitar score)

the sticker is installed far enough down the windshield to be in the field of view. (If it were anything other than a Pikepass you would likely get a ticket for obstructing your windshield).  From what im seeing sofar, the Pikepass sticker would be more likely to interfere with the aiming of a dashcam or a radar detector than OnStar or a cell phone.
I was wrong earlier about the sticker being inert, so it's possible I just havent found anything corroborating the OnStar interference.   

[Townsend]

I was wrong earlier about the sticker being inert, so it's possible I just havent found anything corroborating the OnStar interference.   

I called Onstar and Pikepass.  Both said there have been issues.  Onstar referred to the Ipass sticker.

[nathanm]

I called Onstar and Pikepass.  Both said there have been issues.  Onstar referred to the Ipass sticker.

I thought the guts of the onstar system were in the back of the vehicle, near the driver's side wheel well. Perhaps that's just on older vehicles.

[Townsend]

I thought the guts of the onstar system were in the back of the vehicle, near the driver's side wheel well. Perhaps that's just on older vehicles.

Starts at the mirror and goes through windshield across passenger side top to the back of the roof of the car.

[patric]

Starts at the mirror and goes through windshield across passenger side top to the back of the roof of the car.

Isnt the mirror just the control, with wiring running above the windshield to a box behind the glove box?

[Townsend]

Isnt the mirror just the control, with wiring running above the windshield to a box behind the glove box?

If you are looking at schematics then you know more than I.  I'm just regurging.

[nathanm]

Zombie thread tiem!

After nearly two years of regularly receiving postcards pleading with me to replace my old Pikepasses, including one very serious looking (printed on red paper!) "FINAL NOTICE", they've finally sent me a postcard telling me that my passes "may" have been scheduled for deactivation within 10 days.

Looking online, they sent the notice out almost 20 days ago now. Given that I last used mine on the 4th, I would say they lied once again. Nonetheless, ignoring them will clearly only work so long. I had "heard" that they had come to their senses and were giving people the option of getting a battery-less portable transponder. Sadly, no such option appears on the website. It's got a nice drop down box, but the only option is the sticker.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Do I actually have to call to get them to send me a tag that I can use? Or are they going to give me the runaround if I do call? If so, I'll just ignore the fine postcard and keep using the existing ones until they start giving me the violation light. Somehow I doubt they'd be happy to send me 20 stickers to get me through the next year.

Is it really absolutely necessary to have such an anti-customer tolling agency? Why can't they take a lesson from FTE?

[Red Arrow]

Does anyone have any experience with this? Do I actually have to call to get them to send me a tag that I can use? Or are they going to give me the runaround if I do call? If so, I'll just ignore the fine postcard and keep using the existing ones until they start giving me the violation light. Somehow I doubt they'd be happy to send me 20 stickers to get me through the next year.

Call them on the phone.  Have your account number, vehicle identification etc.  Tell them you want a Portable Pass with the suction cups to stick on the windshield.  I wanted it so I could easily switch between 2 axle (no trailer) and 3 axle (single axle trailer).  It will cost $25 for the non-sticker pass but it is without battery and should be a one time expense and no regular exchanges for a new one.