French motorway toll catagories

Can anyone tell me what tariff is applicable to a Danbury T2 camper on French autoroutes?

Category 1 (the lowest) is for vehicles up to 2 metres height
Category 2 is for vehicles over 2 metres  but less than 3.5 tonnes weight

As the standard Danbury with pop up roof is 2.08 metres that seems to put it into the second category (thus nearly 50% extra) but if you have lowered suspension that would put it into category 1. Can the toll operators tell the difference?

What has been your experience?

When we returned from Ile de Re we paid 7.20 Euros for the toll route to Nantes. That is the same toll as for a car. We used an automated barrier, which presumably couldn't tell the difference. I believe that all of the group paid the same toll. Maybe if you went to a manned barrier you might be unlucky. For instance, on the M6 toll some operators say the charge is £5.50, others £11. Even if they say £11, it discounts to £5.50 with a Caravan Club card.

If you're doing a lot of toll roads in France you might want to look at obtaining a Tag so you can run through the auto paege's www.tolltickets.com . My office on the M20 Junction 11 is a collection point for them , they are great and relatively inexpensive based on the time and fuel savings (and I'm not on commission!)

We have used the Saniff Toll Tag for the last 2 weeks and found it to be really useful. We didn't have to queue at any toll or hunt around for any coins.
The tolls are no cheaper with this system but it's far more convienient.
I've just looked at the bill and we were classed as catagory 01 (under 2m) for every toll except one. The difference is huge. €4 compared to €20! I've requested an adjustment and a credit will arrive in a few weeks.

That's interesting. On my trips I was charged Category 2 for nearly every trip. The one I was charged Cat 1 was on the Le Havre toll bridge and was on an attended booth. All the auto payments I was judged as Cat 2. This was also the case in Portugal. Do you have lowered suspension? as this may bring the Kombi to below 2 metres

I am lowered but only by a few inches so I'm not sure that made much difference. The system works by a laser to work out your height. The Liber-t website does mention that it gets it wrong on occasions.
I also took off the roof rack to reduce my height although it is supposed to detect this and not increase the category.
The only toll I couldn't use the tag was the border crossing to Spain. On this occasion they had a physical 2m barrier which I drove under. I was told I cleared it easily!

According to the Danbury catalogue. the lowered van is 1.995 metres and standard is 2.080. I tried measuring mine with a tape measure and it seemed to be about 2.1 metres. It would seem the measuring system on French motorways is very precise. I will invariably try to use the manned booths as I seem to get in Cat 1 on them. I will be going through France and Italy in September so I will see how I get on then.

I have a lowered SE.
Just checked the monthly invoice for my Sanef tag.
I was charged 'class 1' on three of the tolls, and class 2 on the remaining two.
I'll get on to Sanef and appeal the 'class 2' tolls. Thanks for the reminder.

Should we take the bag off the roof rack?

Als wrote:

Should we take the bag off the roof rack?

No. You are classed by the height of your vehicle and this does not include the roof rack.

Ok. Ta x

We've just driven from Calais - Loire - South of Bordeaux (and back).
We paid 9 toll charges with a total of £55.

Oddly - there was 1 large toll of £27 going north from Bordeaux to the Loire - the others were between £3-£7.
These were the same roads

We had a bag in the roofrack which is a bit taller than the roofrack.

pdjenks wrote:

We've just driven from Calais - Loire - South of Bordeaux (and back).
We paid 9 toll charges with a total of £55.

Oddly - there was 1 large toll of £27 going north from Bordeaux to the Loire - the others were between £3-£7.
These were the same roads

We had a bag in the roofrack which is a bit taller than the roofrack.

I'm fairly certain that this was the toll I sent an adjustment in for.

€7.50 each way from st Malo to la rochellish and the €16 euros for the bridge - which you only have to pay going onto island.

Just got back from France-Italy holiday and was classified as class 2 on all autoroute tolls in both countries. It would seem that lowered suspension has unforeseen benefits. Is there any other way of loosing 8cm without letting the tyres down?

I have an app, Péago, that can tell you the rate for each class. The Bordeaux stretch is really expensive which is part of the reason we do the parallel A road. Mabel is lowered and we were class 1 all the way
Oh

harryhornet wrote:

We have used the Saniff Toll Tag for the last 2 weeks and found it to be really useful. We didn't have to queue at any toll or hunt around for any coins.
The tolls are no cheaper with this system but it's far more convienient.
I've just looked at the bill and we were classed as catagory 01 (under 2m) for every toll except one. The difference is huge. €4 compared to €20! I've requested an adjustment and a credit will arrive in a few weeks.

The credit adjustment has just come through so that means we were classed as category 1 for every toll.

Don't forget to check for any toll adjustments if you used one of the sanef toll tags over the summer.
After appealing all our category 2 tolls (caused by tent in the roof rack) down to category 1, we have a 50 Euro rebate.

we have always paid same as a car in France. Our van is a standard height air cooled with the regular Danbury pop top. Quite often it's a machine not a person you are paying.
This year we were in Belgium & Holland. Very few tolls there. Only toll was coming back west of Antwerp because east of Antwerp was so busy going.

Also worth pointing out that there are loads of good non-toll roads in France if you are prepared to go a little out of the way. You won't get Aire's and petrol will be harder to come by but you save money

For the last 2 years I have been on toll roads in France, Italy, and Portugal Almost all times I have been charged "classe 2" tariff. The only occasions I got away with "classe 1" was on manned gates. I suppose this is not surprising as the vehicle is 8cm over the 2 metre height limit of a "classe 1" car. I am just surprised so many of you seem to get away with "classe 1" . A lowered Kombi with pop top measures 1.9 metres and therefore comes under the height limit.
I also generally avoid toll roads as normal roads (particularly in France) are generally more picturesque and speeds above 90kph are not required.

Many thanks for all the really useful info on this thread - particularly the Peago app and the Liber-t tag.  I will definitely make use of them both for our trip to France in June this year.  Our experience last year was that we were usually charged Class 1 and occasionally Class 2.  Our van is standard ride height and is a few cm over 2m with the high profile tyres it sits on, so not a bad result.