If I had passed my test first time, I would have had full pre-Apr 1997 grandfather rights to drive everything but sadly I find myself with the annoying post 97 restrictions.
For many years I've been towing 750kg unbraked trailers full of scout kit and on the occasion I needed to tow a horse trailer I had to put on l plates and have a "grown up" with me!
Now that I'm a new caravan owning fella I've been doing the calculations to make sure I'm legal.
2004 VW Passat weighing 1641kg with a maximum towing weight of 1600kg
1991 Swift Major with max weight of 1060kg
So as I see it, combined gross weight of 2700kg and the van is lesss than 85% of vehicle so safe too
Ironically this time last year when I started dreaming of caravan based fun I was driving a landrover discovery, one of the most competnent towing vehciles but would have probably have been too heavy for me to keep within the 3.5 gross weight combined limit
Really looking forawrd to holidays with the family now!!
You need to know the maximum gross vehicle weight, not the actual weight of your Passat. It is the first weight on the VIN plate on your car, normally found on the B pillar.
However, based on my own car, I would guess it's around the 2000 kg mark, so you would still be well within the limit.
No standard at all for terms of any weight, handbook for my Skoda states 'unloaded weight ready for work' 1,495kg no mention of kerbweight, but that weight is on the V5C for mass in service. At least the car plated weights are easy to understand.
The maximum permissible weight of your Passat will be its unladen weight plus payload (which for most saloon and estate cars is around 600kg). Even if we round this up and call it 2300kg, the maximum weight of 1050kg for your caravan means that you are well within the limit.
You can take an extended test to qualify you for the 'B+E' licence extension, which increases your combined gross weight limit to (I think) 7000kg.
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Topic: New vanner - doing my calculations!
