Caravan too heavy for VW Passat?

The Max tow weights that manufacturers quote is what they say the vehicle can tow without possible damage to the vehicle,not what is safe to tow, hence the recommended 85% of the kerbweight

Sorry, your Passat would be too light to tow your caravan as it is less than the weight of the caravan. Could it tow it? Yes definitely, the engine would cope fine. Would it be safe? This is the problem; 90% of the time things would probably be fine, but in the event of a problem (need to suddenly brake, a gust of a cross wind, a large HGV overtaking) your car may be 'wagged' by your caravan with catastrophic results. The 85% advice from the CAMC is therefore sensible advice. 

Sorry OP you are not going to be happy to hear this but NewChap has it right  I wouldn't be happy towing your outfit with a Passatt.  Looking on the bright side, this gives you an excuse to get a new (er) caravan

To be clear your outfit is NOT illegal as a weight match and sur le continent it would not be deemed an issue. However you may find insurance issues (some companies restrict weight ratio to 100% and if not well balanced it is likely to attract the interest of the police/DVSA. Have a look on Towcar matching website which has user towing reviews and takes account of the weight of passengers and goods in the towing vehicle. Personally i would not go above 100%. Another thought, is your car kerb weight quoted from the brochure or from the V5? If the brochure it is possible the actual UK spec takes the kerb weight higher. For an example a towbar could add 15kg or more.    

you cannot add a towbar to the kerb weight of a vehicle or passengers come to that, these are part of the vehicles payload just like a caravans payload. you have a kerb weight and a max load weight of a vehicle and the difference is your payload. this must not be exceeded. Just like a caravan. 

I would strongly advise against this combination. We bought a new 1456Kg MTPLM caravan to be towed with our BMW 320D estate (Kerb weight 1720Kg) and it towed OK in perfect conditions. But we had the fright of our lives when we encountered a deep rut in the road which sent us into a real snake. The caravan literally took over for a few seconds until we managed to slow down enough to stop the snake. We had only been towing at about 55 MPH as well.

We replaced the BMW with a Landrover Freelander which manages the combination well.

It's not just your safety at risk but the safety of others as well.

 

 

handsj, i do not really see your point in context of the OP thread. A Freelander 1 is probably lighter than the Beemer and an FL2 isn't much heavier. Hitting a rut could have caused the same snake with any tow car and may have been exacerbated by poor loading or other factors. A colleague had something similar with a 5 series estate and a relatively light van all due to the budget brand soft walled rear tyres, a change to Continental run-flats stopped the tank slappers.

lornalou: i didn't say anything about increasing the gross laden weight beyond the factory specification. However if the towbar is factory fit option (such as roofrails or electric seats often are) they will add to the ex-factory kerb weight (at the expense of payload). I am not saying I would tow above 100% but given the figures quoted by the OP are only 35KG apart I would get the car and 'van onto a weighbridge. And there is no point getting the weight below 100% (or 85% for the worriers) if the nose weight, weight balance, tyre pressures and so on are all wrong. As referred to above Even the make of tyre can affect handling characteristics when towing. There is more to a safe set up than weight ratio alone.

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no - you should take your foot off the accelarator and let the outfit slow down, and don't brake either.

this is from the CCC take both feet off the pedals to bring down your speed using your car’s engine braking. Avoid the instinct to brake, but keep steering in a straight line. Trying to steer out of the sway can make the problem worse.

+1