Oh no not weights again - surely not

then that means you can knock it of the caravan weight when hitched to vehicle.

don't start that again

however... imagine you got your license after 1st January 1997 so you can :

drive a car or van up to 3,500kg maximum authorised mass (MAM) towing a trailer of up to 750kg MAM

Do you think if you said to PC Plod:

yes I know the caravan is 800kg but I've got 51 kg on my noseweight so I'm really only towing 749 Kg, so I'm OK, goodbye officer 

that would work?

And yes I know you can:

tow a trailer over 750kg MAM as long as the combined MAM of the trailer and towing vehicle is no more than 3,500kg

but the same idea applies, the law would imply you tow the whole weight of your van, not just the weight on the real wheels?

PS note all the question marks

No, of course the weight of the caravan doesn't change when it's hitched up to the car. It always includes the noseweight. 

However, the car, whose GVW also includes the noseweight is only pulling the axle load of the caravan, not its total weight.

That is interesting as the Peugeot 5008 was on my short list. I dismissed it as dealer told me the highest horse power is only available as a manual.

I was also under the impression that the nose weight was the max that the car suspension would handle and not included in the weight of the car. It's made it very confusing since they changed the way the various weights are named a few years ago.

You're right. The noseweight is the maximum that the car's suspension would handle, but when the caravan is hitched up to the car the suspension has to handle the full load and that includes the noseweight.

To avoid confusion, the names for the various weights had to change because the definitions changed. Without a name change, one wouldn't know whether it's the old or the new definition that applies. It still happens today when people talk about kerbweight. They quite often use the term, or worse still, unladen weight, when they actually mean mass in service. All three have different meanings.

I would be very careful taking advice from any car dealers but the Peugeot people don't seem to know anything about towing specifications. In fact when I ordered mine the 180BHP version was only available as an Auto which I didn't want. The "book" Kerbweight given by Peugeot is 1490kg but I eventually got Peugeot to confirm is without driver or fuel and is a generic weight and doesn't take into account model variations. My GT Line is some 200kg heavier when put on a weighbridge without driver and a half tank.. They wrongly quoted me on the towbar limit as well which is at 72KG. So the loaded weight has to be carefully managed to give 5%. Its not an easy Tug to match but I can confirm if you can match a van it tows very well.

Lutz,  you seem pretty experienced with these matters ? When you say

"when the caravan is hitched up to the car the suspension has to handle the full load"

Would we say this is where the GTW comes into play ? ie: the car overall has to be able to pull and support the full GTW obviously spread over the 4 wheels ?

The GTW for the 5008 is 4030kg so a considerable weight at the end of the day.