Is down plating a possibility?

You would do it through a dealer, who would go to the manufacturer.

However, many caravan payloads are already very low, so you would need to consider that too.

Which vans are you considering?  New or old?  Older are generally lighter.  Lunar are often lightweight, and the more basic the van the lighter it will be.

We up plated, the cost was £50 some 8 years back.

You would do it through a dealer, who would go to the manufacturer.

However, many caravan payloads are already very low, so you would need to consider that too.

Which vans are you considering?  New or old?  Older are generally lighter.  Lunar are often lightweight, and the more basic the van the lighter it will be.

We up plated, the cost was £50 some 8 years back.

We will definitely be purchasing second hand but not sure if we will be going newer or older. A couple of the newer models (relatively) we have looked at are Linar Quasar 494 and the Bailey Orion 440/4.

A lot of the lighter older models tend to be 14+ years old and we are a little concerned about potential problems (as we are inexperienced with the buying process).

We want to get at least 5 years out of the car and what ever caravan we go for. After that point we may change the car and potentially I would be better positionsd to go for the B+E meaning we could choose from a wider ranger of vans.

We have a 2009 Bailey Ranger GT60 540/6, which has a MTPLM of 1350KG, but it is a big van (six berth)... It is still going strong, so something that age might suit. Bailey have a number of other vans in that range which would be the correct weight.... see http://www.dycecaravans.co.uk/downloads/bailey-Caravans-2009.pdf

You would do it through a dealer, who would go to the manufacturer.

However, many caravan payloads are already very low, so you would need to consider that too.

Which vans are you considering?  New or old?  Older are generally lighter.  Lunar are often lightweight, and the more basic the van the lighter it will be.

We up plated, the cost was £50 some 8 years back.

Totally agree, you could be eating into an already low payload allowance, making it impractical to use.

We have a 2009 Bailey Ranger GT60 540/6, which has a MTPLM of 1350KG, but it is a big van (six berth)... It is still going strong, so something that age might suit. Bailey have a number of other vans in that range which would be the correct weight.... see http://www.dycecaravans.co.uk/downloads/bailey-Caravans-2009.pdf

I have looked at those, 6 birth would give us room to expand ;-) but 1350kg is over my combined max of 3500kg for 40kg. 

We have a 2009 Bailey Ranger GT60 540/6, which has a MTPLM of 1350KG, but it is a big van (six berth)... It is still going strong, so something that age might suit. Bailey have a number of other vans in that range which would be the correct weight.... see http://www.dycecaravans.co.uk/downloads/bailey-Caravans-2009.pdf

I have looked at those, 6 birth would give us room to expand ;-) but 1350kg is over my combined max of 3500kg for 40kg. 

The non-GT60 variant comes in at 1306KG :-)

We have a 2009 Bailey Ranger GT60 540/6, which has a MTPLM of 1350KG, but it is a big van (six berth)... It is still going strong, so something that age might suit. Bailey have a number of other vans in that range which would be the correct weight.... see http://www.dycecaravans.co.uk/downloads/bailey-Caravans-2009.pdf

I have looked at those, 6 birth would give us room to expand ;-) but 1350kg is over my combined max of 3500kg for 40kg. 

The non-GT60 variant comes in at 1306KG :-)

cool i will take a look at that model.

I've got a 2007 Abbey Vogue 470 which is plated to 1350Kg. but that is uprated from the original 1300Kg. You may find that would suit. The payload is reasonably generous by caravan standards although the two of us manage to use up all of ours somehow.

I've got a 2007 Abbey Vogue 470 which is plated to 1350Kg. but that is uprated from the original 1300Kg. You may find that would suit. The payload is reasonably generous by caravan standards although the two of us manage to use up all of ours somehow.

thanks I will take a look at that too. It seems there is a bigger choice than I thought. I suppose part of the problem is most of the listing sites (e.g auto trader) don't necessarily specify the MTPLM

Like OP, my partner and I are both in a similar situation - both Post-97 licence and want to share towing without both having to do B+E test (at this stage)… Our MTPLM is therefore 1305kg

If it helps, our shortlist came down to this (including dealer specials where I found the alternative names):

Swift Group

Alpine 4 [Ace Envoy, Archway Sport Hartwell, Corniche 16/4, Classic Corvette, Kudos 470]
Sprite Musketeer TD

Explorer Group
Elddis Xplore [Breeze, Magnum, Sanremo] 504 (-2016, MPTLM 1300kg)

Bailey Group
Bailey Orion 430-4 / 440-4
Bailey Pursuit 430
Bailey Pegasus Modena

Lunar Group
Lunar Cosmos 534 2014 (1305kg MPTLM)

Ace Jubilee Envoy (pre 2008, MPTLM 1300kg)
Abbey Vogue 2 470 (pre 2008, MPTLM 1300kg)
Abbey Aventura 317 (2005)
Swift Charisma 535 (pre 2008, MPTLM 1300kg)
Sterling Europa 470 (pre 2008, MPTLM 1300kg)

We are focuses on a 4-berth with a fixed double bed, currently the newer Baileys are winning for us (full end washrooms)

As to downplating, I have enquired on 3 used that are very close to limit, only 1 dealer was willing to entertain the enquiry and took it up with eldiss… the answer came back that it can only be done at first registration (I.e when the van is new)

I hope this info useful