Towing with Passat Estate sport 170

[karl.greenfield]

I'm a total novice but took the plunge and towed away my Swift Charisma this weekend.

The Passat Sport suspension is lowered 25mm by design but when looking at the outfit hitched it looked considerably 'nose down' although there was no additional weight in the car. I'm worried that when the family are loaded up that i'm going to be bottoming out (as it did slightly putting into storage but this was a slope and uneven).

Has anyone had similar issues or recommend lifting the suspension?

 

[karl.greenfield]

Some additional information:

The hitch height of the outfit is 430mm +/-35mm

The measurement from ground to top of towball is 420mm UNLADEN.

Is this an issue or am I worrying too much?!

 

[Lutz]

You have given the height of the towball with the car unladen. What you should measure is the height of the towball with the car laden. You should find that, although the car sits 25mm lower by design, the suspension is also harder and the towball should not drop below the specified minimum of 350mm (measured to centre of towball) when the car is loaded up.

The hitch height of the outfit is not necessarily the same as the towball height of the car. In fact, in cannot be in all conditions.

 

[Angus1]

I run a Passat sport Estate I can assure you that if the suspension bottoms out you have got serious issues.

If you stick three adults in the back, fill the boot with awning,poles, g`sheet,tables,chairs AND don`t check your noseweight you may approach the limit of the suspension travel.

But by then you will be overloaded on your rear axle anyway......

As Lutz says the stiffer suspension means the towbar doesn`t drop as far as the `normal` models.

 

[karl.greenfield]

Thanks Chaps

There will be my two kiddies in the back so no real additional weight issues, I suppose its a metter of loading the outfit up sensibly and maybe get a roof box for the car to keep the weight forward if needs be.

Thanks for the info on the minimum towball height. I assume there are 'specials' which sit higher if this is the case?

 

[Lutz]

I have checked the catalogue of one of the major OEM producers of towbars and found out that the Passat Sport does not have a specific towbar. This means that the towball height when the car is laden cannot be very different from that of the standard Passat.