GTWR and Tongue Weight

[SteveW2993]

I have a 2018 Passport 2670 BH. It has a GTWR/GVWR of 7000 lbs. There are no CAT scales in our province, but on a couple trips to New Brunswick where there a couple CAT scales, I weighed the trailer.

On one trip it was 6080 lbs and on another it was 6300 lbs, so I thought we were doing well since we were well under 7000 GTWR.

Then it kind of dawned on me when I was thinking about this year’s camping plans a couple days ago... wait a minute... the weight of the tongue was sitting on the truck, and it was 800 lbs. in my mind, by rights, the tongue weight is part of the overall weight of the trailer, even though the truck carries it.

So even though I was within the total GAWR of 7000 for the trailer, the overall weight (GTW/GVW) of the trailer on our second trip, including tongue, was 7100 lbs and over the GTWR...

Am I interpreting that correctly? I know the tongue is adding to the GVW of the truck, but tongue is part of the mass of the trailer so I would think it counts to the trailer’s GTWR... would appreciate if someone could set me straight on that. Trying to stay legal... Googling the concept hasn’t really turned up anything...

Tnx!
Steve