It is all pretty confusing for me. Here are my numbers at the scale (full tank of diesel and my wife next to me in the passenger seat) and on the inside of the driver door sticker:
Steer axle: 4220 lbs
Drive axle: 2900 lbs
Gross weight: 7120 lbs
The sticker on the inside of the driver door says:
GVWR: 9200 lbs
GAWR Front: 4670 lbs
GAWR Rear: 6084 lbs
Now..... with those weights its a simple math job.
As another poster mentioned simply subtract the drive axle 2900 lbs for 6084 RAWR leaves you with 31xx lbs for your legal payload . You can do the math on hitch weight.
You did ask for your trucks legal payload. GVWR simply isn't used for that purpose.
I am asking for the following case: we (God forbid) get into an accident and are taken to the scales. The scales put out a set of numbers and my insurance company gets these numbers. Based on these numbers they calculate that I am within carrying capacity and decide to honor insurance. Or they decide I am grossly overweight and decide not to honor it. I don't want to drive around thinking I am insured when I am not. In addition, breaking distance, safety etc. play a role. I don't want to drive around, for example, 2,000 lbs overweight and that increases my breaking distance by X feet.
Again you asked for your legal payload. If its legal there won't be any voided insurance claims. If the truck is taken to the scale house they weigh the truck in each axle position for overloading the GAWRs. Or if your state has a registered weight of some kind its checked at that time also.
There has never been a credible link that shows the insurance didn't pay for a at fault accident regarding being over the trucks GVWR. You can wreck the truck when drunk and the insurance will still pay or drive 90 in a 55 zone and wreck the truck ...insurance will still pay.
Braking distance ??
Your trucks braking performance is equal to the sum of your trucks GAWRs. 6084 RAWR plus 4670 FAWR = 10754 lb of braking performance.
If the trailer has two 6k axles it will have 12000 lb of braking performance or 22754 lb combined (truck and trailer).
Lots of folks new to the towing world come on a RV web and go away more confused than ever as some folks giving advice use the GVWR method or the RAWR method or the GCWR method or the tire placard sticker or just load it up and go. There is but one legal method. Your state size and weights officers or their departments is the best place to find out.
