No door sticker has trailer tow capacity on it, that has bad information. You’re probably seeing GVWR, or gross vehicle weight rating, which is not the same thing.
You are right, the sticker doesn't show towing capacity directly, but it does show cargo capacity, which limits towing capacity in a lot of cases, so I'll spell out exactly what I meant below.....(I know GVWR & GCWR are not the same)
The owners manual for my truck says I have a 1610 payload capacity, but the door sticker says it is 1161.....guess, what, the door sticker is the one that is right cuz the chart, even the one in the owners manual, is generic.
When loading a truck & trailer, the tongue weight comes off the payload capacity....so, if you have a tongue weight of, lets say, 200 lbs, that means the trailer should weigh between 1300 & 2000 lbs to meet the 10% - 15% tongue weight requirements, and it eats up 200 lbs of your cargo capacity.
So, using my truck, if I put my fat butt in it, and another fat person like me, a 100 lb dog, and connect the tiny trailer @ 200 lbs of tongue weight, that only leave 311 lbs for cargo. (350 + 200 + 100 + 200 = 850)
The point I am making is to NOT use the charts to see what you can tow because they do not take into account passenger & cargo weight, but instead use the door sticker to see what room you have for
tongue weight AFTER the truck is loaded....and if you do the math, THAT will tell you how much you can tow.
So, if your truck has a cargo weight of 1500 lbs based on the door sticker, and you put 800 lbs in the bed, have a 150 lb passenger plus yourself @ 150, and a 100 lb dog in the truck.....what does that leave you for cargo capacity ?? 800 + 150 + 150 + 100 = 1200.......so you can have a tongue weight of 300 if you push the numbers....which means a trailer weight of 2000-3000 lbs, depending on if you have 10% or 15% tongue weight.
If you do the same thing, but remove the 800 lbs of cargo from the truck, you can now have a tongue weight of up to 1100 lbs, which means a trailer of 7400-11000 lbs (but 11000 would be over you towing capacity & GCWR).
Cargo capacity will flat eat up your towing capacity if you load the truck heavy.
If you use the charts, they will say you can tow 10,000 lbs, which would give you a 1000 to 1500 lb tongue weight, which in the above example would put you way over cargo capacity.
Even using a weight distributing hitch so you can tow heavier, you still have to meet cargo capacity.....which is why I said use the door stickers as they let you know how much room you have left of your cargo capacity to use for tongue weight AFTER all your cargo is in....that way, if need be, you can move cargo from the truck to the trailer to stay within the limits.
I guess I could have worded it in my previous post better, but that's what ya get when you assume mentioning cargo capacity & towing capacity in the same sentence would let people know what ya meant.
Sorry guys..