Originally Posted by Nothing Special

Sounds like you've got a good, safe option, but here are some thoughts I have about flat towing (having done a lot of it with CJ5 and my '71 Bronco).

Steering on the towed vehicle is no problem if the alignment isn't screwed up. It's a HUGE problem (steering going to opposite lock on corners) if the camber is off.

That said, steering the combination can be very difficult with an empty F-250 towing a CJ5 (the towed vehicle wants to go straight, taking the back end of the truck with it on turns). I'd hate to think about towing a 1 ton crew cab with a half ton. You could do it if you went really slow, but it could go south on you in a hurry too.

Braking is pretty "interesting" towing a CJ5 with an F-250. You can't stop very quickly and if you try it tends to lock the trucks back tires and jackknife. Again I wouldn't recommend doing it with the towed vehicle greatly outweighing the towing truck. (And now I have my Bronco set up with "towed" brakes to keep it legal and safe).

Towing 30 miles at low speed is very unlikely to cause a problem with a transfer case or manual trans, and probably not even an automatic. However, for longer, higher speed tows, I'd always drop the driveshaft with anything:

• Automatics are lubed by the pump on the input shaft, so they are the worst to tow with the driveshaft in place.
• Manual trans are splash-lubed, but the countershaft is the only thing really down in the gear lube, and it doesn't turn when you tow with the trans in neutral, so I sure wouldn't risk that either.
• Ford transfer cases of this vintage are lubed by a pump that's driven from the output shaft, so they should be able to be towed with the driveshaft in place (and the transfer case in neutral to protect the trans). But dropping the driveshaft is cheap insurance, so I'd still do it.

I wouldn't worry too much about towing a 6500 lb truck with a 5000 lb rated tow bar. It might get you in trouble with your insurance company if there was an accident, but there's usually plenty of safety factor in designs for that much overloading.

Like GoinBoarding said, I'd be leery about towing a truck that heavy with the towbar bolted to the bumper. There are some serious forces involved in horsing a flat-towed truck through corners. I don't see a stock bumper holding up well to that.

When I've tried to rent a tow dolly from U-Haul they wanted to know what I was towing on it and what I was towing it with. They pretty much said "no" to anything involving a full-size truck on the dolly. They MIGHT rent it to you if you told them you were towing a 2WD F-150 with an F-350 dually, but I'm not even sure of that. And standard size tow dollies probably wouldn't fit a full size truck. There are oversize dollies that will, but I'm not sure how available they are to rent.