Truck dolly towing

Good Morning,

I've never towed a 4wd, and I just want to make sure I tow it correctly.
I have a question about towing on a truck dolly. Of course the front wheels will not be in contact with the road, however, the rear will be.

Should I remove the driveshaft, or do I just place the t-case in neutral and the transmission in neutral?
The jeep is an automatic.

Thank you
RJ

 

How far are you towing it? If you are going more than a few hours, and can do it, pull the drive shaft.
I have always just left it in neutral, but that has been with manual transmission.

 

Basically, same rules as flat towing.
Tcase in neutral, Trans in gear.
You can pull the rear drives haft if you like, I always do for longer trips, but it isn't required.

 

I used to flat tow my Jeep. It has a manual. If I'd be towing for less than 20-30 miles, I'd generally leave the driveshaft in and put the T-case and trans in neutral. Any further than that, and I'd always pull the driveshaft just to be safe. A friend of mine fried his T-case near Goffs when he was flat towing on our Mojave Road trip. I recall reading in one of the 4 Wheel Drive magazines many, many years ago that automatics generally shouldn't be flat towed with the driveshaft in place. I recall that the gist of the article was that when you flat tow, the driveshaft is spinning the output shaft at high speeds but the engine is providing no input to the torque converter. I believe that this condition will not properly pump fluid throughout the automatic transmission, and you risk ruining internals. I would pull the driveshaft just to be safe. It's easy, removes all risk, and adds peace of mind.

 

:iagree: Having towed over a hundred vehicles, both with dollies or with trailers, I have to agree with all the above comments. Stick shifts are fine with the transfer case and transmission in neutral when dolly towed, I don't care how far you have to go. Auto's are another story though. If you have to tow it more than 30 miles or so, the driveshaft needs to be pulled to prevent a lack of lubrication in the transmission. That means you'd have to plug the auto trans output after yanking the driveshaft so you won't leak ATF all over the place as you tow. Automatics, therefore, are best towed on a full trailer when you have a good distance to travel. Less work and no possibility of damaging the automatic.

 

Thank you guys for all the input. After reading all the post I do believe I will
get a car hauler to tow the jeep with.

Thank nk you once again for helping me out with this.

 

Why would you have to plug the auto trans for towing. The driveshafts are connected to the transfercase not the auto transmission and both of those use fixed yokes on all factory cj units, no leaking. I do recommend pulling the rear driveshaft for anything over about 40 miles or so as the transfercase tends to get hot in my experience. I just flat tow mine, no trailer or dolly expense.

 

How about towing it backwards, tie down the steering wheel, put in 2 wheel drive. put the rear end on the tow dolly, transmission in park. Depends on how far you have to go. It is quicker to do and you don't have to crawl under and remove the drive shaft.