Im planning to tow my dodge ram to my house tomorrow. The transmission in it is having problems and will not shift out of first gear. Its about a 45 minute drive to get it back home. My neighbor has a car dolly that raises up the front wheels and lets the back ones roll in neutral. This is what I planned to use, but I keep hearing bad things about using this with my truck. I looked in the manual and it isnt very specific. It states that chrysler prefers the whole truck to be lifted. One of my local mechanics said that I should take out the driveshaft if I use a dolly. I don't plan on driving faster than 45, but its a pretty long trip.

What are your thoughts on towing these trucks with a dolly?

 

if you are putting the front wheels in the dollies you need to disconnect the drive shaft or you will damage your transmission even if it is neutral.

 

place the transfer case in netural and you will be fine. i towed my dakota across the country when i bought it and all i did was netural the tranny and transfer case. (did the tranny for safey) the biggest issue is that the front ends are constant volisity thats all

 

Is neutral really neutral though? I haven't tested this on a dodge, but, on my old chevy, even in neutral, the front and rear driveshafts were locked together.......

Dropping the rear shaft is only four bolts....... Then you can either completely remove it, or, hang it up out of the way with bungee cords or some such. Better safe than sorry.....

 

This is what I am going to do, I wasn't sure if anything else would be an issue. I have never messed with drive shafts or axles before, but the mechanics at work should be able to help me.

If I removed the drive shaft from the rear axle would I lose any diff fluid?

 

No there should be four little bolts that hold the U-joint in....or it will be four bolts into a circle plate, just unbolt and hang it up with a tie strap

 

There's no way I would ever dolly a truck that big, But that said couple of things to check are the load cap of the dolly vs the weight of the front end of your truck, check the width of the truck's front wheels to make sure it will fit on the dolly. Yes drop the rear driveshaft for sure, a ratchet strap is better than a bungy strap, tape up the cross joint bearing caps so they don't fall off. Tow with a much bigger truck.

 

because the NP transfer case has and a collar gear to lock 4x4 in you can actuall get netrual when the case is in netrual. an as much as people dont think so its a safe way to tow. its actually easier and better the trailering. we use dollys to tow our race cars with the posi locked ford nine inch rear ends. and we only run netruel in them. and there fine we run from the adk to parts of VT and NH and lower parts of NY been doing it for years. only tip i give make sure the straps are tight and safty chain is installed losing a car sucks i couldnt picture losing a truck. also lock the wheel so it turned slightly to the right allowing the car to only go right incase it does come off you wont get a failor to keep right ticket and run less chance of hurting someone because the car will role off the side of the road no in to on coming traffic

 

Just a little update. I pulled the truck just fine. The dolly had its own special tire straps with it, but I also used a big ratchet strap around the front end. Everything held up nicely. I left the flashers on and stopped every fifteen minutes or so to check my straps and the first time I checked they were a little loose, but they stayed tight after that. As for the drive shaft, I left it on. I was assured by the owner of the dolly along with some of the mechanics at work that it wouldn't hurt for my 45 mile trip. If I was to run a full day trip, then I would definitely take it off. I drove it down with both the trans and transfer case in neutral. As far as I can tell nothing was hurt. I'm actually getting the trans rebuilt so it will be fine anyways.

Being my first time towing with a dolly I enjoyed it. It felt a lot safer than hauling with flat bed car hauler.