Towing a 03 F150 4x4 with manual transfer case on car dolly
 

I just purchased an 03 at auction for a bargain I couldn’t resist. I have a 2018 2.7 eco and a heavy duty car dolly. I’ve searched forums and the 03 owner’s manual and can’t get a straight answer on this. Owner’s manual covers not being able to tow a 4x4 03 with push button 4x4 but says absolutely nothing about one with manual 4x4 floor shift models with a neutral transfer case position. Truck I’m picking up is a 4.6 4x4 automatic transmission with manual transfer case on the floor. I’m thinking I could just put transfer in neutral and be able to tow it with dolly but don’t want to chance it without knowing 💯. This truck does run and drive however does have the common exhaust manifolds leaking pretty good and having to go about 150 miles back home don’t want to chance anything else since I haven’t gone through it yet. I guess if I can’t get a straight answer or have to pull the drive shaft I will just rent a uhaul car trailer which I know will fit but will be tight. If somehow I missed a past topic on this that wasn’t clear as mud I apologize in advance.

with the transfer case being manual, I am 90% sure you’ll be fine. The other 10% relates to the type of locking mechanism of the front hubs. If they are the old manual type, you are good to go. Otherwise, I would pull out the front drive shaft and tow.
Once I had to tow a little Suzuki Sidekick 4x4 with a dolly. It was manual transmission and had a manual transfer case with neutral. But even in neutral, the stupid self locking hubs kept engaging. I don’t know why. But it only took 15 minutes to remove the front shaft and off I went.

Kinda what I was afraid of
 

no manual locking hubs. I know on my 2018 F150 they are vacuum locking so if the trucks off then no vacuum so it will engage the front hubs. I will probably just get a car trailer to be on the safe side. I would just drive it but I have no idea what the age of tires are and the manifolds are cracked so bad I don’t want to mess anything up with lack of back pressure. Don’t want to screw up my $700 truck I got at auction 😂

Put it in neutral get under it turn drive shafts by hand if all is free tow it frt end is up on dolly

The uHaul configurator will probably kick your request, a 4.6 truck on their 2200lb auto hauler exceeds most 2.7's GVWR.

not sure how 2200 lbs plus weight of 03 F150 would do that when I believe my 2.7 with HD tow package has around 10,000 lbs tow rate (I could be wrong on that) but anyways I’ve already picked it up just rented their uhaul trailer instead of dolly which it fit on trailer barely back tires were an inch from back of trailer. However when I did the uhaul rental online I just picked that I was towing a awd 07 escape lol how would they know what I was really picking up. Towed it home 200 miles with zero issues

They add a rule of the weight of the tow vehicle must be a minimum percentage of the weight of the trailer and whatever is being hauled. When I fiddled around with it when I was preparing to tow with my 11,700lb rated truck, I found it would not recommend towing any vehicle that exceeded about 4400lb. The configurator assumes your vehicle weight to be the minimum possible for your cab, bed, and driveline.

Yes, you can lie. Personally, the potential ramifications of committing fraud are not worth the few dollars saved. uHaul might be everywhere, but just about everyone has equipment rental companies within reasonable distance that will rent trailers capable of a higher GVWR than the tow vehicle's tow rating, with the only instruction being to not exceed the tow vehicle's ratings.