My Jeep weighed in at 4,540 pounds today. That's with a bunch of gear and a full tank of gas (and does not include driver/passenger weight). So my guess was off by 540 pounds but I'm still 500 pounds under the cargo limit of the trailer. That's a lot of weight over it's original curb weight!
As Dave said in one of his previous posts, the weight of our rigs creeps up on us and surprises many when we do finally weigh them. I know I was surprised on how much mine weighed.
My LJR original owner flat towed for one trip. He did not know about unlocking the steering wheel. I replaced everything in the front end. Also replaced brake rotors, pads, both front calipers, and all brake lines. Runs great now, with 38,000 on the clock. As you might guess, I favor trailer over flat tow.
I've seen people post that they want to be able to lock the steering wheel for flat towing!
tandem 3500 axles means a 7k trailer, most would recommend a 10k trailer as it will last longer. You'd be at a lower percentage of max weight on the trailer and your tires/bearings will last much longer.
Also, I can load and tie down in 5 minutes, so...
And... you can't flat tow if you tear off your axle on trail, or have some other types of catastrophic damage. I prefer to get it home no matter what I break
Well, a 7k trailer minus the weight of the trailer body and add 4-5k lbs of Jeep doesn't leave much left over. Then if you don't have it leveled 100% and one axle gets a bit more on it than the other then parts fail.
My point was I can hook up the flat tow in the same amount of time it takes to hook up a trailer, then you still have to load the rig and strap it down.
I never flat tow if I plan on going hard. If you snap a "C" or blow a ring gear you're screwed for sure.
My LJ has the Atlas and they don't recommend flat towing either. You can disconnect the driveshafts, but that's a PITA.
My neighbor's daughter flat towed her Yj and forgot to take it out of 4low 
. It completely destroyed the engine .
. It completely destroyed the engine .
From what I understood with the Atlas as long as you stopped every 200 miles as ran the engine with it in gear for a while? Like the Dana 20 & 300 t-cases?
I tried flat towing for just over 100 miles and burned up the 2nd STaK's and at that point they said NOPE no more. So I got the two replaced under warranty since they'd said I could flat tow it.
And YES removing the rear driveline is also an option but as you said is a major PITA...
I’ve had a BigTex 7K steel deck car hauler for 30+ yrs with over 50K pulling all over the West. I notice a lot of flex behind the axels when loading and had to fix and strengthen frame cracks just forward of the fender about 20yrs ago. It’s due for a repaint soon. Bearings have been replaced several times once on the side of the road outside of Billings. I now carry a bearing replacement kit for all my trailers when on long trips. Springs are original but all the axel hardware has been replaced due to wear. The one thing I’ve learned early on is to only use load range E or greater tires. Since I switched to Maxxis brand tires I’ve not had a blowout in yrs. I have a flat tow setup for my YJ but have not flat towed for yrs. Most of my trailers have the same size tires. All have spares and I keep at least one new loose tire in the shop at all times. I do my own tire mounting. I switched all my breakaway batteries to lithium and they keep their charge for a lot longer than the lead acid batteries they came with. Other than my BigTex all my trailers are rated at least 10K and range to a 3 axel 18K enclosed car hauler.
The manual said 300 miles then run it for 5-10 minutes. That's a gamble I'm not willing to take. Get to the trail and the t-case is shelled. Ooofff.
Since I was one of the original 20 customers of STaK's they had no idea I guess other than what had worked for others gear driven cases so they told me hpow to have it shifted and that I needed to stop and run it every 250-300 miles. The first case I never flat towed it for more than 90 miles and then had driven it.
Fried a bearing to the main shaft so bad they had to cut the case in half to get it apart. They sent me a 2nd case and I flat towed it about 100 miles and the front output bearing was fried. So had to send it back & they sent me a 3rd case but told me no more flat towing so I went and bought a trailer.
It's been several years ago that I removed it but I took it out while replacing the ignition cylinder. It's not hard but I couldn't tell you how I did it. It's just a hunk of plastic in there if I remember correctly.
I mean, we can go back and forth all day lol... I only hook my trailer up once per trip, you have to hook up the flat tow twice... and I don't have to spend 5 minutes airing up at the end of the day, just roll her on the trailer (tilt bed, don't even have to manage ramps
), tie her down and go... I'm usually done loading and tying down my Jeep on a trailer before my friends who drive home (no tow at all) are done airing up tbh. Oh, and I don't have to air down for the next trip either since I never aired up! Course if I ever drove it around on the road that might be different lol!But realistically, those few minutes aren't really why someone should choose flat vs trailer anyway.
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