I have and 88 samurai and want to start taking it on some longer trips and towing it. I have read you should put the transfer case in neutral and the Manuel trans in 2nd. My question is this; why 2nd and not neutral? I read somewhere a guy was towing his sammy behind a motor home and the transfer case popped out of neutral at 70mph and because it was in 2nd gear blew up his motor. This scares me! Any info would be appreciated.

I would just disconnect drive shafts.

I just bought my Sami and  flat towed it home a distance of 250 miles. This is the outside limit on distance I would tow without disconnecting the rear driveshaft. The reason for leaving the transmission in gear is so it will not rotate while being towed. The lube in the transfer case actually imparts rotation even though it is in nuetral which in turn rotates the maiinshaft in the transmission, the countershaft does not turn and thus you have no lubrication to the pocket bearing in the inputshaft. I have been flat towing Jeeps since the 70's, with my longest flat tow being 2400 miles when I moved from Ca to Mi.

When the transfer case is in neutral on a sammie the front drive shaft spins also, so if your rig is lifted the front drive shaft will try to grenade itself so you are better off pulling the rear drive line or at least half of it, if you leave the shaft in you might get away with short trips and you can put the trans in a higher gear and if you take the shift knob off the trans and transfer case(some have heavy aftermarket knobs) you might get away with bumpy roads and not having it shift into gear on it's own.

Ppilot's explanation makes sense to me. I'm towing my 87 behind and RV and following the factory instructions (xfer in neutral, trans in 2nd and start it up every 200 miles). Towed it about 3,000 miles on our last trip.
jor

Thanks for the info guys most my towing would be 50-150 miles so if I pull the rear drive shaft and put the trasferr in N I should be ok ?

If you're flat-towing a stock Samurai at reasonable tow speeds, unlock the front hubs and follow the rest of the factory recommendations, you'll be OK.  I've towed 10K miles to Alaska and back without incident. Those roads are not high-speed US interstates. Disconnecting the rear driveshaft at the differential is ALWAYS the safest way to tow, although it can be a nuisance.  PPilotMike correctly stated the issue with oil, and I'd speculate that 4th gear might also work.

A lifted samurai adds complications and raises the issue of knocking a shift lever into gear.  Now that I've got a small 2" lift, I use a twin-stick Transfer-case shifter, which has a true (2WD) neutral. I've got an old back and don't want to be crawling under the truck every day of a three-month road trip. The split-H and reverse-S T-case shifters would work as well for true (2WD) neutral towing.

Not to hi-jack this thread, but I have a buddy who is a welder who is going to help me build a tow bar for my sammy.  Just curious how long are you guys' tow bars?  How far behind the tow vehicle should the sammy be?  4'?  5'?

Just have him build one like a typical tow bar. Mine's about 3 1/2' or so. Of course, you'll have to fabricate a bracket to bolt it to. Here's a couple photos of my setup. This is a stock sammi so yours may be different. Good luck.
jor

Where can I get a tow bar for my 90 Tracker? 

Here's what we came up with.  Used 2x3" metal for the whole thing.  Its heavy, but works like a charm.