'97 Ford Explorer 2wd Manual Toadable?

We are driving our 2011 Sunseeker 3170DS from Texas to Alaska this summer. Wasn't planning on bringing a toad, but am starting to think it may be a good idea if I can do it fairly painlessly. I've got a 1997 ford explorer 2wd manual transmission that I drove for years and now is used to store cattle feed, teach kids to drive a standard, and provide a backup vehicle when something needs to go to the shop. In other words, it is a fairly disposable vehicle that runs great and, aside from a broken odometer, a driver's side door that won't lock, and a lot of sun damage, is mechanically sound with good tires. It also has a roof rack that would let me take my canoe along.

I've been looking around for a few hours this morning for an indication as to whether it can be towed 4-down dinghy style, and I can't find anything directly on point. The manual says you can't tow it, but I'm not sure the manual differentiates between the automatic versions and the standard transmission that I have.

Does anyone have any experience using an explorer from this era with a manual transmission as a toad? If so, do I need to make any modifications before hooking it up? I'm assuming I will need to install some sort of supplemental breaking, but I didn't want to start figuring that out until I understood whether this vehicle would make a good toad or not.

Many thanks!
Andersunseeker