I towed a 99 Explorer with a dolly over 300 miles from NJ to NC using my 2000 3.0 4wd MO5D. It has 4.10s and smaller than stock tires (235/75-15).
It did fine but braking requires planning. Leave yourself plenty of room!
If you are climbing mountains and hills (Colorado) you will use a lot of 3rd gear. RPMs will be your friend. I recommend absolutely forgetting about 5th gear even being there, even downhill. I used a lot of engine braking, anticipated traffic lights by continuing to roll slowly toward red lights waiting for the green. That way you use less clutch.
About the clutch, I pulled out at just over idle, got the clutch fully engaged, THEN lightly accelerated. You can burn through a clutch pretty quick if you don't baby it at low rpms when pulling out. I would basically get it to start to roll by feathering the clutch out (idle+), then let the rpms die down to idle and ease it fully out to match the rolling speed. You'll get the knack pretty quick if you concentrate on using just enough engine speed to get rolling, then ease it the rest of the way out. I would droop the rpms such that the oil gage would flicker on occasion, yes that low when pulling out from a stop.
Try to stay in the engine powerband and forget about getting any gas mileage. Mine will pull well from 2800 up. It hits a good power point at about 3400 and can run between those rpms all day long. That is what I recommend, having done what you propose.
If you find that yours has 3.73s, you may need to bump it up to 3000 from 2800 to get it pull well. Tire size will matter too.
IMPORTANT!!! Remove the rear drive shaft from the Explorer after putting it on the dolly.
Otherwise you WILL burn up the automatic transmission. Period, end of story. WILL BURN IT UP.