Having witnessed the canoe-ing of a perfectly good thread, here's another try...
I looked over the various trucks from the original thread and most of them were 2-1/2 ton and larger, with 9.00x20 tires. What would be wrong with a modern cut-away van, repurposed with a flatbed and winch? They can be had fairly cheaply, and the capacity and length are enough to haul anything up to about 200" and 10K pounds. What's not to like?
Discuss among yourselves. AAAAANND GO!!
Nothing, really, other than sub-10 mpg fuel mileage, since most cheap ones are gas powered. A friend of ours has a similar home-built hauler made from a 1 ton Chevy dually. They bought it as-is and apparently found some pretty scary structural deficiencies while doing some maintenance.
If I had the fuel money, I'd prefer some sort of hauler. I have always hated towing, whether it was my boats as a teen, or the race car as an adult. Yeah, the turning radii might be a PITA, but IMO it beats worrying about keeping the thing connected & behind me. I guess even on a hauler, you'd still have to worry about weight placement, though.
I'm just going to leave this right here..
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/International-4X4-Bus-TurboDiesel-ATV-CommandCenter-18k-/190483051794?pt=Military_Vehicles&hash=item2c59acb512#ht_897wt_1003
As for military 2.5 ton trucks. you can get them on the east coast in good running condition for 2500-3000 dollars. That is a hell of a lot of hauler for very little money.
In reply to Mikey52_1:
I have something similiar. I have a 95 Isuzu Box van that has had the bed removed and a flat bed with beaver tail installed in its place. It is 14' on the flat and about 3' on the slopde tail. It has alot of rear overhang and being a cab over design makes the wheelbase pretty short. About the same wheelbase as my GMC standard cab long bed pickup. This thing is easy to manuever and can carry a large vehicle including my pickup and full size 15 passemnger vans. Easy to drive but gas mileage is only 8 mpg. This one has a 350 chevy tbi motor and automatic (a little underpowered when it comes to hills). I like the truck but am considering selling it due to having to carry extra insurance just for the hauler and the fact that I often use my 1/2 ton pickup and trailer because of the gas mileage (about 14 when towing). If you are looking for a dedicated hauler it is hard to beat the cabover box trucks for manueverablilty and carying capacity.
In reply to dmyntti:
Thank you! I was hoping that some evidence of an Isuzu or UD van being used as a transport would surface. My own trains of thought are running toward the cutaways because I don't care for the tipping cab and their relationship to the front axle.
Most of the boxvans and cutaways use 30-31" tires and are low enough to the ground that the center of gravity wouldn't be outrageously high and the ramps or beavertail wouldn't be huge. With a 3' beavertail and 13-15' flat, the ramps would only be 6-7' long. The ramps could even be foldable. With a winch to load a dead car, that could be a reasonable setup.
I appreciate the input. Thanks! 
Don't forget to account for tools, spare tires and the like. Those often end up in the back of a pickup or van. Just something to plan for.
I had figured on tools under the flatbed and spare tires...? That I'm not sure about. Maybe also under the bed, maybe behind the cab (parallel or perpendicular to the cab? Above the hood of the car?) Wherever the spares ended up, it would have to be either accessible to removal by a man standing on the ground or on the bed. I would not care for spares that I had to hoist into place with a boat winch. That would be a pain in the whatsit.
This is turning into a project that looks more real than it did a few days ago.
In reply to Mikey52_1:
The center of gravity is not bad but the bed on mine is still pretty high (it has 31" tires). The back of the 3' beaver tail is at the same height as the tailgate of my 4x4 pickup. I have 6' long ramps and that is about the minimum you could live with, anything else would be to steep. My ramps are heavy poorly made contraptions that came with the truck and are a pain to hook up. I plan on buying some ramps from Northern and they have some that are pretty light and are 7' long if I remember correctly. I have a winch on the bed of my truck, it is a harbor freight 10,000 pound unit which is plenty strong but terribly slow, I would not recommend this winch. I did add a wireless remote from mile marker which is very handy and I would recommend that. I don't have a spare tire on my truck but in a pinch I could pull one of the rear tires off (dually) and run it at the front as it is the same wheel front and back (I run 10 ply tires). You just have to decide if it is worth having insurance and maintainance for a dedicated car hauler, I have to have a pickup for work and am not sure a dedicated hauler makes sense for me any more and I have a small junk yard (I haul a couple times a month in the summer and once a month in the winter)
In reply to dmyntti:
My two cents: If you want a dedicated hauler you're better off finding an older used flatbed roll off truck. Especially if you are planning on hauling low sitting race type vehicles. Old commercial vehicles is the way to go if you can find them. It would most likely be cheaper in the long run too. Personally, I'd stick with a 3/4 pickup and flatbed car trailer. (not one of the light duty tandems used by lawn services, but an actual car trailer) When you're not hauling cars, you can drop the trailer and use the truck around the house for ??? You never know when you may want to head to the gravel pit for a couple tons of river rock for that home project... 
For now I stick with trailers. Just preference. I'm kinda like Alton Brown... I hate uni-taskers. Having a single-purpose vehicle would only be neat if I were rich and had 20 acres to hide stuff on.
I bought a home-built 18' trailer for $1100 and it has served me very well. I can tow it with my F150 and the F150 also can serve many other duties.
I specifically chose a low-bed trailer with ramps for car-hauling duties, but it has side rails that are just tall enough to make it useful for other things like hauling wood, equipment, and furniture/appliances.
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