You have to remember that our Constitution was written by lawyers and they keep getting more "creative" in their interpretation of teh Constitution & the laws to maintain an income especially the recent graduates from law school. They act like a bunch of brand new commissioned lift truck sales people at times -say anything to get the order.
The little I know about tow tractors -there is a "rule of thumb" that says 1 lb of draw par pull can pull a trailered weight of 50 lbs. w/low friction tires on a flat level grade (this was published in a Claark manual for Tow Traactors many, many moons ago. This means a tractor rated 200 lbs continious draw bar pull woudl be capabale of towing 10,000lb (including the trailer weight). Some misguided sales type might inform a customer that his lift truck with a rated drawbar pull of say 2000 lbs. could tow 100,000 lbs. In reality, mos load would be much less than that
While certainly this would put a strain on the drive train, more importantly is the braking capability of the machine. When a foklift is empty there is les weight on the driving tires ~35 to 40% of the GVW. By pulling a load of any weight via the pin in the counterweight more weight would be transferred to the steering tires and less on the drive tires. That equals less braking capability - especially when the rolling load momentun starts pushin forward during braking.

Yes, I can recall (many moons go) a fatal accident involving a fork lift pulling a box car around a paved rail siding inside a plants operation (the were using an 8K dual drive pneuamtic with two speed torque converter single disc power shift tranny w/mechanical clash gear low speed gear box (Borg Warner T-12) as a spotter. The company didn't want to spend the money for a "Spotter" w/ occassional use (aka dust collector) - even those lawyers fresh out of law school could win this suit.