24 February 2007 Still trying to work out cars and Travel Trailers

I have looked at hundreds of cars and Travel Trailers on the Internet. Slowly I am becoming clearer about what we want, what we need and what we can afford. The really nice TT are not necessarily expensive (a new 28 ft TT with all mod. cons. may be bought for about $15000 - that is about £8000), but they are heavy. Many of them are over 5000lbs, plus liquid carried on board, plus all the optional extras, which can easily put the weight up to 7500lbs to 8000lbs (nearly 3 1/2 tons). There are a number of vehicles that will tow that sort of weight, but for one of several reasons they are not suitable for us. A pick up is no good - we need to carry Sally's wheelchair. Ford make an Econoline van, the Excursion, and more recently the Expedition, Chevrolet make the Suburban, the Tahoe and GMC the Yukon. The problem is that the bigger engines also have stronger chassis and beefier suspension, so they tend to cost more. Also fewer are sold, so they keep their value in the second hand market. To buy a 'one ton' vehicle in reasonable condition will probably put $5000 on the cost of the car. If we could get away with a standard sort of vehicle it would be cheaper.
Example the Ford Econoline passenger van (minibus) comes as a standard 'half ton' configuration, with a 5.4l V8 engine. These are used by the hundred as rental vehicles which means that one and two year old vans can be bought quite cheaply. But the tow limit for these is 6900lbs, so putting out of reach the most popular TT's.
Would you believe that there is no easily obtainable list of TT weights? So I set myself the task of compiling a list of all the TT's available with a Gross Weight Limit of less than 7000lbs. Easy, until you realise that there are about 30 different companies, each with several ranges of TT, each range with a number of layouts, each with a number of options which affects the weight. Nevertheless I spent several days trawling the manufacturer’s websites finding models which are below the weight limit. I have found 69. There area couple of dozen that have all the acceptable features (we don't want bunks).
So we have now come down to a basic specification for the rig that we want to buy:
A 2-3 year old Ford Econoline E150 passenger van, a 4- 6 year old Ford Excursion, a 4-6 year old Chevrolet Suburban 1500, a Chevrolet Express passenger van, a GMC Savannah 1500, a GMC Yukon, or a Dodge Ram 1500 (although if we find a bigger truck we will be very pleased to consider it).
An ultralite Travel Trailer, preferably new, 26 ft long with a walk round double bed, a sofa, a dining area, awning, microwave, air conditioning. With either a gross weight of 6500lbs or a weight when empty of 4000lbs or less and a hitch weight of less than 700lbs.
All we have to do is go and find them when we get to Florida.
Which do we look for first? I will tell you when we get there.