[metromizer]

After my Gal's Toyota Sienna had a mild altercation with a San Fransisco Muni bus, $7k worth of superficial body damage, the insurance company totaled it.

Rather than buy the 100% paid for 2004 mini-van back and drive it as is, with 150k on the odometer, we took the cash. I look at this as an opportunity to get something that more suites out 'today' needs.

With our kids driving themselves and mostly out of the house now, we don't really have a need for a mini-van as a people mover. However, our recreation revolves around camping out of the mini-van, using it to tow bar our Samurai to the desert, and towing my smaller single axle open trailer to the racetrack.

My open trailer was very towable behind the mini-van, but would not tow the much more comfortable 32 foot, 3-axle, 8,000gross enclosed race trailer of mine. My gas-guzzling 1988 F350 crewcab needs a ton of work to be roadworthy again, and frankly, at 6mpg towing the large trailer, needs to be retired to someone's ranch. In fact, I haven't used it in several years for anything but moving the big trailer in and out of our side yard.

I'm thinking about replacing the mini-van AND the F350 with a 7-10 year old full size Diesel van. Diesel for the FE and towing torque, 1 ton for the braking and tongue weight capacity. I think that platform would be capable of all the chores I need from such a vehicle. It could tow either trailer, flat tow the Samurai, we could camp out of it if I do a partial conversion (platform bed, water tank maybe). I could even use it to haul stuff like moving kids in and out of college dorms and other living situations.

I understand 20mpg is possible from a Ford turbo Diesel 6.0 Van. but I'm not sure what FE to expect towing a 3-axle 8,000gross trailer. Not much of a fan of Chryslers, but I do wish they made a 3500 Ram van with that Cummins in-line Diesel 6cylinder in it. A 5 or 6 cylinder Dodge Sprinter or MBZ would be great, but is out of our price range.

Anything I'm missing? Any other ideas to meet my needs?