Mh Vs Travel Trailer.

[wwest]

Four years ago we purchased a used 27" Four Winds MH on a Ford E350 V10 powered chasis. Our primary criteria insofar as MH vs TT was for my wife to be able to get up and move about while traveling as I am the primary (only?) driver. I can drive about 500 miles a day if it's in daylight. But at 60+ I knew I Needed food, coke, or whatnot after that first 300 miles to avoid getting drowsy enough that I yawned almost continuously.

Part of the problem, equation, was that all of our other vehicles, at least the viable ones, are AWD, so if towed they had to be on a trailer, all wheels "up".

So for that 4 years we have vacilated between buying a trailer for wheels up, and/or a TOAD, a new vehicle that could be towed all wheels down. Meantime we have settled for renting a vehicle at our destination. More recently we have considered the RAV4 initially but then the '08 came out without a stick shift. Have had my eye on the Suzuki SX4 stick shift of late.

But on our last return trip, central MT and back, the discussion came up about the safety of my DW, VERY DW, being up and around while underway.

Bottom line is we are now seriously considering selling the MH and buying a small, ~16', Travel trailer. The "usefull" portion of our MH is only 16' long.

And now this is where our 2001 AWD RX300 comes into the discussion. There are a myriad of used (it is NEVER cost effective to purchase a new RV!) TT's out there in the maretplace wherein I can stay below the 3500 pound (supposed) towing capacity of the RX.

The tow hitch from my RX was removed the first week of purchase and it has never endured anything close to rough service. Yet at 40,000 miles the ATF smelled and looked burned. I flushed it twice within 5,000 miles and am watching it carefully at each oil change. I strongly suspect the burned ATF is due to the same shift pattern change that was made for the initial RX production and it is that change that resulted in premature transaxle failures of many '99 RXes.

So I am fully prepared, expect, for a DIY transaxle rebuild at 80-100,000 miles. At the same time I will be locking the transaxle's center diff'l in a way that the drive to the rear will be a solid mechanical connection and the VC will become the only drive to the front wheels.

Should I go forward with this TT purchase plan the first thing I will do after mounting the tow hitch is add cooling fans for the auxillary ATF cooling heat exchanger.

Now, the QUESTION.

Does anyone out there have a substantial enough level of experience towing with any RX. 300, 330, 350, to be able to say if I am on the right track or not?

We have put ~10,000 miles on the MH in those 4 years.

65,000 miles on the RX, daily driver, since purchasing it new in '01.

Any other options, modifications, to the RX that I should consider to make it more robust for towing a 3500lb TT?