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I don't trust the motorhome enough to tow the Escape. It runs good with only 76k miles on a Dodge 440, but it is 36 years old so I am going to use it with care.
I was looking for a canned ham trailer (I like the wood interior) to leave at work for my private lunch room when I remembered my sister had my parent's old motorhome. In essence she paid me $600 to drive it away. It is in really good shape and Silver Streak collectors have shown interest in it. Silver Streaks were probably the best made trailers in their day, just like Escape, and each of the motorhomes were unique. I have found only 4 or 5 still roadworthy on the internet.
I've put a hundred or so hours and maybe $1,800 into it, mostly for tires and shocks. I can't believe how much motorhome tires are!
Last month I went to Colorado and stripped a similar abandoned motorhome so now I have a shed full of spare parts, including one entire side of exterior skin for future patch or repair work.
What I like is the built-in generator. I was using my Escape for a lunch room but had to use my Honda generator to run the air conditioner. Now I can push a button and have power.
I expect to use it for the next 12 years at work, driving it every couple weeks to keep it healthy, then selling in with a bunch of spares. It will be about 48 years old and should have about 78k miles on it with no water damage or major problems. That will pay for everything I put into it. I may take it vintage trailer/motorhome rallies but nowhere farther than a couple hundred miles.
If I didn't have an Escape, I would be tempted to have someone rebuild the chassis and drive train to make it more trustworthy, but I prefer the convenience of the smaller trailer. Plus the motorhome sucks gas pretty quick. I think I would probably get about 50 cents a mile driving it, ~ 8 MPG.
The Silver Streak folks think the Escape looks cute but they prefer the look of old aircraft aluminum. I think they would change their minds a bit if they saw one in person.
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