Towing a Popup with a Minivan? Any comments?

[wynot]

I am in debate mode on what to do about this. I plan to camp around 6 times a year, (twice a month during the 3 Summer Months) but drive the Van without towing about 346 days a year. It's a hard decision to buy a "gas guzzler 3 seat SUV for those 346 days right now... Also two of my kids are only 5 years old and are currently in booster seats and so the seats can't be folded back everytime they get in and out of the SUV....
 
Unfortunately, I also got a price on putting brakes on the popup...
 
$500 for the popup and $300 for the brake controller on the Van. Considering the age of the Minivan is a 1997, but with only 71,000 miles on it. (we really don't drive as much as many people do around here) I am having a quandary about what to do...

Our "gas guzzler" full size SUV gets the same gas mileage as our minivan got.  And in some cases, better.  The only time the minivan got decent fuel mileage was towing, because the 3,500 lb camper pushed it everywhere.