Originally Posted by
enine
There never were any half ton minivans, the only frame based minivans in the us were the aerostar and Astro/Safari which were on the 1/4ton chassis. To get a half ton van chassis you had to go to the regular size van. With the death of the astro safari (and s10 chassis it was based on) and the aerostar there are only front wheel drive minivans left in the us. I don't plan on ever owning a front wheel drive vehicle again.
Some Aerostar models were built for hauling half ton loads. Not common, but that's one of the cars I learnt to drive on, and handle trailers on (which meant reading the manual... repeatedly). It was definitely a compromise vehicle, and I would not buy one for things like hauling a horse trailer. If your cargo was primarily adult humans, it was an excellent vehicle tho, and very easy to service at home. Ours definitely was an adult humans hauler.
Naturally, they're no longer made.
The front wheel drive was an issue about twice in the lifespan of the one I grew up with. Twice in 10 years and a pitifully cut short 200k mile driving life is really not bad. (commercial fleets figured on Aerostars getting 400k miles) And generally, one should not plan on getting up a 15% grade that's covered in 8 inches of snow, or on getting out of 6 inches of pure mud without some special help.