Hi Aprangley
Congratulations on your new to you Mac25!
Welcome to the forum!
We regularly tow our Mac26X with a Dodge Caravan with a 3500 lb tow capacity. All up our bait and trailer are 3300 lbs with a tongue weight of 350 lbs. (not as much margin as we would desire but it’s what we have).
We added 1000 lb capacity Trembin pucks to the rear axle.
Our trailer is a dual axle Sea Lion with hydraulic brakes on one axle. We replaced all the tire at the time of our purchase locally with new rated tires before we traveled any distance or on a highway. We did this because the tires exhibited tread cracks and were over 5 years since manufacture. They also had sat in one position on ground for a while. So this is something you especially want to check and address on a single axle trailer.
The original Mac trailers I believe had a box tube tongue which can rust away from the inside. As with any trailer you want to check the lug nuts, tire pressures and lubrication. If it has sat or not been periodically had the bearings repacked you will want to watch the hub temperatures as you tow. They should always be cool enough to comfortably hold on to. Anything past genuinely comfortable is a substantial warning
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Check all welds at all areas for integrity, rust or any signs of cracking. Get discrepancies fixed before towing, especially on highways. The last thing you want to be is featured as the breaking news story in the traffic report.
We travel very light generally without water or fuel and plan on grocery shopping (& etc) once we are on the water. We rigorously limit our travel speed to less than 55 mph on level ground or downhill inclines. On climbing hills we adjust accordingly down to what the minimum speed limit is if necessary. No sense tearing things up if you don’t have to.
We have logged over 5000 miles up and down the East Coast from NH to SC (and back) along with trips to/from Vermont. Most recently we just towed up and over Franconia Notch coming back to NH from VT.
We are very disciplined with our maintenance and oil changes. For us it’s preferable to address things pre-emptively rather than running things out. (It actually costs less overall!
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So, if we were to choose between the two vehicles we’d choose the one with the best brakes, tires, weight and maintenance.
We’d highly recommend towing with bothe the vehicle and trailer level to the ground.(As opposed to vehicle tail low and trailer nose low.)
Make sure you have sufficient tongue weight to avoid fish tailing.
Inspect and use your safety chains or cables.
We’d suggest minimizing your passengers when picking up a new trailer until you have had it professionally maintained and any shortcomings rectified.
Hope this helped some.
Best Regards
Over Easy
PS: One other aspect we do is increase our tire pressures. Trailer to 50 psi ( 65 psi max rated ) and tow vehicle from normal 36 psi up to 40 psi on front and 45 psi on rear ( 52 psi max load rating) which we do when tires are cold and connected to loaded trailer. This is done at the tire manufacturer’s trailer towing recommendations to minimize unnecessary sidewall flexing/heating.
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, make mine ham and black olive 
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