If I had 40K to put into a vehicle that had to seat six large (or tall) people, had to have 4WD, and needed to be able to capably tow a decent size trailer, I'd be looking at a van.
But not any van...
www.quigley4x4.com
http://www.quadvan.com/
Both come with full Factory support, and can be serviced or repaired at ANY Ford dealer nationwide. They use mostly off-the-shelf components from Ford.
They're not cheap new, but used ones in good shape can be had in that price range easily. It's about a $13k option on a new one, but they can't be beat! There's a 2007 on ebay now with a v-109 and nder 30K on it right now!
(Just thinking... Not sure if you can still order them or not as they are being phased-out for the Transit... :( )
ETA: I'm forgetting that they both convert other non-Ford vans into 4x4 as well... I'm a little biased towards the blue oval product myself...