Trainer purchase - Travel Trac?

Right now the weather here in Austin is nice enough that I can still ride, but cold weather will eventually be coming and I want to get a trainer so that I don’t lose conditioning over the winter months. I am mostly concerned about maintaining my ability to climb hills. Generally, the hills here are steep enough and long enough that my speed slows down to about 8 to 10 mph (versus my speed of about 20 mph on level roads).

I’ve researched trainers in general, and I think that I need a fluid trainer to give me the workout I need. Price-wise, the Travel Trac Fluid trainer (from Performance, http://tinyurl.com/bv232sj ) seems to be reasonable. Does anyone here have any experience with this trainer? And is the “+” version with the variable resistance lever worth the extra $80?

Thanks for any info…

That's the trainer I used for about 7 years. I never had a problem with it. IMHO the variable resistance isn't worth it.