if it is in your budget for a wheel off trainer then just do that. anything else will be satisfactory on day one and then reality will set in later. especially with some home brew jalopy. if you decide to go wheel on trainer skip the trainer tire. just use old tires. if you are doing 1100mi/mo i'm sure you have plenty of old tires, give them more purpose in life.
i bought my kicker in the summer, gave it a go then shelved it until crappy weather came along. i did a CompuTrainer the winter before and was looking around for a trainer. the kicker came along at a fantastic price, new, prev year model and middle of summer. the stars aligned. you can still find pretty decent wheel off trainers for sale on craig's list from time to time, at least in my area and i am not in a very populated area.
the really cool thing about the smart trainer thing is the control it gives over resistance/grade simulation.