From an older thread on a different forum but my reply stands:
The trailer is not the god send I once thought it would become, it is however another 'tool in the shed' if you will and it should be utilized as such. When I first started building my trailer in 00'/01' I figured it would be an added appendage of my FJ40, like always attached regardless of the type of trip I planned to voyage out on. With that in mind I built it to go anywhere I was comfortable taking my FJ40 and had plans to incorporate everything I could, 12V power, water, fuel, tent, cooking, counter tops, propane, generator, you name it. Building it as such did leave some trade-offs in the forms of practicality, none that I've really regretted but I do wish it was bigger at times? I've honestly never really finished my 'build' I've got boxes of parts and components I've wanted to install, things as simple as interior dome lights and setups for water, etc. Really I don't know if I'll ever get around to it. With a nice fleet of Scepter cans I've grown accustom to to just using the trailer as raw storage rather than really outfitting it to the point where I feel like I would be lacking if I decided to leave it home for a trip. Right now it is storage and a tent platform. If I'm doing a trip where a ground tent is appropriate or preferred, then the trailer is just storage. If I'm doing a trip where I won't need storage beyond what I can pack in the 40, the trailer stays home, pretty simple. I don't rely on it for water, for my stove, for my shade, its just a tool. I don't take it just to be taking it.
My trailer handles and tows like a dream both on and off-road. It does little in the way of slowing me down in the grand scheme of a trip but it is undoubtedly more 'work', on a more difficult trail you need to plan all obstacles with the trailer in mind, you need to plan your stopping spots and even campsites around having the trailer behind you. For me, a trailer slowing me down or limiting where I can go would be a compromise. For some that isn't a limiting factor and if you get a more comfortable camp setup by having to slow down a bit I can totally see how that ranks up.
My trailer use has dwindled since I first 'finished' it for use in 04? Those first few years it probably got 15-20 trips a year, and last year I probably took it out less than 10? Part of that is the fact I've now got a tent on my Tacoma and with the pickup bed I don't have the storage issues you have with a 40. Though I most often travel with just my wife and our dog. Add a couple little-ones to the equation and I can imagine needing the trailer even behind the Tacoma, that or my wife and I will have to start driving separately.
