Quite a few of these trailers ALSO have a rear-facing camera on the back of the trailer which links to a display you hang in front of your rearview mirror in the truck so when you glance at it, like normal, you see what a rearview mirror would see. So you can back up safely. And see who is tailgating you. Its really clever. Many modern RVs have this. It is also worth pointing out that you can put one of these next to the hitch to help line it up for lowering it onto the "ball", latching it down and driving away.
It has been pointed out by fiberglass trailer owners that their trailers basically delaminate in the sun. After 5-10 years they are falling apart and have crappy resale values. I have seen many examples of this problem. It is caused by the plastics binding the fiberglass together being chemically changed by UV light hitting the plastic skin. UV is energetic and plastics are petrochemicals, a type of oil. It evaporates/oxidizes in strong sunlight. We even learned to avoid exposing artificial fiber clothing to UV light because polyester can literally fall apart after a session of welding. We wore cotton or canvas or leather, all treated with fire retardant in my welding class. If you opt to buy a fiberglass trailer, it looks like serious maintenance needs to be done on its skin every year or two, to delay the breakdown problem. Re-skinning one seems very expensive.
Compare this to an Airstream which is still good on the outside after 50 years. They do require SOME maintenance, but its a lot less, and they have a good suspension so they last really well and are easy to tow. The reason for this is the curved aluminum sheeting (which is stronger and watertight) and simple design with good insulation and few moving parts to fail. They don't have sliders, and they use a steel frame underneath so they are really strong. I would seriously consider a Flying Cloud 23FB model for myself. It is big enough. I'd want to expand my kitchen a bit, however. I don't enjoy eating out that much and like to cook. Having a good sized fridge matters to me. Tow this with a midsize pickup, with a turbo V6 or V8 engine and I'm good to go. I could see working the summers at high Sierra or Eastern Sierra mountain towns needing a librarian for the summer. It could happen.
Compare that simple Airstream to the "slideouts" of a modern fiberglass RV. They offer a lot more space. While I can agree that putting a heavy fridge on a slider is a really dumb idea, you can anchor them down in the kitchen and move something else instead. They drastically increase the surface area for heating and cooling, and places for potential leaks, unfortunately. They are summer-only, and only in mild climates. Not too hot, not too cold. Not year round. This is a downside. Perhaps you keep them closed when it is raining, like the top on a convertible.
I suspect no answer is perfectly good, and if I spend any time in one I will start designing a better one, and once I run out of functional modifications, build one from scratch that IS right, with the weight in the right places, a good suspension, proper tough skin, good truss interior frame, excellent insulation, proper heating and cooling for -20F to 120F. I would use the right materials. I notice that nobody builds out of carbon fiber, or better yet phosphated silica thread, which is considerably stronger and more resilient, as well as being cheaper than carbon fiber. It is made from sand and requires no nanotubes (which are expensive to make). Read the paper on it, because it is IMPORTANT to the future. Honestly, we should be using this stuff in every vehicle. Its great stuff. Really strong. You have to cut it with a torch because it gouges steel scissors, snips, and shears. A shell made of that would be fantastic.
The whole point of this exercise isn't just for the classes I'm taking that use this research information. Its also for my own future, because I just don't count on the people I work for now, for free, to pay me. It isn't in their budget, or character. Volunteers never get jobs. And non-volunteers don't either. It is a closed system. So I am looking beyond them, and getting work experience, and seeing a future where being able to move to the good library budgets is easy. A sensible answer is reduce my stuff further, experiment with the bare minimum size built from plans or rehabbed to tow behind a truck I can afford, and see how it works out. Maybe after experimenting a bit with long term stay motels or month-to-month rental apartments, though I have come to hate apartments for all their noise and petty theft. And motels are just as bad. Ergo, one of the above options are already better, provided you park them in the right places. I think a lot of us are going to see this as a valid approach to our ever-worse economy. There has been no recovery. Things aren't getting better. And the Communists keep voting in more communists to keep those of us who want jobs and can't get one (thanks to age in my case) out of luck. That's how things are. I can't change it. Not even by voting. There are too many communists here making my vote meaningless. Gotta show ID to cash a check but not to vote. How's that work? Oh, its corrupt and evil. Sigh. So I minimize and I move it along. You try and stay ahead of the evil, or barring ahead, away from. Mobile lifestyles are for more than a great view.
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