I was lucky enough to receive a pretty much brand-new Burley Nomad in the late summer of 2008.
Since then I used it for grocery runs, camping and pretty much any other situation where I needed more capacity than my various bags and the rear rack provide.

Design & Practicality: 4/5

The trailer consists of a folding aluminum frame with a cordura canopy to hold your cargo. It can be folded down with ease within a couple of minutes, sans tools. The main compartment has a divider for separating your goods as well as a few mesh bags to carry smaller items. By design, the trailer is NOT waterproof, so anything you don’t want to get wet in inclement weather needs to be packed in a waterproof bag or stuff sack.

Oversize items that won’t fit into the trailer itself can be strapped to the trailer itself or you could go for the optional cargo rack

Attachment to the bike is handled by a aluminum hitch that goes into you rear quick release; if you ride tandem or full-suspension there are other hitches available

It is overall a very good design; there is however a certain lack of attention to detail and execution (see next paragraph)

Materials & Workmanship: 3.5/5

Frame and canopy are made constructed of what appears to be good materials, yet there are some unsatisfactory cheap details as well. The pull straps to close the canopy over the frame are made out of low-grade vinyl that rips easily. There are some attachment points on both side of the trailer for strapping additional items to the top of the trailer, but they have clearly not been designed with holding down weight, but rather as an afterthought. Granted, Burley offers an optional top rack for the trailer, but given the price of the trailer I find these issues rather uncalled for.

If you charge top-end dollar for your product I expect top-end quality as well

Fit & Capacity: 5/5

Burley rates the weight-carrying capacity of the trailer to 100 pounds. This is a generous rating and the frame certainly appears to be up to the task. I have loaded 60 pound into it and while it is a bit cumbersome to get rolling with that much weight, the trailer itself is certainly capable of handing it.

The much larger “ground-area” of the trailer, compared to panniers makes it a lot easier to get stuff organized; at the same time, I have caught myself loading way more than was necessary because the cargo space is just there. Of course one cannot fault the trailer for the lack of self-control

Summary

Overall the Nomad is a good cargo/camping trailer with good capacity and is pretty well made. It is the aforementionened failures in detail that turn me of a bit. Granted, I was lucky in getting it for free, if I had bought it for the suggested $330 be assured I’d be complaining to Burley aplenty

I have no first-hand experience with other cargo trailers such as the BOBs, but I feel that all things considered the Nomad is a good product. If Burley would feel to address the smaller complaints (and I am not the only one voicing them) the for sure have a winner on their hands

Riding with a trailer will change the way your bike handles. It takes more effort to get the whole load rolling, and depending on how much way you carry. Going uphill or downhill will present its own set of challenges; yet I feel that these issues are far less pronounced compared to riding with loaded panniers.