+1 on the trailer.
This summer I told a friend of mine we could do a bit of touring together, and he asked if he could use his old steel racing bike. Sure! I said, it's steel, it'll be great!
We continually ran into one thing after the other. The problems are many, but can be overcome:
-No rack braze-ons. - Got a
Cold Springs Old Man Mountain rack.
-No tire clearance for anything bigger than 25s.
-Only one water bottle mount.
-(Usually)No granny gear.
-Usually less than 36 spoke wheels.
-Not
specifically built for comfort.
-Depending on how much touring you were to do, the durability of lightweight components tends to be less than something like mountain bike components.
-It's a racing bike. The title 'racing bike' comes from the fact that it was built for racing.
All that being said, if you were to get the gearing right, have a strong enough rear wheel, and get a BOB, I think you'd do just fine. It was just interesting watching my friend try and go through all the modifications to make a racing bike a touring bike, when he could have spent that money on a decent 80s Japanese touring bike that would have been oodles better in the end anyway.