If your teardrop trailer has been in winter layup for a few months now like mine, you’ve probably started to feel the call of the coming season and began thinking about upgrades or fixes to your rig. A quick, easy, and inexpensive one is to enhance the visibility of your prized little camper in the dark.

A lot of Teardrops are built onto basic utility trailer frames, and those frames have pretty minimal lighting: standard-issue utilitarian tail lights, and maybe a button-style marker light on the side of the frame. In the dark, particularly broadside, there isn’t a whole lot to make obvious that there is actually 12+ feet more of something attached to your vehicle.

I know from my now-past days of motorcycling that visibility is a primary defense strategy. Without going over-the-top and ugly and I did what I could to make my bike more obvious, especially at night, and I applied some of the same approach to my Teardrop trailer to help make rear-end or t-bone accidents less likely.

I thought about wiring in marker lights but then decided to keep it simple and apply high-quality reflective tape to the sides and rear. One teardropper I crossed paths with put reflective tape on the trailer tongue to help cut down on nighttime shin-smashers to himself and his spouse when it was parked at a camp spot.

In any case, when I say high-quality I mean the “DOT-C2” tape that is highly reflective… the kind you see on trucks, etc… if you’re going to do this, spend the money, don’t go to the dollar store. It’s an investment.

Along the sides, I applied white tape which is not horribly obvious in the day, especially on aluminum, but gleams brightly at night. Along the rear, a red strip in between those minimalist taillights. Use common sense, and be aware of any laws in your jurisdiction, concerning what colour goes where. I had originally thought of placing orange tape on the backs of the solar panel terminals on the upper rear of the trailer, but wondered if one glowing might be misinterpreted as a turn signal.

Marker lights are a good idea too, though can be fiddly with wiring, while reflective tape is easy and quickly done. Though something I think is worthwhile would be to wire in a third brake-light, high-mounted, since the standard issue taillights are low and not super-obvious.

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So, that’s how I do things with my Teardrop Trailer but by no means the full story or the best way. What about you? Add your own methods, ideas and experiences using the comment box below for the benefit of all readers.