You’ll know from reading the other posts on this blog that I enjoy adding light and colour (and gear) to my teardrop camping experience. Here are a couple worthwhile recent additions to my teardrop gadgeteria, lanterns which offer multiple functions within a single piece of gear–always helpful when camping in a tiny trailer like a teardrop!

Neys Provincial Park is a place I return to anytime I am anywhere near Marathon, Ontario, which is more-or-less where Lake Superior transitions from having a north shore to an eastern one. In addition to awesome scenery there are a few great camp sites which each have their own short private trail direct to the beach. Last autumn I was sitting out there on a large piece of driftwood, enjoying the sound of the surf on an unseasonably warm evening and, in the distance further down the beach, it looked like someone had a small fire going. Eventually I took Luna for a walk in that direction and had the pleasure to meet a young couple from BC who were making their way across the country.

Turns out it wasn’t a fire I had seen from several hundred metres away but their lantern, which I learned had several lighting tricks up its sleeve. The pulsing flame effect looked cool (well actually hot haha) in itself. But then further turn of the knob brought a steady orange glow, then dim white light with orange at the bottom, then pure white light with gradually increasing intensity. With the knob turned all the way it’s quite bright (once I bought my own I saw on the instructions 900 lumens) but also nicely even.

It charges by USB, and the couple told me the battery charge lasts quite a while in their experience. I liked the variety of function it could provide: both ambient/mood lighting and utilitarian illumination. Also had a solid, not crappy, look and feel to it. So filed that in the mental “get” list.

What more could I possibly want, you ask. You don’t know me well enough, I answer 😉 Because I also like colour (check out the up-light strip inside my teardrop trailer bedroom) and so, exercising a poor degree of self-control and an absence rational thought, I somehow reasoned to myself that there was place for yet another lantern–in my my minimalist teardrop camping experience. Hmm. At least I only bought one of these.

In any case, while not as broad a range of functionality as the other pair, I do get a lot of enjoyment from this one: 6 colours, 2 whites and three dimness levels that can be applied to colour and whites. Or if you just can’t decide, it can cycle through all 8 but that gets boring quickly. There’s quite a few lanterns to be found that do colours, but far less common to find one that also dims.

Like the other one, the lens provides an evenly-dispersed light rather than the appearance of individual LEDs. This lantern recharges by USB but also has a solar panel on top as a secondary charging source. Generally I don’t find these little internal panels to be particularly effective in anything other than bright, direct sunlight. But the other day it was indoors on the dining room table (as pictured) and the charging indicator was flashing so who knows.

For teardrop trailer camping use, it is a plus that these lanterns are both waterproof–which, strangely, was not a feature on all “camping lanterns” I looked up. They also both have the feature of being able to be used as a small battery bank (i.e., with a USB out port) to power a phone or tablet. I don’t see this as being used much when we have large batteries on board our trailers anyhow but perhaps in those instances when you’re trying to skimp on power consumption, perhaps it’s another source (albeit limited capacity) to take from.

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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.