Camco 42655 Retro Travel Trailer Party Lights, 8 ft

There's something about a string of little camper-shaped lights glowing over your site at dusk. The Camco 42655 Retro Travel Trailer Party Lights give you exactly that. Ten vintage travel trailer bulbs strung along an 8-foot strand, ready to drape across your awning, your patio, or a railing back home. It's a small touch. But it's the kind of thing that makes a campsite feel like yours the minute the sun drops.

The whole set leans into nostalgia. Each bulb is shaped like an old canned-ham travel trailer, the kind you'd see rolling down a two-lane highway in a faded photo. Ten of them across eight feet gives you nice, even spacing for the front of an awning or a stretch of deck rail. They read as playful without shouting, and they look right whether your rig is a restored vintage trailer or a brand-new one fresh off the lot.

This set runs on standard 120-volt power. That means a household wall outlet, an extension cord, or the 120-volt receptacle on a campground power pedestal. It is not a 12-volt set, so it won't run straight off your RV's house battery. Plug it into shore power or a wall outlet and you're good to go. If you're at a site with only battery power, you'd need an inverter to feed it, so most folks just run it off the pedestal or an outdoor outlet.

Camco built in overload protection, and the set ships with a spare fuse. If something on the circuit pulls too much current, the protection does its job before the strand takes any damage. Drop in the spare fuse and you're back in business. There are two spare bulbs in the box too, so one burned-out lamp doesn't sideline the whole string. That's a nice bit of foresight on a set of lights people actually use hard, season after season.

It's UL approved for both indoor and outdoor use, which opens up where you can put it. Hang it under the awning at the campsite. Run it along the deck rail or the porch at home. String it across the wall of a she-shed, a garage, a dorm room, or a game room. Because it's rated for outdoor use, a little weather won't scare it, though you'll still want to treat it like any outdoor 120-volt lighting and keep the connections dry.

Setup is quick. The 8-foot length covers the front of most single awnings on one strand. For a longer run down a big fifth wheel or across a whole patio, plan on more than one set and more than one outlet, so you're not leaning the entire load on a single circuit. Keep the plug connection up off wet ground when you're outside, and put it on a GFCI outlet if the pedestal or the porch has one. That's just good practice with any cord-and-plug lighting you're running outdoors.

When the trip's over, unplug it, let it dry if it caught any rain, and coil it loosely for storage so the wires don't kink. Handle the bulbs gently. They're replaceable, and you've got two spares in the pack, but a careful coil keeps the whole string working trip after trip. Toss it in the same bin as the rest of your campsite gear and it's ready for the next weekend out.

A couple of honest notes. This is a decorative light set, not area lighting, so don't expect it to light up a whole campsite like a work lamp. And it runs on 120-volt AC, not your 12-volt DC system, so it's a shore-power or household-outlet accessory rather than a boondocking one. Know that going in and it'll do exactly what you want it to.

This one's for anyone who likes a little personality at the site. First-time owners setting up a new travel trailer, weekend campers who decorate as soon as the jacks are down, and folks dressing up a patio or a camper-themed room all reach for the same string. It's simple, it's fun, and it's honest about what it is. A nostalgic set of camper lights that plugs into 120-volt power and lights up the night.