we use the rope lights looped down from the awning groove which accepts the plastic clip strips. I cut the 1' pieced into 4" lengths to allow the lights to hang in loops rather than one solid flat piece, either way, I'd not worry too much about rolling them up in a pinch just to get them out of the wind when a storm blows up. I remove them when travelling but I probably wouldn't have to. If you were going to put glob lights and clips, I'd say ripping them off quickly during a storm would still be preferable to having the awning torn off the trailer. Lights are much cheaper than awnings.