Reflective Caution Tape

If you're in Florida, the FDOT and DOT requires Red/White on the rear of vehicles.
We had to change all of our vans that had the yellow/white.
Had 40+ vans with yellow/white for years until an FHP Trooper pulled one of our vans over and gave the driver a warning ticket.

And a big Plus for 3M reflective tape, brightest tape out there.

Seems the NHTSA/DOT requires red & white on all large commercial trailers.

This article describes proper size, placement, etc.
http://www.seton.com/blog/2014/01/reflective-tape-regulations-what-you-need-to-know

So, I've removed the yellow/black tape and bought some DOT approved red/white.

I understand what some replies have said about some people on the road running into emergency vehicles with their lights flashing. As someone said on a late night show - you can't fix stupid...

In any case, NHTSA/DOT says the reflective tape reduces trailer collisions by 29%. I'll take that over a nice looking back-end that I can't see anyway.

Newer vehicles have much better headlights than older ones had, part of that is a much more precise beam of light.

Putting reflective material up high won't accomplish much since the headlights won't be pointed up that high and won't reflect it much if at all.

To be most effective reflective material needs to be within 36" of the ground.

I'm sure there are other good reflective tape manufacturers but this is a case where you don't want to cheap out, big difference between cheap and really good tape. Years ago I had a retired Ohio Highway engineer tell me to only buy 3M reflective tape, that it was the best and that is what I have on all my trailers and a strip visible under my slide in camper on the truck. The tape lights up like it is a powered light when any light hits it, much more attention getting than any lights or small reflectors that you can add. On his recommendation I have orange/white stripes the full length of my trailers, low on the sides and red/white stripe across the back, again low. Higher would probably be better but this is a compromise between appearance and visibility. You see the stripes much sooner than you see what they are attached to.

downtheroad wrote:
My take on this:
If someone can't see the back of a full sized RV, then reflective tape isn't going to help...

Yep, I sort of had the same thought...But, that being said..I did replace my tail lights with LEDs....Mine were not very bright, especially in the rain or fog...makes a huge difference in rear visibility at night...

I apply reflective tape on the rear of my many different utility, boat and RV trailer as wells. I install near eye level - so their own headlights reflect back at them (when they follow too close). Haven't been rear ended since. Thus, I know this proactive safety tool works. As for my trailer's looking like a christmas tree or construction trailer at night? I cannot see my trailer's rear when towing it. Thus, high reflective tape vs someone's super bright lights doesn't bother me at all. giant smile.

I used the red/white reflective tape from Tractor Supply on the bumper of my TT. I don't know how people can not see a small house in front of them but like others have said people run into the backs of emergency vehicles with their lights going all the time.

allenm wrote:
I'm in Melbourne, FL for the winter. It was sunny and 88 here. Yeah, it looked pretty nasty back home in B-Town today.

I hate you...:p

Maybe you should have placed the tape as arrows going to the left, pointing for traffic to move left, maybe the idiots on the cell phones might get the idea that they are about to hit something, we had a disabled fire engine on the side of the road, no lights, no cones waiting for the tow truck, I had to jump down the side of the road, the idiot on cell phone missed the fire engine by inches, this is in broad daylight in sunny California.

navegator

I added 4 additional red reflectors, place right in the middle about driver level.