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Lighting "pigtail" for M416 trailer

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 8:33 am
by m37jarhead
I'd like to occasionally pull my M416 trailer behind my Chev. pick up. Assuming I replace the 24V bulbs with 12V bulbs, is
there some kind of "pigtail" available to connect the lights between the stock 6 pin Chev female receptacle and the 12 pin military trailer male plug?

Re: Lighting "pigtail" for M416 trailer

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 10:41 pm
by cuz
Just build an adapter using an off the shelf civvy 6 prong replacement male plug and a surplus M series vehicle trailer female receptacle. I made mine with about 2 feet of cord and I plug the civvy plug into my Chevy's trailer receptacle and I connect the M series trailer receptacle to my M101A1's or M100's cable male plug and tie them securely to the draw bar with wire ties. This is a handy setup you can use on all your civvy tow vehicles.

Or you can install the appropriate M series trailer receptacle in your truck's bumper or under it and wire it into your civvy truck's harness as I have illustrated below.
Civvy car to Military trlr adapter.jpg
Civvy car to Military trlr adapter.jpg (48.25 KiB) Viewed 1532 times

Re: Lighting "pigtail" for M416 trailer

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 9:30 am
by outsider
If you put LED light bulbs in your existing trailer lights you can jump back and forth between 12V and 24V without having to switch bulbs.

Steve

Re: Lighting "pigtail" for M416 trailer

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 8:08 am
by m37jarhead
Wes: I've got an extra female M series receptacle. Your wiring diagram will make this an easy to do project. Thanks.

Steve: I'm not very familiar with LED's. Are LED bulbs rated by voltage as in 12V or 24V ? What rated voltage LED bulbs are used to replace the stock 24V bulbs in the trailer or maybe it doesn't make any difference with LED's ?

Re: Lighting "pigtail" for M416 trailer

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:35 am
by outsider
Automotive LED bulbs are not rated for a specific voltage, rather they are rated in voltage ranges. Most will just say 12V on the package, but will also work on 24V. I have semi's with LED lights on them, and when some got their lens busted so they had to be replaced I started to play around and see what would work, and 24V worked out ok. So I went back to the mfg info catalogs and sure enough most were rated 6V to 48V range. So now as my MV trailers are getting redone they get LED bulbs where applicable.

Steve

PS to make up cords for our trailers we use MV semi trailer cords and cut the female end off with about 3' of cord then just add the civi plug to the end of the cord. I think I paid $20 for 2 semi cords at Findlay last year so they can be found on the cheap.

Re: Lighting "pigtail" for M416 trailer

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 12:31 pm
by m37jarhead
Thanks for all the LED info. I just didn't know. Appreciate your input on the LED's and the cord.
Makes my project a lot easier.