Military Trailer Lights

obxbronco

obxbronco

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2008
Location
Elkin, NC
I got a military trailer, it ran off of 24v system, i'm wanting to convert the lights and plug over to a standard 12v. How do i do it?
 
Caver Dave said:
The bulbs will swap for 12V versions.
The rest you'll likely need a meter for...
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will the 24v wires be ok? i'm guessing the 12v bulbs would like 1157 or 1156? it also has an led reverse light on it.
 
frankenyoter said:
I think a wire is a wire but you know what they say about assumptions
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You could assume that, but the higher voltage systems could use smaller wires to run the same amount of power to lights. The 24v lights would put out the same amount of light at a lower current than the 12v lights at a higher current. Higher current makes more heat, and requires larger gauge wire. But then you could also assume the military went overkill possibly on the wiring and it would be ok at 12v.

I would say if the trailer light wiring looks to be atleast 16ga then just swap bulbs and the correct connector and run them.

Worst case, rewiring trailer lights is simple, it's just 4 wires, and then splits off to 3 wires to each side, 2 if you just ground to the chassis of the trailer.
 
GCncsuHD said:
But then you could also assume the military went overkill possibly on the wiring and it would be ok at 12v.
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No need to assume... the 2 M-416's & multiple M-10x I've seen used fine stranded 14ga & 12ga throughout. Unless you plan to use some KC's for backup lights :rolleyes:, the Milspec wiring harness is MORE than ample for a 12V bulb swap! :D

The hardest part will be dissecting the military plug to figure out what needs to go where on the (assuming) "U-haul"/RV plug...
 
green = right
yellow = left
brown = tail
white = ground
that is all you need
 
Caver Dave said:
No need to assume... the 2 M-416's & multiple M-10x I've seen used fine stranded 14ga & 12ga throughout. Unless you plan to use some KC's for backup lights :rolleyes:, the Milspec wiring harness is MORE than ample for a 12V bulb swap! :D
The hardest part will be dissecting the military plug to figure out what needs to go where on the (assuming) "U-haul"/RV plug...
Click to expand...

That's not all that hard although. Grab a test light and a charged battery and have at it... once you have ground, you have the lights worked out with a paper+pencil, repeat for vehicle harness, but with test light..
 
gonna try to mess with it wed.
 
ok going to replace lights amd wiring. much much easier.
 
I am running these lights on my crawler and the only thing you have to do is change bulbs, have you opened them up and seen how they are put together? Would not be easy to rewire the wires that are there will be fine. The top bulb is your park light the one below that is your brake, the other two lights are for "black out" not needed unless you justwant them to light up.....Mine are on my build thread Zukota check and see if our lights are the same.....Thanxxx
 
When I adapted my M416 lights to 12v, I did away with the 'blackout' lamps.

Got a regular 1157 socket from the parts store. Cut a round plate to fit in the existing housing, (removed the 24v guts...3 screws, IIRC). Put the socket in the plate and screwed the plate in the housing with the 3 screws. Ran my own wire harness as there are several more wires for the blackout circuits and the plug was huge! Everything looks correct and they work flawlessly.
 
I ran all new wires as the old harness was a bit too short and the plug would have needed to be changed so I just swapped everything over to 4 wire.
I am on my second or third set off lights now. First I had different bulbs in the stock military housing but that did not pass inspections so I went over to basic square trailer lights. I did not like the look of those plus they tended to be in the way on the trail and at the campsite. I now have some low profile LED's in the back that are only as tall as the frame so they sit nice and low. I added a couple of led side marker lights on the tongue and have not had any problems with them at all.
My TJ has LED's in for everything but the headlamps so I had already switched over the flasher. If you run LED's on your trailer you will want to get the LED flasher that is only 12 dollars or so at the parts store.
I could not find a better close up picture....
 
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