Auxilary Towing Lights

[Josh]

before i went the route of building my own, i was wondering if the military ever made a 24v aux magnetic towing lights 12 prong and what not. i tow alot of trailers with my deuce and some dont have lights on them, i plan on eventually putting a 12volt plug on the deuce, but for a quick fix and for trailers with out lights i would like a set of magnetic lights.

if someone out there has a set thats thats alrdy done or a set of mil spec ones, post or send PM.

or has a 12 prong trailer conecter, id be interested in one of those too.

 

[datsunaholic]

I just made a set. Bought a set of regular 12V magnetic ones off eBay, bought 24V bulbs, swapped the wires around inside the housings (the brake and tail are backwards vs the 24v bulbs), and used a military trailer pigtail to plug into the truck. Bought the trailer pigtail on eBay too- it was brand new 1960s stock, but age is just a number... Worked great until one of the lights fell off from bouncing too much and I drug one light 2 miles down the freeway...

 

[Beerslayer]

Whatever you do, DON'T waste your money on the Harbor Freight magnetic lights. I bought a set for occasional use. The magnets weren't strong enough to hold them on anything, and the reflector lenses fell out in the first 50 miles.

I haven't come up with something I do like yet, but it will not be HF.

 

[Josh]

ive had my experiance with harbor freight ones, i had it fall of on the first bump i hit when i bought an old camper frame to turn into a car hauler. i ended up ducttaping the lights on and they lasted me 2-3 uses, for 11bucks or so, i didnt have an issues with a cop following me for like 15 miles or so, had i not had the lights i would have gotten a ticket.. so for 1 time uses and things like that harbo freight lights are okay, but extended uses dont trust them.


also im just curious datsun, what did the hole set up run ya.

 

[datsunaholic]

I can't remember, offhand. The magnetic lights were the cheap part, $19.99 or something. They were cheap Chinese stuff, but that's not why it fell off (I was towing a mostly wooden trailer and had screwed an angle bracket to the back for them to stick to, but that vibrated too much). The pigtail was a bit spendy- I saw them for sale at many of the online surplus stores but they all wanted well over $100 for it, I think I paid $50. Then had to buy bulbs. got those at bulbtown or similar. I remember that the pigtails were so expensive from all the surplus outfits that I almost bought a surplus trailer off GL just for the pigtail (that was when the minumum bid was $30 and the trailers didn't need an EUC).

 

[Josh]

ill keep that in mind, i remember when we did the PNW run Aaronw said he bought a trailer just for the tires, i might have to get ahold of him and see what he did the with electrical.