New M1101 owner questions

[apscott]

A few days ago, I picked up a 1997 M1101 that I won on auction, driving it back from Richmond to DC on one of the coldest days we have had around here in recent memory, it was 2 degrees out when I left the house. It towed great behind my Chevy 2500 pickup and is in really great shape overall, and is basically complete with tarp, bows, two stabilizing jacks.

I removed the tarp and bows for the drive home, and will probably sell those as that's not how I'm intending to use the trailer, and I'm sure that helped the mpg for the drive back on I-95. The surge brake appears to work, I just needed to top off with some brake fluid.

Two questions I have as a newbie.

I removed the 37" Goodyear military MT run flats so I can sell them and replaced them with some LT265/75R16 tires on Chevy 8 lug rims to bring the height down and so they would swap out with what is on my truck right now. What tire pressure is appropriate? I know the 37" tires are rated at 17psi (they were at about 8 psi when I picked up the trailer), but even that seemed a bit bouncy on the highway inflated to 17psi. Obviously the LT265's have much less volume, so will require higher pressure, but how high? If I could find a load rating/pressure chart for the 37" it would be easy to compare and inflate to similar load rating, but I'm wondering if anyone has practical experience on what works well for LT265's.

Secondly, I'm going to swap the 24v bulbs to 12v versions and replace the Mil plug with a 7-pin. For incandescent bulbs, it seems like 1156 and 67 or 96 are the bulbs of choice. Has anyone used the LED 1156 / 96 /67 replacements that you can find on eBay or Amazon, and are they any good?

Thanks!

 

[harleyhouse]

I run 50 pounds in the 235-85-16 in the tires on my M101a2 "Same wheels as you used"
no bounce at highway speeds and she follows along just fine.

 

[gimpyrobb]

I was going to say 35-40, but 50 seems ok. I don't usually run full psi unless I am going to haul lots of weight.

 

[Duckalumni]

I used the #1156 and the #97 bulbs on mine seemed to work well. I went with the 4 plug but I got a 7 pin adapter for my truck.

 

[MarkM]

I used the LED 1156 bulbs that are good from 10 volts to 30 volts and they have worked out very well. Great when switching between a military tow vehicle and civilian truck. You can find them on a popular auction site.

Mark

 

[John Galt]

I run my E-rated Dextero 235-75-16 tires at 60 psi most of the time. With a load I air them up to 80-90. Be careful buying wheels on CL, I think Chevy switched to a metric 8-lug pattern at some point.

 

[apscott]

35 psi seems to work ok with LT265 tires, not too bouncy and tracks straight.

I did find some LED's that work reasonably well inside of the military tail/brake light housing. Both are a little bit shy of the brightness of the incandescent versions, but are still bright enough in daylight.

For brake/turn bulb, replacing a 1156. These are tall bulbs with three rows of red LED's, and just fit inside the housing as the socket for this bulb is recessed inside the housing:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CQMLW7A/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For running light bulb, replacing a 67/96 bulb, with two rows of red LED's. Since the socket for the running light bulb inside the housing is slightly closer to the lens cover than the brake/turn socket, the ones above will not fit in the running light socket since they have three rows of LED's.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CQMLUZY/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Neither of these bulbs will fit in the indicator/marker light housings as they are too tall. I'm still running 67/96's in there for the time being.

One other issue I've run into is that the cable holder built into handbrake levers on both sides has rusted out and no longer pulls the parking brake cables. Anyone know where you can find a replacement?