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What did you do to your trailer today.

Swamp Donkey

Swamp Donkey

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I worked on the little M1082 trailer the last couple weeks repairing the few small issues it had.

Replaced the brake valve on the tank. The original one had a leaking cover seal.

Replaced the upper sway bar bushings that had almost crumbled apart. The urethane LMTV bushings are direct replacements.

Then I started on the lights...the fun begins!

I only had 1 amber marker, 2 red markers and 1 taillight that worked. Being incandescents, I assumed bad bulbs. So if I have to replace all those bulbs, I may as well swap them all over to LEDs. Perfect justification for the swap and troubleshooting would be eliminated! Wrong...

I replaced all the lights with LED assemblies. Used dielectric grease in all the connectors. Prepped and sealed all grounds. Plugged the trailer back into the truck and...I now had less working lights than before. WTF!

The harness running through the trailer looked flawless and untouched. Still looking for visual problems, instead of messing with the DVM, I started looking at the little box with the 2 connectors on the front bulkhead. The problem must be in there.

Going into the box I was assuming the box was there because of the dual connectors. I had no idea that the box housed an unimaginable amount of complicated rediculousness. It's a 12v/24v converter box. Something had to be done to simplify that contraption.

A couple gripes:
The wire numbers at the lights don't necessarily correspond to the wire numbers in the box.
The TM for this trailer doesn't contain a wiring diagram...really?
Some wires in the box are not tagged at all.

So with the trusty DVM now in hand, I try to map out the box wiring. Running through all the wires and all the different functions, I ended up with 2 wires that had ~12V and 1 wire that had ~19V...out of 20 something wires. That was while using 24v input power. Not good!

Wire dykes in hand, I cut all the wires going directly to the trailer harness to eleminate all the fancy converters and stuff. I used the blinker wire from the truck to figure out which wires did what on the trailer. After that I used some of the circuit breakers in the box to connect the truck side back to the trailer side until I had all lights and functions working. All other wiring was removed.

Hooked back up to the truck and viola...everything works! I hate that little box.

20180721_183008.jpg

20180721_182953.jpg
 
Last edited:
Tinstar

Tinstar

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Swamp Donkey said:
I worked on the little M1082 trailer the last couple weeks repairing the few small issues it had.

Replaced the brake valve on the tank. The original one had a leaking cover seal.

Replaced the upper sway bar bushings that had almost crumbled apart. The urethane LMTV bushings are direct replacements.

Then I started on the lights...the fun begins!

I only had 1 amber marker, 2 red markers and 1 taillight that worked. Being incandescents, I assumed bad bulbs. So if I have to replace all those bulbs, I may as well swap them all over to LEDs. Perfect justification for the swap and troubleshooting would be eliminated! Wrong...

I replaced all the lights with LED assemblies. Used dielectric grease in all the connectors. Prepped and sealed all grounds. Plugged the trailer back into the truck and...I now had less working lights than before. WTF!

The harness running through the trailer looked flawless and untouched. Still looking for visual problems, instead of messing with the DVM, I started looking at the little box with the 2 connectors on the front bulkhead. The problem must be in there.

Going into the box I was assuming the box was there because of the dual connectors. I had no idea that the box housed an unimaginable amount of complicated rediculousness. Something had to be done to simplify that contraption.

A couple gripes:
The wire numbers at the lights don't necessarily correspond to the wire numbers into dean the box.
The TM for this trailer doesn't contain a wiring diagram...really?
Some wires in the box are not tagged at all.

So with the trusty DVM now in hand, I try to map out the box wiring. Running through all the wires and all the different functions, I ended up with 2 wires that had ~12V and 1 wire that had ~19V...out of 20 something wires. Not good!

Wire dykes in hand, I cut all the wires going directly to the trailer harness to eleminate all the fancy converters and stuff. I used to blinker wire from the truck to figure out which wires did what on the trailer. After that I used some of the circuit breakers in the box to connect the truck side back to the trailer side until I had all lights and functions working. All other wiring was removed.

Hooked back up to the truck and viola...everything works! I hate that little box.

View attachment 736160

View attachment 736161
Click to expand...
No pictures of the “box”?
 
Swamp Donkey

Swamp Donkey

The Engineer
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Gray, GA
Tinstar said:
No pictures of the “box”?
Click to expand...
The were some, but I didn't realize the nasty sun glare distorting most of the pictures until i looked at them later. I'll pop it back open next couple of days to finalize the last circuit and take some more. Given the voltages I was seeing with 24v input, there were multiple failures inside that box.
 
Valence

Valence

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computer54 said:
Nice and made the wife happy too, so you can buy more toys too.
Click to expand...
Hahaha! Well, I'm just a single guy, but I guess that makes me both husband and wife? So never mind, you are correct, the wife was happy. ;D

But my co-pilot seems to like the extra accommodations on the new mattress at night. ;)


ImageUploadedByTapatalk1412619359.473546.jpg ImageUploadedByTapatalk1412619346.814232.jpg
 
Swamp Donkey

Swamp Donkey

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Here is the inside of the magical converter box on some of the M1082 trailers. The purpose of the box is to allow the lights and ABS system to work whether connected to a 12v or 24v truck.

On the front door of the box there are 2 plugs. One is a 12 pin mil connecter and the other is a 7 pin civilian connector. Each connector had its own set of 12 wires going to the converters.

On the inside walls of the box are 5 solid state converters. Each converter had 6 wires that were either connected to the plugs or the circuit breakers in the center of the box.

Then there were 12 wires also coming in from the trailer harness. There had to be a mile of wire in that box.

Basically I used the 3 wires I needed from the mil connector and put each on their own circuit breaker. I them took the wires I needed from the trailer harness and attached them to their respective breaker for that function. I have to find out whether the ABS ECU is 12v or 24v before I wire it in.

All other wiring, including the 7 pin connector harness, was removed or terminated. It will only ever be hooked to my M923 so the 7 pin connector and 12v option are not necessary to me, although it can be run on 12v now due to the multivolt LEDs.

20180803_183849.jpg

20180803_183856.jpg

20180803_183903.jpg
 
Swamp Donkey

Swamp Donkey

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Tinstar said:
That looks like a long weekend of tracing wires.
Click to expand...
To map out everything would have been. I only needed the lights working on 24v though, so about 80% of that mess was either terminated or eliminated. Took about 2 hours to find what I needed and another hour to wire it up.
 
Buffalobwana

Buffalobwana

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Sometimes, it’s just easier to run new wires. Maybe more $, but sometimes worth it if it’s a giant Charlie Foxtrot.
 
Tinstar

Tinstar

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I hooked up my tan M101A2 and moved it about 400 feet.
It’s full with a set of HMMWV wheels/tires that I’m trying to sell and needed it out from under trees.

Haven’t used it much lately.
Will be painting the tan one once the temps cool down a bit.
 
C

computer54

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Nashville,TN
Tinstar said:
I hooked up my tan M101A2 and moved it about 400 feet. It’s full with a set of HMMWV wheels/tires that I’m trying to sell and needed it out from under trees.
Haven’t used it much lately.
Will be painting the tan one once the temps cool down a bit.
Click to expand...
I like the tan unit because My truck is painted tan. but my trailer is green .
 
Aussie Bloke

Aussie Bloke

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