Re: TRAILERS --

From: Patrick Jankowiak (recycler@swbell.net)
Date: Fri Mar 03 2006 - 21:20:39 PST


One thing could be done, to use a small 24-to-12 switching power supply
(buck converter) for each lamp to be lit on the trailer. 24V/1A in, 12V/2A
out.. less any inefficiencies.

truck socket sees proper currents, trailer lamps see proper voltages.
(unless you have a fat wallet, you should make your own switchers.)

This could also be done cheeply with any solid state circuit that would
turn the power on and off maybe 100 times a second with a 50% duty cycle.
Would not need a full blown regulated switcher. (visions of a 555 timer and
a BDW94CFP (12A PNP Darlington in an isolated TO-220 case))

but that's for geeks, making your own electronics.

The easiest and cheapest thing by far (other than changing lamps) is to add
a second set of lamp fixtures with 24V lamps to include the proper
connector for your truck's trailer socket. Besides, due to the oddities of

various brake light wiring schemes among civvy vehicles, you may not want
to mix and match the wiring.

PJ

Arthur Bloom wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ryan Gill" <rmgill@mindspring.com>
> To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
> Sent: Friday, March 03, 2006 2:46 PM
> Subject: Re: [MV] TRAILERS --
>
>
> At 9:58 AM -0700 3/3/06, SGM PANTANO wrote:
>
>>Hey...wake up.. There is no such thing as a 24 volt or a 12 volt trailer..
>>The light receptacles in the Military tail lights could care less what bulb
>>is in there..
>
>
> But the wiring could. 24 volt wires could be
> sized smaller, try to run the same wattage bulb
> at 12 volts and you could fry your wires. Check
> the wire harness first!
>
>
>
> Twelve gauge copper wire has an ampacity of 41 in open air (single insulated
> conductor) and an ampacity of 23 in a harness. For 14 gauge wire, the
> ratings are 32 amps and 17 amps, respectively. It would take a lot of lamps
> to reach those limits. In addition, there are fuses which are designed to
> fry before the wires do.
>
> Arthur P. Bloom
>
>
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