12 pin NATO trailer plug adapters

Okay so the name sums it up.
I have the 12 pin NATO plug on my 1/4 ton trailer, and want an adapter that allows me to plug it into the 7 pin round RV plug on my Hummer H3. This way I can either use it on an 'M' series vehicle or the H3.
I know about the difference in voltages, and with the Trucklite omni-volt LED's I can use the trailer with either system. The adapter just allows me the choice of tow vehicle.

Has anyone made this, seen it, or know where to get the materials to have it made?
I did pick up a pre-wired 12 pin receptacle with 7 wires out of the back from Saturn Surplus, but basd on the NATO schematic, I don't think the wires are in the right pins to make it work.
I'm not an electrician, and need some real knowledge on this one.

should not be to hard to wire up an adaptor, you dont need the black out brake lights. only turn signels or running lights, that should leave you only needing seven wires or less

I just wired my Sankey trailer for the "flat 4" connector ( in parallel with the NATO plug), and as long as trailer doesn't have electric brakes, all you'll need is the 4 leads. white to ground, brown to tail lamps, and the yellow to left turn/brake, and green to right turn/brake. Just be sure to use the rubber connector cover when using the NATO plug, you don't want to accidently short out the pins against the frame.

You can also wire those same 4 wires into a 12 pin socket on a pigtail from either a 7 pin or flat 4 cable.

I left all the bulbs as 24v, since they will function with a 12v system, only dimmer. All my 12v tow vehicles are much bigger than the trailer, so their lights will blind anyone anyways

Dave Dunn

Thanks for the replys fellas. This link will show you what I have to work with.
http://saturnsurplus.com/electrical/23321.htm

Unfortunately, there are no color coded wires. Just the letter designations that are associated with the female end of the plug. Here is a link to Olive drab, that shows what circuits are used in the specific pin letter.
http://www.olive-drab.com/od_mseries_lightswitch.php3

The circuits are the following letters...
A,B,C,D,E,F,H
There are no other wires into any of the remaining letters.

If anyone can identify the correct wires to use and complete the circuits, I will splice them togehter to the proper screw in the 7 pin plug and make it work.

If you are using a trailer wiring where the Brake/turn indicators are "combined" us this:
D or L = ground ( white)
E = tail ( brown)
M = LH indicator (yellow) if trailer lamp lense is red ( Euro MV's are amber)
N = RH indicator (green) if trailer lamp lense is red ( Euro MV's are amber)

IF you have amber turn indicators, you must use pin B and J ( the red stop lamps) and determine which is on the left and right. I don't have the info in front of me right now to say which is which

Thanks for the info DSD277.

I called AM General, and after speaking with them, and then doing an IE Search using the Part Number, MS75021-2, I was able to grab a wiring schematic for the female socket/tow vehicle end that corresponds to the trailer plug pin end.

I believe that the 7 wire receptical that I got from Saturn is missing one circuit. Letter J. which would be for the RH Sig/Stop.

The way I read the diagram, I would use the following...

A/C/E for B/O & Service Tail lamps
B for LH Signal/stop
D for Ground
F for Reverse lamps. (the amber light won't be very bright but will look cool)
H well I don't think it is needed.
J which is not wired into a circuit, for RH Signal/stop

Can you determine if my electrical continuity is correct?

Here is the link io the diagram:
http://www.dscc.dla.mil/Downloads/MilSpec/Docs/MS75021/ms75021.pdf

I've injected comments in blue

A/C/E for B/O & Service Tail lamps A and C are for BO , E is Service (or Tail)
B for LH Signal/stop ( Stop , military do not combine lamps) ( but I'd use this for a civilian app)
D for Ground ( or L, same thing)
F for Reverse lamps. (the amber light won't be very bright but will look cool)( this is European fog lamp, NOT a reversing lamp, don't use)
H well I don't think it is needed.
J which is not wired into a circuit, for RH Signal/stop (Stop lamp, use in conjunction with B for the RH side)Can you determine if my electrical continuity is correct?

M and N are for Brake in the US military, but for LH and RH indicators in NATO

Use B, J, E and either D or L ... nothing else is needed for that trailer behind a US vehicle that combines the turn/brake lamps. Rear amber lamps may be illegal in some state

In the past month, I have wired a Pinzgauer716 with a 12N socket to accept the NATO 12 pin socket, , added a parallel cable with a flat 4 connector on my Sankey trailer to allow it to be pulled by any vehicle with a pintle . Plus , on another forum, given the pin breakdown for the 12N socket, as it is used on Swiss Pinzgauers...I'm startting to become blurry eyed from looking at all these sockets and wiring diagrams.

Dave Dunn

Excellent. Thanks for the good intel.

The amber light I'm speaking of is actually the B/O Stop. Single LED Cat-Eye on the bottom of the composite light.

7pin to 12 pin adapter wiring

Pin out for 7 pin to 12 pin adapter.

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o293/sgtjacques/7pintrailerplugtomilitary12pin.jpg

7 RV to 12 pin NATO adapter

I realize this is a fairly old thread, but since I was still searching for an adapter I figured others might be as well. I found an adapter available, but it comes with a solid price tag ($145). Here's the link:

ADAPTER-7RV VEH TO NATO TRAILER - Trailer Repair Parts

That is a pretty slick unit, but WOW on the price ! I do like the idea of having a seperate adapter like that due to having several trailers, but I'm thinking of doing one with the bullet type recepticle on the Nato end, instead of that flanged metal plate !

Thinking I may be able to build one and heat-shrink it waterproof like I want ! May not be much cheaper, but hey, it would be hillbilly engineered in the Ozarks !

Thanks for sharing the link ! Thats a pretty nice unit !

I think the price is friggin ridiculous!! Great product but I would think one would sell more of they were priced at about forty dollars or so. The sockets can be found in various places, I have seen them on ebay for 20 dollars. So $149.00 I think not..

Ripcord01 said:

I think the price is friggin ridiculous!! Great product but I would think one would sell more of they were priced at about forty dollars or so. The sockets can be found in various places, I have seen them on ebay for 20 dollars. So $149.00 I think not..

Click to expand...

I think one could sell even more if they were priced at about five dollars. The problem is the cost to make, cost to inventory, cost to sell, and the opportunity cost (profit) is more than that. The great thing about our country is that free enterprise allows anyone to make a product and price it as they see fit. If the price is too high, they will never survive. Others will find a way to do it cheaper!

I wish I had the ingenuity to make an adapter myself, but noobs like me must pay the skillful like you for what we dont know how to do ourselves. Im sure you could make a few bucks if you made some adapters and sold em on SS.

New guy here - I'm waiting on my first EUC for a M101A2 to clear. I ordered adapter from Erik's Military and Industrial Surplus:

Military Trailer Adapter Cable (Military Trailer on a Civilian Vehicle), X-6034


UPS should be dropping it off tonight. It's about half the price of the first one posted.

Thank you Rip for the heads up. I will definitely remember that moving forward.

someone has a post for $100 here someplace....

see and i wanna go the other way. adapt civilian trailer to mil spec plug...

I cut the end off my trailer and wired a female 7wire RV plug to it and put a male plug on the trailer. Its that simple.