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Military U1300L Blackout Switch Functions

10K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  BloodyGerman 
#1 · (Edited)
Looking for an explanation of the positions on the blackout light switch.

My ex German army troop carrier U1300L has two light switches, as detailed on the attached photos. The fellow that I bought it from didn't have a good handle on what they did - he had simply messed around till he figured out how to get the lights to work. I had not gotten round to figuring this all out, and am now am having problems with my lights. Neither my Operating Manual or Workshop manual have an explanation of the function of either of the switches.

From what I have been able to find through searching the forums I believe that the top switch is an on/off switch for Infrared lights. When in the IR lights "ON" position, all other lights are turned off. Can anyone confirm that?

The bottom switch is quite a bit more complicated. The switch has 7 positions. The positions are labelled (clockwise starting from about the 2 oclock position):
S3 / S2 / S1 / 0 / Tag / 1 / 2

A sliding mechanism within the body of the switch limits the switches range of travel.

The tag position is the center position which can be selected with the slider in either pushed to the right or the left. And the switch must be in the Tag position in order to move the slider.

When the slider is pushed to the left positions S3 / S2 / S1 / 0 / Tag can be selected.

When the slider is pushed to the right positions Tag / 1 / 2 can be selected.

Can anyone provide an explanation of the function of this switch, or a source of additional information for the Military variants of the U1300L.

Thanks
 

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#2 ·
Greg,

The infrared switch switches the IR light (it's ITAR controlled and removed before sale) on but as well ALL other sources of illumination off.
Turning this switch to on will switch all lights even breaklights off.
If you open the dash you'll see that almost all cables are routed through this massive switch.
The main light switch works like is:
0 all head and taillights off
Tag is German for day
1 is position lights (little bulbs in headlights) and taillights only
2 is full headlights
S1-S3 are the different NATO going dark modes. On most trucks some of these lights are missing, so you can't always play with it.
I have forgotten the specifics, as I left the German army in 83, but I believe S1 gives you the slit headlights that are left and right of the main headlights and full tail, S2 changes tail and break lights over to the little dot lights, S3 only keeps that white cross near the diff illuminated. I can be slightly wrong here.
 
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