Well, I'm still blind to the issue
. I've played with it for awhile, replaced the EQP files for the lighted ship with their respective unlit versions, left the M nodes default and also tried Null on them, and when placing the unit in the editor----there is still no option to choose the external cargo for the lighted ships. (with the unlit versions I can pick any of the options-including Rowi's extra cargo version of german trucks and such).
I have the lighted units typed=100 in my game instead of their default. (I did this to be able to place them in non-neutral countries so I could place some in the ports and not have them spawn everywhere). Would this type change to 100 be my problem??
I know this is a minor Issue but I was curious and now that Iv'e tinkered with it--I've got the "bug up my craw" so to speak. Any suggestions would be appreciated.