Rear License Plate Relocation

[Egan]

Relocating the rear license plate

So I absolutely hate the chrome license plate bracket that attaches to the spare tire carrier. I looked around the internet and found a few license plate relocation brackets that were $140+. I figured I could do better so I drove off to my local O?Reilly?s and found a zinc plated offset bracket ($4.95) and a license plate light ($4.95) that looked like they would work.

Step 1: Remove the old license plate bracket. Spin off the wing nut from the back of the spare tire and remove the bracket. Then remove the screws holding the light in place and pull the wiring out of the guides.

[Egan]

Step 2: Fitup the bracket. I test fit my license plate and the light and found I had to have the light pretty high up to not interfere with the license plate.

Once I realized it would all fit, I modified the slots for the license plate so they would accept the plastic inserts.



Next I mounted the light after drilling new holes in the bracket for it. I still had to trim the gasket a bit to get the plate to fit correctly.

[Egan]

Step 3: Find a place to mount the bracket. I had a few options, but went with the space below the swing arm. I drilled holes and had intended to use some sheet metal screws left over from the tranny cooler installation, but the tube steel was too thick for those screws to bite. Instead, I used some rivets.

[Egan]

Step 4: Wire it up. This light only had a positive lead and the H2 wiring had both negative and positive. So I connected the positive to the light and grounded the negative to one of the bolts holding the light to the bracket.

[Egan]

Final product:





So for less than $10 and an hour of my time, I relocated my plate. It does not interfere with the hitch or the D-ring and should be out of the way of the departure angle. Plus I got rid of the giant chrome on the back

[guruerror]

Looks good but it would worry me that I'd bend it up over time bumping it and catching it on things since it hangs so low.

I picked a 'similar' location as you...albeit my solution was less elegant than yours, but I'd have to literally slide off a rock to catch it on anything.



I then cut off the half-pipe that extends through the hub and bought an extra stock cap off ebay to put on the back rim to cover up the stump. You can actually line the tire up so that the cap is right-side up and level.

[VegasMike]

Does it get a good enough ground on the arm itself? The mount sits in that 'tube' full of grease and may not transfer a good enough ground, or it might be intermittent. Seeing how bad of financial straights California is in, the CHP would love to nab you for no rear light to pad the state coffers, even if it is only $10 for a fix-it ticket.

Also I believe the plate has to have a minimum height of 22" from the ground. The CHP measures it with their night sticks which happen to be 22" long!

[Egan]

Originally Posted by VegasMike

Does it get a good enough ground on the arm itself? The mount sits in that 'tube' full of grease and may not transfer a good enough ground, or it might be intermittent. Seeing how bad of financial straights California is in, the CHP would love to nab you for no rear light to pad the state coffers, even if it is only $10 for a fix-it ticket.

Also I believe the plate has to have a minimum height of 22" from the ground. The CHP measures it with their night sticks which happen to be 22" long!

It lights up just fine, but you've got me curious now, so I'll test a temporary ground to a different spot under the bumper and see if the light output is any different.