I sometimes use a receiver hitch cargo carrier on my Samurai, which obscures the license plate.  I'd like to put it up in the middle of the spare.  It seems that around $50 is the minimum for such a bracket, which seems absurd to me.  I don't have the home fabricating option.  Any I deas?

plastic zip ties? tied to your spare tire?  put a couple extra in the glove box in case you need to use the spare.

the problem isnt in the plate, it's in the light on the plate to legaly drive after dusk. Your probably gonna have make something up, and probably end up spending 50 at the hardware store by the time your done. i'd just break down and buy the bracket

Auto zone has a plastic cover with lights in it for twenty bucks.

I have had mine in my spare tire for over a year now with no light... The P/O had it there held on by a bailing wire which was either going to fall off somewhere or get stolen.

I took a piece of plywood and cut it the to the footprint of the license plate. I then drilled a hole through the center and ran a bolt through it long enough to go through the center of the rim. Then I ran a nut up the bolt to the back of the plywood.

Once this was completed I took a piece of scrap steel the was 2" wide by 4" long and drilled a hole through the center. Then I placed the plywwod with the bolt into the rim and placed the bracket onto the bolt on the back side of the rim. Then I ran a lock washer and nut on to the bolt secring the bracket to the rim.

After this was done I placed the license plate to the board and ran 2 flat head wood screws into the 2 upper bolt holes on the plate.

License plate secure but no light.

NOTE: It is my intention to modify my rear bumper yet (again) to a Runck style bumper. This will allow it to have a swing out upper bar housing a tire carrier. I will drill this upper bar out to hold the license plate and it will have a light mounted for the plate in it at that time.



                                                                          Hope this helps you, Tux...

Nice ride Tux!

I got square tubing with holes in it a Lowes, 2 different sizes so one slides inside the other. Then welded one to the spare tire carrier and the other to the license plate bracket. So it slides in and bolted it with a lock nut, then you can unbolt it slide it out to remove the spare tire when needed. You can use LED license plate bolts if you want to put lights on it.

Nice ride Tux!

LOL... it's gettin there Greg... This is an older photo... (but you knew that) I have a set of Bushwackers to go on it and a bunch of other stuff.... I just need some time. Oh well it will happenbefore the snow flies....

A trip to Pep Boys got me this plastic bracket and LED plate light.  I just needed to figure out how to make it easily demountable and disconnectable if I need to change a tire.  Nylon wing nuts and a 2-wire trailer plug sloved all that.

A little more glow than I had anticipated. I wasn't really looking for that neon low-rider look.  I may have to tone it down a bit with some judiciously placed black electrical tape.  But overall, I'm pleased.

I'm legal, and I can take the plate AND light off and on if I need to.  And my receiver-mounted cargo carrier no longer obscures my plate.

And now you can flip your receiver  over for more ground clearance.

That was the next step, but I ran out of steam, and PB Blaster.  It'll be nice to get that cargo carrier a little higher.  I don't off-road much, so clearance isn't that big an issue for me.  But the damn cargo carrier would sometimes scrape on speedbumps and steep driveways.  Next weekend the receiver goes on top!