License plate carrier, front, fairlead mount, WIP

mrblaine

Crew Member
Supporting Member
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Nov 20, 2015
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Location
Quail Valley, CA
I took the design I did for TRE and corrected several things I discovered to be deficient over the years.
The major one is the aluminum base plate lost the battle every time the owner forget and smacked the holder into a rock. That ripped the crossbars out of the latch slots.
I bumped up the thickness of the base plate, converted it to stainless steel and increased the width of the crossbar.
1685537819035.png


The second issue was lack of adjustability for the height of the plate carrier above the deck. In the delivered configuration, the front of the bumper had to be behind the plate. I removed the two side tabs, added flanges to them and then added an extra set of holes to shift it 1" up or down from center.

1685538038314.png


The tabs also allow me to pack it in a smaller box. Last thing is to add notches to the ends of the tabs that register on the base plate to prevent it from moving up or down.

Final assembly.
1685538220683.png


1685538347295.png

Currently, the prototype is done above, hardware is here, latches are on the way and I'm waiting on the laser shop to get the order out. After that they go to anodizing.
 
Nice - I'm in! Right now, my front plate is screwed to the face of the bumper/winch plate. Not only am I at risk of a fix it ticket because it's angled down, but if I go off-road, I have to remove the screws to keep the plate out of harms way. This will make it a quick change!
 
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I took the design I did for TRE and corrected several things I discovered to be deficient over the years.
The major one is the aluminum base plate lost the battle every time the owner forget and smacked the holder into a rock. That ripped the crossbars out of the latch slots.
I bumped up the thickness of the base plate, converted it to stainless steel and increased the width of the crossbar.
View attachment 428876

The second issue was lack of adjustability for the height of the plate carrier above the deck. In the delivered configuration, the front of the bumper had to be behind the plate. I removed the two side tabs, added flanges to them and then added an extra set of holes to shift it 1" up or down from center.

View attachment 428878

The tabs also allow me to pack it in a smaller box. Last thing is to add notches to the ends of the tabs that register on the base plate to prevent it from moving up or down.

Final assembly.
View attachment 428881

View attachment 428882
Currently, the prototype is done above, hardware is here, latches are on the way and I'm waiting on the laser shop to get the order out. After that they go to anodizing.

That’s awesome, super clean design.
 
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This looks great! I’ll be buying one since I know my luck is bound to run out with not running a front plate for so long..
 
Kaizen is a beautiful thing to witness. The changes make an already very good product even better. Awesome work Blaine.
 
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Kaizen is a beautiful thing to witness. The changes make an already very good product even better. Awesome work Blaine.

Nobody even noticed the ultra low profile flat head NON countersunk screws for the tabs so they don't bow the license plate up at the ends when you mount it and I don't have to pay for or do any countersink work at those 8 holes.
 
Nobody even noticed the ultra low profile flat head NON countersunk screws for the tabs so they don't bow the license plate up at the ends when you mount it and I don't have to pay for or do any countersink work at those 8 holes.

I did look at those, and I wondered why the countersink was shallow. Now I know "the rest of the story..."
 
The major one is the aluminum base plate lost the battle every time the owner forget and smacked the holder into a rock. That ripped the crossbars out of the latch slots.

The easy solution would have been just to crank out more of the current version. The better solution, as you have done is to think through what some knucklehead might do with your products and try to mitigate the issues they may cause themselves. I appreciate that effort.

BTW I am one of those knuckleheads and ripped the crossbar off mine (original version) shortly after receiving it…
 
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The easy solution would have been just to crank out more of the current version. The better solution, as you have done is to think through what some knucklehead might do with your products and try to mitigate the issues they may cause themselves. I appreciate that effort.
Not thinking through what they might do. I got a lot of contacts from folks wanting to know where to get a new base plate since they tore theirs up.
BTW I am one of those knuckleheads and ripped the crossbar off mine (original version) shortly after receiving it…
You were probably one of them I talked to.
 
If there's a list somewhere in your back pocket, please add me to it.

I'm willing to pre-order, although I believe I've read somewhere on here you don't do that.