License plate mounting trouble

I'm in a slight pickle here. After installing my new Flatlink, my front license plate no longer attaches to the very cool mount provided by @C4 Fabrication. It uses a pair of thumb screws to afix the plate to the tabs behind the fairlead, however I no longer have the necessary clearance due to the thickness of the new part. Does anyone have a clean fix or a creative idea for respecting my states requirement for running a front plate without tossing it on the dash?

 

Just leave it off. Even in states you need it in the front, you’ll rarely get pulled over for it, and if you do, just say you lost it.

When you need to get your truck inspected, just use double sided tape to temporarily stick it on for the 30 minutes it’s being inspected

 

While I know this is supposed to work with the Flatlink I don’t know about the C4 bumper.

https://www.cascadia4x4.com/products/flipster-v3-winch-license-plate-mounting-system-hawse-roller

 

time to cut and extend the brackets.

of course you've got a welder, right? youtube says everyone has a welder.

 

Luckily I know a guy. That's probably the best way to tackle this. Thanks man.

 

Not sure how good it would look but you could use a coupler on the bolt, then whatever length bolt to extend if you didn’t want to mess with the bracket. Rattle can to match the bracket and good to go

 

Just wedge your plate under the bottom edge of the hawse before you tighten it down. Like this:

It's a government issued control placard, not an Tacoma accessory you must keep pretty. One shouldn't care it it get bent, scratched, dirty or whatever.

 

technically by the laws, a damaged and unreadable plate can carry the same fines as not having any plate at all. depends on how annoyed the cop is that day.

 

Here's another option: https://greenlaneoffroad.com/16-tacoma/flip-up-plate-mount-begre

 

Not finding anything in the marketplace, I made my own:



I used .125" aluminum sheet with friction hinges. If I had to start over, I could go lighter with the aluminum.

 

Simply use a few standoffs and sandwich the plate

 

After weeks of careful deliberation and a 13 month research project that required hiring a team of highly specialized, deeply narcissistic consultants with strong backgrounds in B movie production, crime and alcoholism, I've decided to have a welder friend lengthen the tabs.

 

I would just put up on the grill - put a couple of bolts through the plate and the grill and bolt it to another plate behind the grill (you know like a team plate or college plate) the plate holes will line up.

 

Or, you could do just that!

 

Is there an advantage to restricting airflow to the condenser and radiator?

Unless I'm mis-imagining your description.

 

I personally went with a modified Tuffy as seen here. Or, another cool option is to use a magnetic plate as found here

 

Why not just use extensions?
Welded on tabs will be a rope cutter if winching from odd side angles.

 

Your AC performance will drop, that’s already an issue with 3rd Gen AC’s and why Toyota has a TSB on it to install electric fans to increase airflow across the inadequately sized condenser for cooling in really hot weather.

 

Good point and worth looking into. Thanks.

 

My front plate mount got damaged and the new bumper didn't come with it. my solution may not be very pretty, I got one of those folding metal plate mounts, I think that's what it is, two thin long flat pieces of metal with holes on either end, used that and bolted it up to the grill. you could mount yours to the plate bumper, either some sort of ties or you could drill holes to mount it with bolts.


I drive in texas and lousiana, only texas requires the front. due to covid and budget cuts cops haven't been pulling a lot of folks over for dumb stuff like that...buuuut I heard that is coming to an end soon, I don't like doing stuff that encourages cops to ffff with me, like my department director, I do what I can to stay off their "radar", metaphorically and literally and if they pull you over for that you will get a "fix it" ticket, no matter if you "lost it" or not, doesn't matter...maybe just a warning...but probably if they use that as an excuse to pull you over, they're most likely really looking for something else, common tactic. and you can't request to see their nose calibration. you could be sober for decades, "I detect the odor of blah blah" legal search...annoying, time consuming...best avoided even if not doing anything wrong for those two reasons alone, imo. I speak as a someone who's gotten searched and cuffed multiple times, each time it ended with me getting a warning for the initial "offense" only...it's just annoying really