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This small but solid light keeps your license plate clearly visible. Measuring 2-11/16" wide x 1-1/2" tall x 2-1/8" thick, it tucks neatly onto your trailer without taking up much space. The single 168 incandescent bulb puts out bright, even light that’s DOT compliant when mounted above the plate, so your trailer stays road-legal and easy to spot at night.
Rough roads and constant towing can shake lights apart, but the Vibar socket inside this housing helps absorb road shock and vibration. That extra protection means the bulb lasts longer and stays lit when you need it most—no flickering or early burnout from jolts and bumps.
The gray ABS housing and clear polycarbonate lens are built to take years of use. Inside, stainless steel or tinned-brass parts resist corrosion, so you don’t have to worry about rust affecting performance. It’s a straightforward, rugged setup that holds up in all kinds of weather.
Hooking this light up is quick and simple. The single-wire design grounds through the mounting hardware, so there’s less wiring to manage. It surface mounts directly to your trailer, using the 1-3/4" center-to-center mounting holes. Power draw is only 0.35 amps at 12V, making it efficient while doing its job reliably.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Today we'll be taking a look at the Peterson trailer license plate light. This is going to help to illuminate your license plate on your trailer to help stay within compliance when it's mounted above that license plate.It's just a small incandescent bulb inside there. To replace that bulb, just need to back out the Phillips head screw up at the top, and then that'll just assemble the whole thing. It's really just held in place by that little guy. Then we can pull apart our housing. We'll see in there we'll have a vibe bar or V bar socket.
It's kind of like a rubbery material that holds that in place. That helps to absorb some of the road shock and vibration so it's going to help that foam to last a bit longer so you don't have to replace that out as quickly.This is also how you'll need to mount this base portion. You have to take this cover off to get the hardware in place. Now it doesn't come with any mounting hardware, so you will have to pick some up on your own, but you will have to take that cover off to get it installed. Of course, to put everything back together we just do the reverse.
Pop our cover back over. These two pieces might come apart on you. They just fit together pretty easily. The clear portion kind of fits inside that gray portion. There's a little tab on the inside that fits together.
Just want to get your little screw lined up with the metal portion inside. Tighten that back down. Doesn't have to be super tight, just enough to hold everything.It does just surface mount up to your trailer. Again, no hardware's included, but those two rivets are going to provide the ground connection to the trailer. That'll be what needs to make contact there so you get a good ground.
Then our single wire coming off the back is going to be our power.As far as measurements, the widest part of the base is about 2 and 3/4 inches, if I go to the outside edge of that rubber grommet at the back. If we go to the light housing it's a little bit more like 2 and 11/16. Then that's going to be about 1 and 5/8 inches tall, or again if we go to just the housing is about 1 and 1/2 inches. Front to back, it's about 2 and 1/4 inches long, about 2 and 1/8 if we don't count that little grommet on there. The distance between those mounting holes, center to center is about 1 and 3/4 inches. The diameter on those is about 3/16. The length of wire coming off of our light is about 6 inches, about 6 and 1/2 maybe.I'm going to hook this up to some power so you can get an idea of how bright it is. I'll put my power on that little black wire, and then ground will go to one of those rivets. Turn on the power source. That light comes on. It's not super bright, but it is there, help us illuminate that license plates. I'll go ahead and turn the lights out in the studio you can better idea how bright it is. If we put it above a license plate here, can you see it does illuminate it so we can still stay within compliance.The power draw at 12 volts is 0.35 amps. It does come with a one year warranty from Peterson, and it is made in the USA. That bulb type in there is a 168, which is pretty common. You can find that just about anywhere out there.That's going to do it for our look at the Peterson trailer license plate light.
Ratings & Reviews
Fred L.
9/8/2017
Its still working fine and looks like new.
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Will
5/12/2025
I did a good job on the install and have had zero problems with this product in the year since.