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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
The light I received was missing the white ground wire that appeared in the product photos. I jury-rigged by grounding to the metal connector plate inside. Works. Mounting holes didn't line up to my original but wasn't surprised. Just had to drill a couple holes.
THIS IS MY SOURCE FOR ALL MY AUTOMOTIVE LIGHTS!
I LIKE IT!
REFURBISHED MY CUSTUM TRAILOR WITH 10 LED RUNNING LIGHTS, 2 TWELVE INCH LED STOP/TURN/TAIL LIGHTS & OF COURSE THE LED TAG LIGHT.
ITS GORGEOUS!
THANX, E TRAILER .COM
This company is on of the best places to order your parts from. This is the second time I was able to place my order and get what I wanted without all the fuss of waiting. I was looking for a waterproof light for the boat trailer, checked other sites, the internet, boat places, etc. couldn’t find what I liked. Then I remember etrailer I order new hubs from. They had what I was looking for. Should have called them first. Make sure and talk to Pat.
HAVE A NEW TRAILER AND WAS NOT LOOKING TO START ALTERING WIRING. TRIED SEVERAL OF THE LOCAL PARTS HOUSES , BUT COULD NOT FIND MATCH. GOGGLED PART NUMBER AND FOUND EXACT PART, WHICH ARRIVED WITHIN WEEK. NO DRILLING OR SPLICING!
HAPPY THAT ORDER QUANTITY HAD NO MINIMUM, DID NOT NEED A BOX OF FIFTY LIGHTS LAYING AROUND GARAGE, BUT WANTED AT LEAST ONE EXTRA PRICE WAS GOOD THANKS
Good quality product. Exactly as described. The only complaint that I have is that there are zero instructions. What instructions would one need for a light? Which wire is used for ground, black or white? This may not be important for an incandescent bulb but reverse voltage will typically blow an LED. If you do house wiring, you expect the white wire to be ground. If your background, like mine, is radio and DC circuits then the DC ground wire is typically black or green. On these lights, the ground is white.
This product is rather simple, but it is exactly what I needed. The factory light that was on my trailer was small, and burnt out. I simply drilled out the old light mounting, removed it, and drilled one new mounting hole for the new light(using one of the old holes). Light works great and the license plate if very visible at night. Quick delivery from eTrailer was very appreciate!
First time working with etrailer.com and must say that web site made my purchase an easy one. Would not hesitate with future purchases.
The license plate light was for an enclosed snowmobile trailer and I was in need of a replacement that was a simple R&R. The unit was a perfect match along with the hole pattern for mounting. I also had some self taping stainless steel screws that I used to mount the unit due to chemicals used on the road (during winter months) cause corrosion in the NE and wrecks havoc where there is an exposure.
You had the right part, I couldn’t find anywhere else!
The license plate light arrived in great condition, packing was very secure. It was just as advertised. It was exactly like my old light which was original equipment on my motor home. Fit was perfect. Thanks !
I wasn't sure if I was going to like this light, but I decided to give it a try and am pleased with it. I'm using these as interior lights in a cargo van where I wanted some light that wasn't going to be blindingly bright and the silver coating on the sides of the lens allowed me to position the light so that it would shine where I wanted it to. I would gladly use these again.
Nice product. Excellent service
The exact same replacement
My plug fit, but needed some convincing...just widened the receptor and bingo, it plugged in. My trailer is a 2004, Featherlite.
Happy with product, ordering was easy, fast delivery, good price.
Nice replacement light fixture. Thought I had a bad ground and it turned out bulb was bad. Looked good but should of replaced it before I spent hours looking for bad ground.
The product was ok, typical modern cheap made, it just what our standards are i suppose. The customer service was great, helpful, easy to order. The only real complaint i have is they use USPS, i dont remember if it gave the option to use another shipping company or not, but here lately USPS is terrible, takes a lot longer to receive through USPS. To the point that if there is not an option to choose another shipper, id likely buy someplace else. It blows my mind when they tell me that it can take up to 14 days, 14 DAYS, REALLY? I have placed orders on items in the UK in less tine than that.
This was pretty easy to install. It seems like it will hold up.
Was very flimsy but it worked. Would buy something different next time.
Info for this part was:
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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.