Revamped MagLite Relocation Plate

R

RubiconFreedom

Adventurist

I was surprised to learn that the company has an account with Grainger and in doing so, they had to run down the block from the closest location to buy a few shop products. While there my wife, was given the Maglite mounting clips after informing the counter person we’ve just bought a new 2017 Wrangler.

We already had the 20+ year old Maglite, and now the clips. yet we didn’t know what was the best way to attach the Maglite in the jeep. I did some searching and found a site called Project JK which described how they though these Maglite clips should be mounted. The plans were simple enough except for one critical flaw.. The door had to be open in order to retrieve the flashlight.
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Holding the Maglite in the general location as the image above shows, We concluded that the seat adjust handle would hinder ones ability to retrieve the Maglite from inside the vehicle. We opted to swap sides to mount the Maglite but include a relocation mounting plate which holds the Maglite in a more accessible orientation.
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Two plates where created, drilled and fitted. Then sent to the shop, where as they sanded and then forwarded these plates to the painters.
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One week has passed and we’re still waiting on the completion of these plates. In the image above, you can see the last stage of these plates just for reference and the correct orientation of the flashlights. The odd thing here, Is that Project JK drilled holes in the seat frame rails to mount their clips. In our case we simply drilled holes in our plate to match up with preexisting holes in the frame rail.
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We’ve already test fitted these relocation plates and now await on the painters as they are suppose to powder coat these plates black for us. Mind you I have been saying “plates”. we created two plates just so we could give one away to some lucky Jeep Wrangler drive we may happen to meet on the road.
 
Yes, ive had many of them in the past. The club part is about the only thing the newer generations of lights wont do, but you have to deal with the large heavy awkward part all the time when using it as a general purpose light. I went to the C size mags for a while to help with the large and heavy part, but I ended up even losing it to old batteries leaking. My mags ended up sitting unused and several eventually corroding away from batteries left in them unused for years after I found the newer lights gave far more light than even the old krypton bulbs, and were about the size of a mini-mag. Many in LE used the extreme light power of newer lights as weapons without having to carry a large heavy light any more. They still serve a niche I guess, I just didn't realize many people still used them much since all the newer, smaller types have been progressing so much over the past 15 or 20 years, especially with the improvements in the LED bulbs.

Edit: I just discovered I was a late adopter. I first became aware of the Streamlight Scorpion in 2000-ish, then bought a Surefire E2E (absolute favorite light for the past 16 or so years), then Surefire G2s as spares and giveaways, and bought an early Surefire 6P at a pawnshop for cheap. I just learned the 6P came out in 88. I didn't realize they came out that long ago.

A Streamlight Microstream is now my have-on-me-all-the-time general use light, sadly usurping the E2E, but, its the size of a mag solitare, with far better switch, extremely bright, and the single AAA batteries last quite a long time in pretty much daily use. The 6P is now on a lever action rifle. The E2E is now the bedside, bump in the night, or truck light when out, with the G2 as instant backup, with a couple boxes of batteries always on hand and scattered through my gear and vehicles so I'm always able to lay hands on them pretty easily.
 
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Morning

Just wanted to post a late update to this small project of ours. The bracket's powder coating turned out very well and mounting the bracket in the desired locations was successful, The only thing that wasn't so successful was the actual Maglite plastic clips. One clip broke (rear) after just one use.

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We're currently searching for metal "pipe clip" with the same dimensions as the plastic clips. Once this has been accomplished we should be good to go.
 
I carry a couple of flashlights in the truck including a Black Diamond LED headlights but I still carry my trusty old 2D cell Maglite that's been converted to LED just because. It's ridden in several vehicles now because well, it's just a flashlight, and it doesn't really draw much attention in the door pocket.

On a side note, be aware that if you were to improvise and use your Maglite as a club that you run the very real risk of breaking bones including skulls- which is one of the main reasons you do not see them used in law enforcement these days.
 
Robert said:
On a side note, be aware that if you were to improvise and use your Maglite as a club that you run the very real risk of breaking bones including skulls- which is one of the main reasons you do not see them used in law enforcement these days.
Click to expand...

I don't get into casual fights. If I ever end up hitting someone with my Maglite, it will be because he was trying to kill or maim me.
 
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