Whelen LED tail light (Orion 500 or 71554)

[wings_level]

So my original tail light played out and  I am looking to upgrade to LED.  Looking at Whelen Orion 500 and Whelen 71554.  
 

The 71554 seems to be a direct replacement only offering a position light (constant) and not any strobe or flashing activity.  

The Orion 500 does both, but would require an additional wire.  I guess I could wire it all up to the position lights but would cause some led lights to be always on and the others to flash.  Otherwise I would have to have a second wire that will run to the anti collision lights.  This would allow for a solid light to be on when position lights are on and a flashing light when anti collision lights are on.  Not sure if that is worth the extra $200 bucks in the cost of the light.

Any other opinions out there?

[StevenL757]

The OR500 is most certainly worth every penny.  I wouldn't bother with the 71554 unless you really don't want to spend the extra $.  You have ACL (strobe) now + Ground.  You'll run an additional (third) wire for POS (nav), and if you want Sync (optional), you'll run a fourth wire.  From WAT's install page...

The light head allows you to run with ACL and/or POS lights for flexibility.  You'll be extremely happy with its performance.

[wings_level]

So I agree, I really like the Orion 500 option to act as both nav and strobe.   Problem is I don’t really want to remove my interior in order to install the additional 3rd and 4th wire to get the full function.  Maybe I install the 500 and run the 3rd and 4th wires later whenever I decide to upgrade the interior.

[StevenL757]

2 hours ago, wings_level said:

So I agree, I really like the Orion 500 option to act as both nav and strobe.   Problem is I don’t really want to remove my interior in order to install the additional 3rd and 4th wire to get the full function.  Maybe I install the 500 and run the 3rd and 4th wires later whenever I decide to upgrade the interior.

You'll need the 3rd wire to connect the NAV portion of the lighthead.  Although you could wire both the ACL and NAV together, Whelen does not recommend, nor will they likely support, this configuration.  I've helped other J owners with these same lights, and they were able to run wire without having to tear apart the interior.