I don’t know if this constitutes “blatant advertising,” but it’s relevant, and pretty awesome. This is a concept that many of us in the Cougar crowd have been intrigued by for a while, but no product has really been good enough to justify a change… until now. Check out these “Plasma” LED bulbs that are a direct, plug-and-play replacement for your incandescent taillight bulbs.
Here’s a scientific test I did using identical exposure settings to show the difference in brightness:
Since our taillights are one of the most eye-catching, defining features on our cars, it stands to reason that we like the idea of them being bright. Well, these new bulbs are BRIGHT. We have to give thanks to a customer of ours who hooked us up with the source of these bulbs, in China of course. Because of that, we’re able to sell these cheaper than the older tower-style LED bulbs that I dismissed in my little video test I did earlier this year.
We did a new video test this week at Brian A.'s place (thanks again Brian!) with a lineup of three first-gen Cougars. Check it out:
So that pretty much sums it up. They’re bright! We’re selling a six-back of bulbs here.
They are plug-and-play for 1967-68, but for 69-73 you’ll need to change over to the solid state flasher unit, as well as [probably] the solid state sequential unit. We’re still gathering information on what’s needed. Feel free to chime in, those of you who are electrically inclined.
We don’t block any content items here no matter whether you are a member or not. I hate sites that won’t let you see pics without joining. And I really love these lights!
Bill. I constantly get the “you do not have permission to view” on this site.
I don’t know why I see some pics but not others.
I do see them all, once logged in.
I’ll second that, can’t see most pics without logging in. I did see the 3 pics Andrew posted on the new lights, but the video wasn’t embedded in the post (as it was on the other site) but clicking on the link took me to the youtube video. But oh man are those bright
I have a 71 convertible and put the Led’s in the rear, you have to change the sequential unit in the trunk as well. Prior to installing them I checked amp draw with marker lights on and drew 6.2 amps with brake lights I drew 11.2 amps. Changed to the Led bulb and drew 4.9 amps on marker lights and 6.1 amps with brake lights. That’s just over a 5 amp difference! I could not test turn signal draw as the Led’s will not fire the turn signal flasher can and we are out of stock on the new solid state one. With the original can in it did turn on the inside light and the outboard marker light so I drove it home from Salem to Gresham (about 50 miles) some interstate and some two lane country road. These lights are very bright, and I could see the road signs behind me for oncoming traffic clearly with just the marker lights and when I stepped on the brake it lit them up for 75-100 yards behind me. They are also clearly bright during the daylight hours also.
Kind of on the same topic but are there any headlight bulbs that one would recommend for our Cougars that are a direct bolt in with a much higher luminance value.
A relevant question, we should probably do a video on this subject. In order to run brighter headlight bulbs you’ll need to add one of these relay kits. Given that most replacement bulbs are halogen anyway, you might see an improvement with your current bulbs just by installing the relays. I’m sure the sky is the limit from there, whatever 7" round sealed beam bulbs you can find (Xenon? Maybe even HID?).
I have Hella H1/H4s in my Cat, using a relay kit I purchased from Summit. Very effective. Direct bolt-in, although I had to get longer screws for the retaining rings on the high beams. There is a short adapter harness for the high beams as well that comes with the lamps.
A neat side effect of using the relay kit: dash lights (Stock 1194 bulbs) are a bit brighter.
Mine are originals and working great, all that changing over to solid state this or that worries me. I started down that path in my '68 KR, and six months later they still were not working correctly, no thanks, not going down that rabbit hole again.
