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Air Horns


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Think I might install something a bit louder than a standard Defender hooter <_< , to be on the safe side when I hit them African roads.

A couple of questions:

1. I currently have a full-width intercooler (which is coming out in favour of an uprated stadard size one) will this impede an air horn placement?

2. How is one connected up - bearing in mind I know nothing about the Dark Arts electricity.

3. Is there a preferred brand I ought to consider, or will any old thing do? They do Ring ones at Halford for about £20 - any good?

Your thoughts on anything else I need to consider on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

Martin

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most air horns come with a electrc compressor to supply the air.

my cameras dead, but might be a photo in my photobucket pages on in the forum somewhher, will have a dig.

Sorry Martin, haven't got any photo's of my air horn installation.

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I have a set mounted on the back of the hard top (only place they fitted) which are run at 140psi of the on board air system.

Look a bit strange but no way any one is not going to notice them, any one who has heard them will testify now loud they are. I have had to refit the standard horn for normal use after the MOT tester tested them last year and one of the other mechanics nearly amputated his finger he jumped so much!.

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Whats all this about a compressor then? Is that something purchased seperatley?

Standard horns don't have a compressor they use electomagnetics and go from 90 to about 110db, normally fitted in pairs.

Next stage up is air horns, about 120db, a small compressor about the size of a coffee mug blows air through 2 or more trumpets.

The nautilus claims 136db and is a compact version of a air horn.

Trucks/trains have their own air so just use a couple of trumpets and a valve, these go up to 170 db - this is probably too loud since it just scares the sh*t out of people.

Just looked at stebels website. The nautilus 136 db is 4" from the horn, the others are a couple of meters away.. good horn though.

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To take a step back to the basics...

You will buy an airhorn set from, say Halfords or ebay. It will come as a complete set, so twin or tripple trumpets, air compressor (with some air pipe and 1 or 2 T-pieces) and a relay for powering it. You might even get some wire too if you buy a deluxe kit...

You will need a direct feed from the battery to the relay and on to the compressor, along with an earth doing the same. You will also need the low-power side connected into the feed from the normal horn switch/stalk. It's effectively the same as wiring up spotlights or a winch...

Previously in a Mk2 Golf, I wired them in separately and added a switch to select which horn to use, so the MoT tester was happy as I still had the mono-pitch standard horn, but flip the switch and I had the airhorns for comedy effect. Both were operated from the steering wheel and it's not that hard to do once you've found the horn wiring.

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I have fitted air horns to most of my vehicles over the years and one little trick to do if you can is to leave the original horn in the loop. There are two resons for this, both associated with the delay inherent in the 'normal' air-horn design*: The delay is probably only half a second or less but that can seem like a long time when you need it - the normal horn nicely fills this gap. Also, sometimes you only want a little toot - to let the old lady know you are there without scaring her to death for instance - and in that situation, if you are quick on the button, you can get the normal horn to toot without the air horns having time to kick in.

*I think that the Nautilus horns don't sufffer from this delay so much, but some cheap ones can be quite slow to get going..

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  • 5 years later...

Do it Camel Trophy style - fit an aircon compressor just for running the horn, and make the horn the biggest trumpet you can fit under the bonnet.

Are these big enough? They don't half make your ears ring if you're too close. They're fitted to my Ninety, and were the original reason I installed an air con compressor :D

post-7124-0-50634900-1406634408_thumb.jpg

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I've currently got 3 air horns and a compressor bolted to the inner wing behind the n/s headlight, plenty of room for messing around there. They are a bit too high pitched though, and I need to move them elsewhere as I've got a washer bottle to go in that space, so I'm looking for a new setup and a new place to put them as well...

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I have a pair of 120db marine air horns from LIAAM (I think) because of the size the only place I could mount them is on the light bar. Only got them because idiot at traffic light did not hear the standard defender horn

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I've got the same set up as ThreeSheds. The horns are behind the grill and the compressor bolted to something (I can't remember what) in the engine bay. It was a cheap 2 horn set off Ebay and has lasted well over 7 years now.

Unlike the standard horn I can hear it from inside the cab when driving so I know the horn is working and as 3Sheds has said, keeping the original one means you can give the horn a quick toot when required.

Wired in to horn stalk via a relay. Cost less than £20 and well worth it.

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  • 10 months later...

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