4 hella horn mod Questions

Hey all, Just installed 4 hella horns into my taco, But I blew the stock 10amp fuse after honking it twice (Its "hella" loud) I was wondering If I could up the amp of the fuse to say a 15, or 20 amp fuse with out causing any problems. All the horns are grounded properly, and wired properly (ive done the install 3 other times, its simple) Thanks for the info!

-Kidwidataco

 

Not a good idea, your fuse is there to protect the electrical circuit and is blowing because the circuit capacity is being exceeded. The correct thing to do would be to run a relay to the battery activated by the stock horn wiring, then you can draw much more current than 10A.

 

Ya, that's I was thinking. It's what I'll do next time I have time, I'll just keep replacing the amps when they blow and try to keep off my horns til then

 

Just disconnect 2 of the horns til you get around to wiring it correctly.

 

That's funny!

 

Electromagnetic "buzzer" type horns such as those can each peak at as much as 25 to 30 A at startup, with 18 to 20 A peaks and 10 to 12 A continuous draw.

The oscilloscope trace below show the current draw for a single Wolo Maxi Sound electric horn. In this test the horn was powered directly from a 45 A power supply via 10 gauge wires--i.e. it was fed all the power it could possibly want.



Had the wiring been lesser gauge and/or the supply fused the horn would have been "starved" for power, the voltage would have dropped, and it would not have draw as much current.

The four horns you installed using the OEM wiring were likely significantly starved--they will be much louder once a relay and higher capacity supply is installed. I would 12 gauge wire for both the supply and ground, with a 30 or 40 A inline fuse tied directly to the battery:

 

2 pairs of those horns in NJ or NY is just begging for someone to follow you home or to work off of their normal route....

The stock wiring side needs to be connected into the switching input side of a relay. The horns then should be wired directly to the battery, passing through the switching output side of a relay. I had a setup like this about 20 years ago with an airhorn and compressor.

 

The OP sounds as though he knows what he's doing, nonetheless here's a generic horn wiring w/relay diagram:

 

Yup, ran a relay with a 30 amp fuse from the battery. It's super loud now and hasn't popped a fuse. In WA it means get the f out of the way lol

 

Cool...

 

I few years ago I did this very mod on a friend's Matrix. I juiced the horns directly off the battery with a 30 amp fuse and used a relay with the stock horn circuit has the signal source.

 

Did the airhorn get anyone to follow you home?

 

Nope, not yet

 

Did you use your OEM horn harness as a “switch” for the relay?

 

I ran mine straight from the battery, to the hella horn relay, then to each horn

 

And your "switch" is?

 

Not sure what you mean by switch. Its just connected to my horn