Tacoma Horn revisited. This is why stock can't be loud.

Someone told me that no matter what electric horn you put on, it may be louder than stock, but I can't be really loud because it's limited to the current that is hooked up and running to the stock horns in terms of amp/watts.

Therefore, if you want a horn to be really loud, you must get a horn of higher wattage and amperage, but even if you do that, the feed to it is too weak.

Can anyone tell me what the specs are on the current horn?

I've found the advice to get a marine horn to be one of the loudest horns out there. Kind of makes sense since you're trying to reach out on the ocean.

 

Nah, you need to go with a train horn setup. Don't settle for some sissy marine horn. Try here:http://www.hornblasters.com/

 

Yeah, already checked them out. Thanks. Systems are too big, require a compressor, and a tank and cost too much.

 

OK, got the Hella Supertones, which have a red colored grill on them. Sanded and painted them black, installed an pumped the horn.


I'm impressed. The sound bites you hear on the net and you tube don't do it justice.

Not deep, but high pitched and shrill and annoying. Will get the attention of another driver.

I'm over my airhorn desire. These are good enough.

You won't be dissapointed, unless you were looking for a deep big rig sound. Which these are not. But, they're good enough.

 

That's not really true. Any device that you hook up to the electrical system will draw the current it can. The problem comes if it draws too much amperage through the stock wiring; it might melt the wires. Think about it in terms of sound systems. The same electrical system in your truck can power your stock radio or a 1000 watt amplifier. The difference is you need larger wires for the 1000 watt amplifier so it can handle the current draw (amps). The formula for watts is P=I*E (PIE), where P is watts, I is current and E is voltage. To figure out what size wire you need for a particular device's wattage, divide the watts by 12 (12vdc) and consult this table:
http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

If you want a nice, inexpensive LOUD air horn, check out the
Compact Stebel. The compressor is built into the horn. It doesn't have the deep blast of the train horns but it's pretty loud (135db). There's a sample audio clip on the site in the "More Information" box.

 

WOW, that is loud. Interesting...

 

Thanks for the replies guys. Hey, that rhymes.

The Hellas are pretty darn amazing. I'm very happy with them. Louder than you'll really get a feel for on sound bites and videos.

The guys installing it at the stereo shop had one of the other workers "take a look at the engine". When he leaned over, he blasted them.

I heard a yell, then a lot of laughter. They're very loud. You'll be happy with the Hella Supertones.

 

The stock horns are rated at 110db. You know how I know? Cause I unclipped the wire from them and threw them away (110dc is stamped on the OEM horns btw)

You cannot run another aftermarket horn that utilizes an aircompressor like the Stebel on the same OEM circuit, since it will always blow the fuze. Your wires will not melt, but your fuze will blow. Been there, done that.

However, you can do (as I have done) and go purchase a set of WOLO MODEL 417 LONG HORN DUAL TONE AIR HORN TRUCK HORN SOUND 118 Decibel with detached air compressor. You can get these at Pep Boy's for $32.00 Wire the new WoLo's in using the supplied relay, and use your OEM horn hot wire (that used to be connected to the Meep Meep's) for the Relay's trigger to get juice to the compressor; which will in turn DEFINTELY get the attention of a wandering mind.

They work so good, I just bought a second set and installed them. These are the ones that I have:

http://www.amazon.com/Wolo-Long-Hor...7?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&qid=1201437127&sr=1-37


I mounted the horns face down behind my front grill, and the compressors on each interior side of the front inner engine bay compartment panels

Kindest Regards,

-Will in Maryland

 

The fuses can be upgraded if the stock wiring can handle it. You just don't want to fuse it to the point where you overload the current carrying capacity of the wire, because it would melt. The Stebel comes with an upgraded wiring kit.

 

"the feed to it"? The trucks electrical system will put out as many amps as the horns are asking for. A stock electric horn probably pulls less than 5 amps. An average amplified car stereo sound system can pull 50 amps.

To get a louder horn they'd have to give it a bigger motor.


Air horns is the loudest bang for the buck. Check out my cardomain to hear my train horns.

 

I had a boss who kept an air tank in the back of his El Camino for his train horns. Our shop was close to some train tracks which didn't have any gates on it. He would hit the horn and you could watch cars almost lock up the brakes looking for the train.

 

Does anyone have pictures of a compact stebel horn installation? I've got one of these on my motorcycle and the sound is great. I don't want to go as loud as the train horns and would prefer not to mount the horn in front of my radiator.

 

On my '83 I installed a horn I yanked off a Town car or something similar.

 

Same here. I couldn't stand the crappy factory horn sound. First I removed the horn covers which helped a little. Then added a Stebel compact truck horn. Sounded lots better a louder. Then went to the junk yard a found a 92 caddy that had four stock horns. 15. bucks.
These babys are reeeeeel loud and sound like a train.