Anyone modified their horn - I want something more obnoxious..

[Shiva]

i always liked the Road Runner horns, in fact i have one sitting in the garage.

These days, i try my best not to get excited over other drivers. On the road....."It is what it is".

And, it seems like there are more bad drivers these days than ever before. In fact, I question if some states even have drivers tests any more! Likewise, I'm sure others have cursed me out once in a while too. There's a lot of anxiety on the roads, it all depends where your head is at.

But, I refuse to allow idiots to give me high blood pressure.

My thoughts exactly. Maturity and picking your battles wisely.
My 2018 horn is plenty loud enough for the rare hilltops I defend.

 

[commander]

Had a customer bring in his Ram a few years ago. His name would be very recognizable, So I will keep it to myself. Anyway, he had a rear train horn mounted under the bed. When he picked it up, we asked him to set it off, and he said, "I will once I get in the truck AND roll up the windows" It was extremely loud!
But, in today's world, I try not to flip off anyone or use my horn, because as crazy as people are now a days, could end up right, and dead right!

Jim

 

[John Mancino]

I put in 2 from moto horn.

MotoHorn 3.0 — World's Loudest Motorcycle Horn

Brought to you by official US registered Motohorn trademark. Our 3.0 kit includes everything you need for the installation! Can be attached to the stock horn bolt, to the front frame bar, or underneath the saddlebags. Its long bolt hole design allows easy and flexible installation.

motohorn.com

 

[Docwagon1776]

The pyramid is actually a cool setup and usage for that building tbh, especially compared to it's previous use. Bad acoustics during concerts, sat for a number of years before revamped to Bass Pro Shop, etc. Has tallest free standing elevator in it too, which is worth a trip up in it if you stop and visit it. Live alligators and of coarse the large fish tank full of freshwater fish.

Area around there, especially in evening/night, you'd better keep your head on a swivel. Many locals in surrounding area don't even go to downtown that often/anymore it's gotten so bad. And if you do, stay on major highway that's close to/from. Rather sad compared to many years back, though since I've been here (over 22 yrs) it's never been "safe".

Even Beale St, which isn't too far from Bass Pro Shop Pyramid, I don't go to hardly ever. Good place to get robbed and be lucky to walk away from alive when you walk to/from Beale St itself after parking. And even then should be in good size group or carry permit if you are walking in area around Beale St if do decide to go. Probably best to take Uber and be dropped of at end of the street section for Beale St (West Side best) tbh when staying local.

I'm a Memphis-in-daylight-hours-only visitor, but I'm not much for bar scenes anyway. Pyramid and the nearby river walk are neat, and every hillbilly should make the pilgrimage to Graceland at least once.

 

[JW2 Innovations]

I'm a Memphis-in-daylight-hours-only visitor, but I'm not much for bar scenes anyway. Pyramid and the nearby river walk are neat, and every hillbilly should make the pilgrimage to Graceland at least once.

Yes, Graceland once so you can claim the one-and-done!

 

[OC455]

I'm up in the air about any additional horns or anything. Sometimes I wish I had one and then I think it would be a waste...

When I was on my latest camping trip, me and the boss were traveling South on I87 to go to a Scotch whiskey tasting. I87 is a 3 lanes. We were in the far right lane approaching an on ramp. Saw traffic starting to come off the ramp. I moved to the middle lane. Guy in a white Subaru came off the ramp, into the right lane and just kept coming over into the middle lane where I was. My lights were on and it's pretty hard to miss my truck. I had to swerve into the left lane in order to avoid being side swiped. I didn't even have enough time to honk at the guy.

I certainly punched the throttle and blew past him to get away from the idiot. If he didn't see me, he definitely heard the exhaust as I went by.

I hate saying this....but IMO, most Subaru drivers are DWHUP. I like the electronic horn....haven't seen a civilian version....mostly seen the police issue stuff.

 

[DILLIGAF]

There's only 1 option

Everything else is lame AF.

Air Horns , I put that sh1te on everything.

Dont even bother with the amazon ones. those are for dudes that eat bananas for the shape.

 

[StateOfMind]

I put in 2 from moto horn.

MotoHorn 3.0 — World's Loudest Motorcycle Horn

Brought to you by official US registered Motohorn trademark. Our 3.0 kit includes everything you need for the installation! Can be attached to the stock horn bolt, to the front frame bar, or underneath the saddlebags. Its long bolt hole design allows easy and flexible installation.

motohorn.com

Same.

 

[Undrta2d]

Same.

I was looking their kits. Any regrets?

 

[StateOfMind]

I was looking their kits. Any regrets?

No regrets at all. These aren't train horn loud, but they do grab someone's attention. They are also much deeper in tone, far more firing for a truck than the Prius horns these came with.

 

[RamDiver]

Same.

Could you post a more distant picture so we can see where you chose to mount these horns?

BTW, the mounting looks great, and I'm interested in something like this.

How did you wire them in as far as triggering?
A dedicated switch for the air horns or a horn select switch for the OE switch on the steering wheel?

.

 

[Magfan2]

I honestly cannot remember the last time I used the horn. I suppose it was back when I had my Bloodhound years ago. He would come to the horn on the old Chevy. Country life!

 

[commander]

Had a Professional football player that had an accident in his Ram. He had an actual train horn under the bed of his truck! We asked him why? He said, "So when I arrive at the complex, I let the guard shut his door, and I set it off" That way they know I'm here! LOL Super good guy and down to earth!

JT

 

[StateOfMind]

Could you post a more distant picture so we can see where you chose to mount these horns?

BTW, the mounting looks great, and I'm interested in something like this.

How did you wire them in as far as triggering?
A dedicated switch for the air horns or a horn select switch for the OE switch on the steering wheel?

.

I am planning on a full writeup coming soon, but i mounted a spot rocker so it's either stock horns, or stock and motohorns. More info coming soon

 

[StateOfMind]

A quick write up on what I did, and thoughts on what I might do different next time.
I started with purchasing the Motohorn 3.0 direct drive compressor kit. Comes with trumpet in either chrome or black. It includes a mounting bracket that I didn't use, and 2 lengths of wire far too short for my needs. A couple days after ordering, I got an email offering a huge discount on a second horn, so before even testing the first I had the second on order.

Initial thought was to go behind grill, but with the active shutters etc. it didn't seem like a clean look. I decided on directly behind the front bumper, and used 2 existing bolts on either side to mount my plate. The bolts hold the bumper mounting brackets.

I'm not a metal worker, but I'm stupid enough to think I can do anything, so I ordered a couple 16ga aluminum sheets from my local metal place. 16ga is just about 1/16 inch. I had the 2 pieces cut 6" x 24". I ordered 2 because I fully expected to screw the first piece up. I had wanted 5052, as its easy to machine, and is also easy to form, but what they had available for same day pickup was 6061. Turned out just fine, but I was afraid the 6061 would crack or split when formed, and I didn't feel up to annealing. I had never made speed holes, but I am YT certified, and I had seen that some people got positive results with 3D printed dimple dies, so I printed one with ABS plastic and 100% infill. I used my woodworking forstner bit to drill the speed holes, with the drill press belts set to the slowest possible setting. Put the dimple dies through the holes with a bolt through the middle, large washers on either end, and used an impact to crush them together, formed all 12 holes with no cracking.

totally unnecessary scope creep: I had a bag of Hemi orange powder coat, a cheap harbor freight powder gun, and my old electric smoker converted to a powder coat oven. damn fine results.

I didn't like how the compressors were designed to mount from a single bolt near the end, so I printed a couple ABS clamps/supports that allowed for them to mount with 2 bolts, and now no bouncing around.



So next was the wiring. I used 12g primary and ran 2 red 2 black along the existing harness to the firewall. In retrospect, I couldve grounded the compressors right near the mounts, and saved myself 16', but I had already run the 4 wires in loam.

Since I had the second sheet of aluminum, I did a little cardboard assisted design, and made the relay mounting bracket. Loosely copied from Outback Kitters' design they sell for the 5th gen trucks. It seems our cowl has a little kickout right where it slopes up, and bending the bracket along that path gave the panel a ton of rigidity. made L brackets, some riv nuts, and now a nice place to mount the Painless wiring I already had, and the relays that came with the horns. That side quest took another 5-6 hours, and my afternoon project is now stretching into its 3rd day.



I tapped in to the horn signal wire under the PDC, F42 I believe. I was afraid it would be one of the wires that are jam packed like sardines in one of the 4 cam lock wire bundles, but it luckily wasnt, and was very easy to splice in to. I ran that wire, and a return wire through the firewall, and up to the middle of dash.

I had a custom rocker switch made, and I am NOT going to name drop the company, because they ignored my instructions, and sent me a not quite what I wanted switch.
I have 2WD, so that means I had a poverty button right below the shifter, which made for an extremely convenient and easy to reach location for the switch.


It is wired so that when to the left, the normal whiney horn sounds, and when I need to get someone's attention, flip it to the right and all horns sound.
I also tapped in to the dimmer wire behind the light selector, and ran that over. Since the rocker has both dependent and independent lights, I meant for one to be on when in curtesy mode, and both lights when in Hey Get Out Of The Way mode. I realized that this wasn't well thought out, and so I may go back and address it later. As it is, one side lights up all that time, the other does nothing, although it might actually light up slightly when actively honking, I don't know I havent been staring at it when I tested the horn.
Maybe someone that knows electrics can help me sort the issue.

So, now for the good, and bad, and the ugly.

The horns have a great deep bass note, very fitting for our trucks. Since they are direct drive with no tank, they aren't nearly as loud as they were when I blew my garage compressor through one, and scared my neighbor.

Now that exact thing, the direct drive compressor: it takes a milisecond to build sufficient pressure to start the trumpet sound. I can hear my stock horn honk for just a fraction of a second before its big brother steps in.

I've talked with a cop friend, and demoed the horns. It was his opinion that unless I'm driving through a neighborhood blasting these in the middle of the night, they arent going to be obnoxious enough to get a ticket, they just sound right.
Had I experienced these before starting the project (who am i kidding, it was more like 4 projects) I wouldve had the horn signal wire go directly to 86 on the relay, and forgotten about the rocker, but this was planned out in my head, and once that train is rolling, there's no going back.

For anyone wanting to do something similar, I will share print files, or whatever I have. My way of giving back to a forum that has saved my bacon many a time.

TLDR: bumper mounting bolts from the frame horns left and right.

 

[Grams]

The only time I use my horn is at Red lights that have turned green and we are still sitting there...

I’ll never stop laughing over the time I was in a NYC taxi-cab…when the light turned “green”…..and my driver leaned out and shouted at the car in front of us….”THAT’S THE ONLY SHADE OF GREEN IT COMES IN!”

 

[Grams]

I didn’t want to spend the money on “real” trainhorns….which require an expenive air compressor to feed them…..so I bought a triple-set of similar air-horns off Amazon….(much cheaper, but deep-tone and loud)….and powered them with a 115-VAC cheap Harbor-Freight 3-gal “hot dog” compressor ($50).
I plugged the HF compressor into the 115 VAC inverter-outlet on the truck, and when I plan on going out-of-town on the highway (where I would want to use them)…. I’d simply switch-On the inverter….which would cause the HF-compressor to fill it’s tank to 100 psi….
I had the trainhorns wired thru a relay which was in parallel to the OEM horms…. so when travelling on the highway…(or if I wanted to please the boys at Discount Tire who like to blow them when moving in/out the garage)…. The OEM horns and trainhorns would blow simultaneiously.

It really helps the little-old-ladys across the cross-walks, also.

I had the HF compressor inside my Ramboxes, but it’d also fit anywhere under the frame or in any toolbox also. I plumbed it to the horns using 3/8” air-brake line bought at NAPA.

(I lost that truck in a wreck and have yet to do this to my newest trucks, but I plan to.)

 

[diymirage]

I honestly cannot remember the last time I used the horn. I suppose it was back when I had my Bloodhound years ago. He would come to the horn on the old Chevy. Country life!

My sister used to have a boxer, good dog but not trained what-so-ever

At the time we still lived with my parents and we had a long drive with a gate up front

Each time I would get out the car to open the gate that dog would jump into my car
(Did I mention it was an untrained dog?)

It bugged me so much

So one day I let it ride with me, all the way to the end of the drive

I must have been doing about 45 when I got there and locked up the brakes

Of course the stupid dog hasn't bothered to put on his seat belt so he slammed face first into to dash

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the last time that mut ever set paw in my car

 

[Magfan2]

All my dogs like to ride in the truck. I was fine with it in the beat up old Chevy which already had seat covers, or the'05 Magnum, but not only is the RAM pristine inside, it has been lifted and I don't believe they can get in - they haven't even tried. Already on the list for the winter is a boarding ramp and a leveling platform for the rear seating area floor for vet trips.

 

[British Bulldog]

Diymirage’s story made me chuckle and remember when I lived about five years ago in Bayfield WI. Horrible wet and damp day. I was driving along in my pristine 2017 ram that had always had seat covers on front seats. Well, this day they weren’t! Wash time.
Spotted a really scared dog walking down the centre of the road in danger of being hit by traffic. I stopped on side to see if it had a collar tag. Left my drivers door open! Stupid filthy muddy hairy dog( did I mention it was a long haired collie) jumped up onto my drivers seat! When I tried to get it out it jumped into the back! I opened the back door and it jumped onto my passenger front seat. My truck was filthy and leather scuffed! I gave up, got in behind the wheel, next to it in front, read his collar and phoned up the number.
The person who answered said “ oh we never worry he always does that……5 flaming miles away! I took it home, couldn’t get it out.
Got to their house and it jumped out immediately and they just gave me a wave from the front door!
Different people different strokes, right? ….

We are digressing from the “horn” issue here, I think. Sorry OP.