wiring a new horn

[Doug in Oregon]

Hey all,
I have a 2011 truck and I have a set of those loud train horns; tested and they work, but I want to wire these so when I push the steering wheel horn pad these will go off.
It looks like the factory horn must run on a low voltage or current circuit, and it won't set them off when I have tested it. I disconnected one of the horn leads and spliced them into the factory plug but no workee. BTW the train horn only has a black and a red lead and a relay already wired in to the setup. see pic.
Any idea how to make this work?
TIA

 

[TRK_GANG74]

Very intrested if you can get this to work!

 

[SitKneelBend]

Hey all,
I have a 2011 truck and I have a set of those loud train horns; tested and they work, but I want to wire these so when I push the steering wheel horn pad these will go off.
It looks like the factory horn must run on a low voltage or current circuit, and it won't set them off when I have tested it. I disconnected one of the horn leads and spliced them into the factory plug but no workee. BTW the train horn only has a black and a red lead and a relay already wired in to the setup. see pic.
Any idea how to make this work?
TIA

Your best bet is to wire them to the existing horns. I "think" the horn is a CANBUS message request and not wired directly to 12 volt like they used to be. You'll wire a trigger from an existing wire at the horn to the relay of the train horn, then 12v power from the battery to the relay (and ground).

 

[Tyler_h]

I wired my air horn solenoid to a new push button switch mounted in the center console. I think its easier and better to have a parallel setup instead of modifying the existing horn for little to no gains. Air horn is mounted behind the grill.

The air tooter warms my heart and widens my smile every time I push the button.

 

[crash68]

If that is a relay the horn is wired to in the picture, it not correct for isolation of the higher current demand needed by those air horns.
When I added the air horn to my truck, I used a relay with the coil wires (85, 86) directly to the factory horn. Used an inline fuse from the battery to term 30 and then 87 wires to the horn positive. Grounded the horn to the frame.

 

[Grams]

Be aware that some locales will FINE you if you use trainhorns within their jurisdiciton. (For example, some towns have ordinances which require permits for audio-warnings exceeding certain decibel limits….which invariably trainhorns do.)

When I added them to my ‘12 Ram 1500, I routed the relay mentioned by crash68 thru a separate switch …which enabled POWER to the relay. If the trainhorn switch were enabled…the relay would send power to the horns…if I were in-town…I’d switch it off so that only the OEM horns would sound.

Also, the trainhorns I installed were operated by Compressed-Air. I used a cheap Harbor Freight “hot dog” compressor run off a 400W inverter….the air being supplied by truck air-brake lines I installed.

If you do the same….then the trainhorns will not operate unless the Air-Valve is powered. A simple switch could siupply power to that valve and determine if the trainhorns sound….or if only the OEM horns sound.

Hope this helps.

 

[Pallas]

I have a air horn to hook up on mine, but not as loud as that. I'm looking to go to a separate button for the reason I dont want a super loud horn just for "saying Hi".
There is a guy at my campground that has a train horn on his truck, it rivals the Amtrak trains that come through. I have heard him hit it when I was fishing on the lake about a mile away. VERY impressive.