Horn power?

[Air Ready Auto]

Does anybody know what voltage our horns are? I'm thinking about taking a horn off of a 2001 Saturn SL2 and mounting it on my bike. The horn is a 12-volt and puts out 180 decibels. Way better than the anemic thing I've got on there now.

[Marcarl]

12 volt

[Kretz]

:sign yeah that::sign yeah that: :smile11:run it via a relay to avoid all the current going through the switch!

[luvmy40]

^^^^^^^^^^^^What Kretz said^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

The voltage drop through the old wire harness and switch makes even the most robust horn sound like a dying duck. Spend the extra $10.00 on a relay and just DOIT!

 

I cant believe I waited so long to add the rely to The Beast.

[Air Ready Auto]

^^^^^^^^^^^^What Kretz said^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

The voltage drop through the old wire harness and switch makes even the most robust horn sound like a dying duck. Spend the extra $10.00 on a relay and just DOIT!

 

I cant believe I waited so long to add the rely to The Beast.

 

Where can a guy pick up said relay?

[bongobobny]

Auto Zone, Advance Auto, etc! You want a simple 12 volt SPST which stands for Single Pole, Single Throw relay. Single pole means there is only one set of contacts for the electricity to flow through, and single throw means the contacts are either connected or disconnected, as opposed to a double throw which means when one set of contacts gets disconnected another set gets connected. What that means is when you energize the relay, electricity goes to one place, and when you de-energize the relay the electricity goes somewhere else. A single throw just sends electricity someplace when turned on (energized) and shuts it off when turned off.

 

An SPST relay has 4 prongs. Two of the prongs are for the relay coil. The coil is what turns on the main electricity or turns it off. A relay is just a simple electromagnet! When you apply electricity to the coil, it becomes an electromagnet and it draws the secondary contacts together and completes the circuit for whatever you are trying to control. The relay coil draws very little current, but the secondary contacts can handle a whole bunch of current! When you buy your relay you can use a 30 amp relay just fine, but you can also use a 40 amp relay as well.

 

Here's the good news, you can and should use your existing horn wires to trigger the relay! You simply hook up the two wires to the coil and be done with it! It does not really matter which wire goes where as there is no real polarity to the primary coil. Next, you need to hook up a wire from your battery to one of the relay contacts. Use 14 gauge wire or 16 gauge wire at the thinnest. the other relay contact gets a wire hooked from it to the horn plus contact. the minus horn contact gets a wire going to ground, use the same thickness wire as you used on the horn plus and battery wires.

 

If you look at the relay bottom you should see which prong is what, or you will see some numbers for each contact. Sorry, but it's early in the morning and I haven't had my coffee yet, and I'm also getting senile so I don't remember what number is what. I'm sure some younger person like FF knows on the top of their head which number is what...

 

There's today's lesson in electricity!

[Karaboo]

Any parts store, Fleet Farm, etc.

I just mounted a pair of Hella horns with the High/Low tones that are stock size, stock mounting and very close on the current draw. No relay added, for now. They are a little louder, but much better sound.

These are the ones.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EG18K1Y/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Next up is a set of Hella Supertones for my Outback. The stock ones sound pretty close to the stock ones on my Venture. Can't stand them.

[Carbon_One]

A simple plug & play solution --- http://www.venturerider.org/forum/photopost/showproduct.php?product=10&title=stebel-2f-wolo-air-horn-wiring-harness&cat=15