NOTE: The complete story is below but if you want to skip straight to the pics then
here they are.
I totaled my 2002 Tacoma shortly before getting my new 2007 Tundra Double Cab Limited 5.7L V8, so I am a bit paranoid about idiot drivers wrecking into me or causing me to wreck to avoid them. On the way home from the dealership with my brand new Tundra less than a few hours old, some idiot cut in front of me on the highway and was weaving all over the road. I promptly laid on the horn and to my shock the Tundra horn sounded shrill and wimpy, sort of like the high pitched horn in a small compact car. I expected it to be much louder or at least deeper considering how big and tough the Tundra is. The crazy driver didn’t even respond, he might not have heard it with his window up and the AC on, or he just chose to ignore it which was easy enough due to the low volume.
As soon as I got home I did a lot of research on the Internet and I found quite a few websites selling replacement horns. Now I have seen those small red plastic trumpet horns from various auto parts stores and most of them are junk. They are usually cheaply made, high pitched, and not much louder than the factory horns anyway. I decided I wanted something similar to what you find on a dump truck or a tractor trailer, loud and deep, definitely high quality: something truly worthy of installing on a $42K Tundra. I ended up deciding on a
train horn kit from hornblasters.com which came with everything needed for about $330. I wasn’t sure of the size since the images on the web were small but I figured it would be a little bigger than the cheap plastic horns and the Tundra is huge so there shouldn’t be any problem finding a place to mount it.
A week passed and then the packages arrived: two big boxes which were quite heavy. Inside one I found a huge 5-trumpet stainless steel chrome train horn which weighed about 30 lbs. The other box had a heavy duty 12V DC stainless compressor pump mounted to a 1-gallon tank complete with a braided metal air hose, pressure gauge, cutoff switch, thick 12-gauge power wires, and a high pressure nylon air hose. This thing was huge, definitely a lot more equipment and weight than I had planned on. Small thumbnails on the web can definitely be misleading. My wife gasped as I was unpacking it: “
you’re not really going to put that on the truck, are you?”
I thought about sending it back but figured the return shipping would make it cost prohibitive, and to tell the truth I was now looking forward to the challenge of a difficult installation.
The first decision was where to mount the horns. This ended up being an easy decision since they are so huge that there were only a few practical options: on the roof of the cab, under the cab, or under the bed. I didn’t want it to be visible so the roof was out. A quick inspection under the bed revealed that it would be difficult to fit in between the spare tire, fuel tank, and other assorted components which are back there. The only choice left was under the cab and fortunately the space directly under the driver seat was a perfect fit. Ideally the horns would be facing down so that water and debris doesn’t collect inside of them but this was not possible since they are so long. I could have faced them forward to project the sound out front but then the horn has to overcome the air pressure created while driving at high speed thus the sound of the horn would be diminished. I didn’t want to face them backward since the warning noise generally needs to go forward, so I compromised and pointed them towards the passenger side. This allows an equal amount of sound to go to the front and back, with a little extra sound going to the right which is fine with me but probably bad news for anybody in the slow lane. No sound is lost and nothing gets crammed inside the horns regardless of the vehicle speed or driving conditions.
I didn’t want to weld the horn in place or drill any holes in the truck because I might later want to replace or remove it, so I made a custom mounting bracket from 2 galvanized “L” shaped 12-gauge steel hardware brackets from Lowes. These were bolted together to increase the strength and allow the horns to stick out just a bit so they would not touch the frame at all. The holes in the bracket lined up perfectly with two existing holes in the frame rail and the whole assembly fit inside the frame like it was made for the truck. I made sure to use all stainless bolts with nylon lock washers including the smaller bolts which attach the horn to the bracket. It was a real pain in the @$$ installing this inside the frame rail without a hydraulic lift but I took my time and it came out great.
Next I had to mount the compressor. I could have bolted it underneath the bed but I wanted to protect it from rain, snow, oil, grease, engine fumes, debris, theft, etc. so I mounted it inside the bed up behind the cab on the driver side. My bed is covered by a hard BAKFlip cover so this worked out well. I also wanted it to be removable so that I could still haul a full load without it getting in the way, so I mounted it to a heavy piece of 2x12 lumber which was then strapped in to the bed with thick EPDM bungee straps. I stapled some black non-slip rubber material to the bottom of the board. This keeps it from moving around and it also dampens the sound considerably. With my BAKFlip cover closed and the truck at idle speed you can’t even hear the compressor running at all.
Now it was time to run the air hose. I discarded the nylon air hose which came with the kit since it was very rigid and it would be tough to disconnect and reconnect. I replaced it with a professional Goodyear 3/4" solid rubber high pressure air hose and I installed all the required brass fittings to enable easy disconnect or removal if needed. I drilled a 1” hole through the LINE-X
liner and plastic drain plug in the front of the bed, then I ran the air hose out through the bed plug, down into the C-channel frame, and up to the horn. I pumped up the compressor and tested for leaks being careful to re-connect any loose joints with a liberal dose of teflon pipe tape until I had an airtight system. With this done it was time to move on to the final but most difficult part of the installation: the electronics.
The horn kit included a simple metal toggle switch for mounting on the dash but come on -
this is a $42K Tundra we are talking about! - so I scrapped the original switch and picked up two illuminated rocker switches which matched the amber color of the Tundra dash lights perfectly. I decided on two switches since I wanted independent control of the compressor so I could prevent it from recharging. This was important because I am also going to hook an AC Inverter (in the bed) to the same circuit later so I wanted it on a manual switch. The other switch toggles between the regular factory horn and the train horn. I also opted to use a custom relay since I only wanted the compressor to recharge while the truck was running otherwise an air leak in the system could drain the battery while the vehicle was parked. Initially the wiring sounded easy once I had the parts but it turned out to be quite difficult.
The horn switch had to be connected to the factory horns without interfering with them, yet it also had to drive the train horn when the factory horn button was pressed on the steering wheel. The relay had to be mounted in the fuse block under the hood but there weren’t any sockets open which I could custom-wire so I had to rig up a mounting slot inside the wiring box and run all the required wires inside. Then the wires from the horn switch and compressor relay had to be run inside of loom away from the heat sources in the engine, down into the C-channel frame, and then back to the horn and up into the bed. I took my time and did it like a pro complete with lots of loom, electrical tape to seal the ends, and thick black wire ties to hold it in place. Then I took the dash apart to install the rocker switches and fish the switching wires out to the engine compartment. I had to remove two plugs from the dash panel and make a custom face plate for each switch so that no gaps would be visible. The hardest part was figuring out the circuit wiring diagram which took 3 attempts before I finally got it working right. After it was done I noticed that the rocker switches were much brighter than the dash lights and this was annoying at night, plus they were so bright that they actually got pretty warm to the touch. To fix this I purchased a kit of variable potentiometers and experimented until I found the right one that dimmed the lights to the perfect level, then I soldered it in place behind the switches and put the dash back together.
Now the moment of truth had arrived: time to pressurize and test the system for real! Words cannot describe the glee that I felt when I fired up the Tundra and nothing happened (as designed). Then I switched on the compressor and it pumped the tank right up to the prescribed 125 psi when the pressure limiting switch shut it back off again. Then I beeped the factory horn and sure enough I only heard the wimpy OEM horn. OK, this was it, the big test. My hands were sweaty and my @$$ was sore from being on the creeper all damn weekend but it was all going to pay off right now. I flipped the dash switch to “train horn” mode and hit the steering wheel horn button briefly.
Yeeeeaaa Gawwwwwddd that was freaking loud!!! The sound was amazing, just like a real train, much louder than a mere tractor trailer or any other horn source that you have ever heard or imagined in your life. I quickly jumped in the truck and closed all the doors, windows up to protect my ears and then I let it rip until the tank was empty (about 8 seconds). My wife was inside our house at the time but she quickly shut all the house windows and rushed to comfort the dog who had decided to go into hiding in the bathroom hallway. At this point the neighbors on the farm about 1/4 mile across from me came out of their house to look up on our hill and see what the heck was going on. We do have train tracks in our town about 3 miles away but I guess they figured a train had somehow been diverted to our road…
I decided the test was complete so I shut down the truck and went inside to celebrate with a quick shower and a cold beer. I have since demonstrated the horn for many people, all of whom know it is coming and have been fully warned, yet every single one jumps back in shock when you hit the horn even briefly, especially if they are on the passenger side. I also used it twice on the highway which created a few moments worth sharing.
The first time I had forgotten that I left the train horn switch in the on mode after a parking lot demo earlier in the day. My wife and I were on the way home from a nice dinner and some guy in a jeep was in the slow lane with his gas cap hanging loose and flapping in the breeze. I figured it would rip off soon or at least scratch the heck out of his paint if he didn’t stop so I wanted to signal him. I pulled up in the fast lane about even with him and told the wife to signal him by pointing back to his gas cap. She did this but he basically ignored us so I gave the horn a quick blast expecting nothing but the normal factory beep.
Damn! That dang train horn went off and it scared the crap out of all of us. The jeep driver weaved a little with a look of pure terror on his face
and then recovered just in time to see the look of shock on my face
and disgust on my wife’s face
. She thought I had planned this whole thing but I swear I did not! Now the jeep guy was convinced we did this just to have fun at his expense so he ignored my wife’s additional signals about the gas cap so we just passed him up and went home, me with a grin and the wife with a scowl…
Then today the wife and I went on a long drive out in the country which I described in another thread about the hood protector. I had the train horn turned on to scare any deer or other critters from the edge of the road which is quite common on the roads we were driving. Well we were going around a bend on a single-lane rural highway, speed limit is 45 mph and we were doing about 40 enjoying the scenery, when all of a sudden there is a car coming towards us in the other lane with a big SUV in the passing lane (our lane) as they wind around the bend both coming on at about 70 mph!
To make matters worse there was a pickup behind the car so the SUV couldn’t get back in line. We had the inside track so we saw them first and I let the train horn rip continuously. I also slammed on the brakes on the Tundra but true to form it did not skid, lock up, or lose traction at all, it just proceeded to slow down very rapidly and safely, much sooner than I imagined. Fortunately the train horn caused the pickup truck behind the car to slam on his brakes which made a small opening that was just big enough for the SUV to swerve back into with literally no more than a dozen feet to spare. The whole thing happened so fast but I can still see it in my head and my pulse was racing for a few minutes afterward. My wife was just as shocked as I was but the first thing she said was “
thank God we have that train horn!” A few minutes later we stopped to get gas and calm down, then the wife asked me why we didn’t skid or slip when I slammed on the brakes. I told her about the Tundra’s safety features and she was impressed since we hadn’t even left our seats more than a few inches during the whole affair.
Oh well, that is it for this very long but hopefully informative train horn thread. I know, I know, you want videos with sound. Well I tried to film it several times but the sound is so loud that it overloads the camcorder microphone and comes out distorted. I also tried editing it down with software during the conversion process but then it loses a lot of the effect. So I will film a video soon from a far distance and post to this thread once it is done. For now if you haven't seen the hornblaster.com videos yet then
this one is pretty funny and
this one shows a regular horn compared to a train horn.
Notice to potential flamers: I am not some wild @$$ crazy man that is going to cruise parking lots and blast innocent bystanders into oblivion or heart failure. The hornblasters.com videos are amusing but that behavior will get you pulled over, ticketed, and/or arrested in most states. It can also cause wrecks if you use your horn to shock someone severely on the highway. I only plan to use the train horn for the following:
- warning other drivers when there is a wreck or problem up ahead
- waking up sleepy, drunk, or drugged out drivers that are weaving or dozing off or for whatever reason totally ignoring my normal truck horn
- saluting obnoxious drivers that tailgate, threaten, or block the lane ahead of me without provocation
- convincing the rap blasters to turn down their crappy booming ghetto music when they have it up so loud that you can hear it a block away
- signaling others in my party while camping, hiking, hunting, boating, etc.
- signaling for help in the event of an emergency such as being stuck in a snow storm, stranded in the wilderness, robbery or car-jacking, heart attack, etc.
- having a little fun with friends while off-road
Hope you have enjoyed this post as much as I am enjoying my new toy...
err... safety device.
Mod: Train Horn Install Complete w/PICS
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