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Electrical Horn upgrade questions

RevN3

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Hey, so I want a louder horn. I use mine fairly regularly and stock doesn't seem to be getting my point across. Neither the deaf geriatrics nor turn-it-up-to-11 teenagers with their earbuds seem to be able to hear my warnings. So two questions:

1. What is the DB rating on the stock horns?
2. Does anyone have a non-air horn they recommend that is significantly louder but also not ear splitting high pitched? Ideally I'd like something like what the '85 Cadillac Eldorado had

Original link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3e5BCE9zFI
 
I threw in Hella Sharptones. I love them, and have noticed a significant difference in peoples reactions to my signals. @MESO runs a pair of Sharptones and a pair of Supertones, so 4 horns at once.

From my build thread:

Here ya go @CapnJack

So I ended up going with the Sharptones (the yellow ones). They just sound better, especially for a truck. I thought I would have preferred the red grilles on the Supertones but I actually think the yellow ones look pretty slick.

Here’s the size difference between the Supertones (red) and the Sharptones (yellow).

View attachment 22660

Here are the shots of the Supertones installed. The factory horn(s) are installed on the driver side, I chose to install one horn on both sides.

View attachment 22662 View attachment 22661

Supertones demo:

View attachment 22664

Sharptones pics:

View attachment 22665 View attachment 22666

Demo:

View attachment 22667
 
View attachment 26228I got 2 sharp tones dual red hella horns with stock horns, = 4 horns hella on a 12v relay source As shown in video. I did have yellow supertones but I didn’t like the squeak tones it sounded 50BA0648-E28C-427D-B784-5A395768B0C0.webp9744D330-9EDB-4E61-9CAF-17E4F91436AA.webp7B0B2BEE-50AD-4464-A3EB-E00D13C066AD.webp
 
Here ya go @CapnJack

So I ended up going with the Sharptones (the yellow ones). They just sound better, especially for a truck. I thought I would have preferred the red grilles on the Supertones but I actually think the yellow ones look pretty slick.

Here’s the size difference between the Supertones (red) and the Sharptones (yellow).

View attachment 22660

Here are the shots of the Supertones installed. The factory horn(s) are installed on the driver side, I chose to install one horn on both sides.

View attachment 22662 View attachment 22661

Supertones demo:

View attachment 22664

Sharptones pics:

View attachment 22665 View attachment 22666

Demo:

View attachment 22667

From my build thread.
 
I got 2 sharp tones dual red hella horns with stock horns, = 4 horns hella on a 12v relay source As shown in video. I did have yellow supertones but I didn’t like the squeak tones it sounded

Yeah, I don't like the sound of the yellow or red on their own. It's a little too European "beep beep" for me. I want a "HONK HONK!" Adding the red to the stock though. That sounds pretty good. I might do that. Especially if I can just add them on the same relay. That's easy peasy.
 
Had the same issue with my stock horn not cutting it, especially in busy areas. For a louder horn that actually gets people’s attention, you could try something like the bosshorn.com . It's got a solid, deep sound that's not as high-pitched or ear-splitting as some other options. Definitely feels more like a classic car horn, and it should do the trick for those moments when you really need to be heard.
 
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Hella Supertones were one of the first upgrades I did on the truck. Have run them on my last 4 cars. They might sound a little cartooney but they are very effective at getting people's attention and they look awesome. If doing a simple pnp install, they definitely sound better on a vehicle that was factory wired to have 2 horns vs a single connection split for 2 (they are power hungry).

1728317435801.webp
 
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