d00mbuggy wrote:
Bruce,
Thanks for your info also!
This is not a typical install on a truck, as you can see from my pics.
This is being installed on a '97 T-bird, which makes the room an obvious issue.
I'm not worried about long bursts, or repeated honks daily.
I just want to be able to occasionally let out a few honks here and there, especially when I pull into the Disneyland parking structure!
Can't wait to give the cast members and guests in there a little 'Whoa, I know that horn'!
That is NOT the time or place to play with a truck horn, They Are NOT A Toy!!
The Mickey & Friends Parking Structure entrance plaza is an echo chamber with the 15' concrete ceiling, and the Resort Transportation & Parking CM's are not wearing hearing protection in their booths, not to mention the other cars with their windows down and right next to you. Blown eardrums (and an attitude about "Yeah, I did it, what are you gonna do about it?") could be turned into an assault charge...
You might be able to control the volume well enough with a manual lanyard pull and/or the pressure to the horns turned way down with an inline pressure regulator to where they just voice clearly (Hint: Like on the Monorails themselves) but DO NOT TRY IT with a solenoid valve at full system tank pressure, when it's all or nothing. I wouldn't chance it, at full voice those suckers are Loud. Which is the whole reason why you're installing them.
Save the air horns for when you need to send a real safety message on the road that will get through car windows and overpower loud stereos.
The relevant sections below, color emphasis mine. (Fire Trucks use the StutterTone horns, you don't want that one.) If you don't go around blowing them unnecessarily it won't ever be a problem - but if a Cop wants to "teach you a lesson", he has the Lesson Plan in law.
We have a Blooming Idjit around here somewhere (West San Fernando Valley, Simi, Thousand Oaks) with a full-on set of (sounds like Nathan K5) Train Horns on his car/truck and he's sneaking up behind people and letting loose a full-on long blast

trying to startle someone into an accident, right turn and into parked cars or the side of a house... The cops and many concerned folks are actively on the lookout for him. (Most people are too rattled to look around and get descriptions and license plate numbers.)
First order of business when they catch him is "Do you have a receipt for those horns?" since they are easily stolen off a parked locomotive left on a siding. The railroads keep a record of the serial numbers and will prosecute for grand theft - and the Feds can get involved since it's tampering with Safety Equipment of an Interstate Common Carrier, and those will hurt a whole lot more than a little moving violation ticket.
--<< Bruce >>--
Horns or Warning Devices
http://dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/vc/tocd12c5a1.htm27000. (a) A motor vehicle, when operated upon a highway, shall be equipped with a horn in good working order and capable of emitting sound audible under normal conditions from a distance of not less than 200 feet,
but no horn shall emit an unreasonably loud or harsh sound. An authorized emergency vehicle may be equipped with, and use in conjunction with the siren on that vehicle, an air horn that emits sounds that do not comply with the requirements of this section.
(b) A refuse or garbage truck shall be equipped with an automatic backup audible alarm that sounds on backing and is capable of emitting sound audible under normal conditions from a distance of not less than 100 feet or shall be equipped with an automatic backup device that is in good working order, located at the rear of the vehicle and that immediately applies the service brake of the vehicle on contact by the vehicle with any obstruction to the rear. The backup device or alarm shall also be capable of operating automatically when the vehicle is in neutral or a forward gear but rolls backward.
(c) A refuse or garbage truck, except a vehicle, known as a rolloff vehicle, that is used for the express purpose of transporting waste containers such as open boxes or compactors, purchased after January 1, 2010, shall also be equipped with a functioning camera providing a video display for the driver that enhances or supplements the drivers’ view behind the truck for the purpose of safely maneuvering the truck.
Amended Sec. 27, Ch. 945, Stats. 1997. Effective January 1, 1998.
Amended Sec. 2, Ch. 166, Stats. 2005. Effective January 1, 2006.
27001. (a) The driver of a motor vehicle when reasonably necessary to insure safe operation shall give audible warning with his horn.
(b)
The horn shall not otherwise be used, except as a theft alarm system which operates as specified in Article 13 (commencing with Section 28085) of this chapter.
Amended Ch. 993, Stats. 1977. Effective January 1, 1978.