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How loud can you legally have a car horn?

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Old 11 December 2005, 04:46 PM
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scooby_si
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Default How loud can you legally have a car horn?

Just wondered having seen this video: where a guy has a ferry horn fitted what legalities would be of doing something or anything similar on a loud theme on car horns in UK?
Ta
Si
Old 11 December 2005, 07:23 PM
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Franx2
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I'm not sure about the legalities of having one that loud, but I understand that as long as the original horn is still in place and working, it's legal to have air horns and the like Handy that, since I have some which I'm just persuading to work at the moment. Made by Maserati, and with 3 notes. Someone gave them to me
Old 11 December 2005, 11:22 PM
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that is so funny. Thinking of standing on the deck of cross channel ferries I can only imagine how loud it must be. Must be a beast of a size tho
Old 12 December 2005, 12:42 AM
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yeah i was thinking of leaving the normal horn there for standard uses but having a silly big one for special occasions pmsl
There must be some legal limit thou before it's classed as polution or assault or sum such BS surely?
Si
Old 12 December 2005, 08:24 AM
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OllyK
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All I can find is that a car horn is usually 100-110 dB. No idea on max. Should be in the construction and use regs I'd think, I'll have a rummage.
Old 12 December 2005, 08:41 AM
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cheers, sure half the jap horns are more a timid noddy sounding 20 db
Si
Old 12 December 2005, 09:04 AM
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Still can't find much, but there is some issue relating to the sound limit for an Alarm, which seems to fall in to the aforementioned range. My guess would be that due to many alarms making use of the car horn, this then limits the volume of the horn. However, if you were to have separate / additional horns, I have no idea what the arrangement would be.
Old 12 December 2005, 10:01 AM
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Brendan Hughes
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Originally Posted by scooby_si
There must be some legal limit thou before it's classed as polution or assault or sum such BS surely?
Si
"Causing a danger to other road users" like perforating their eardrums...
Old 12 December 2005, 12:25 PM
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Originally Posted by Franx2
Quality

I'm not sure about the legalities of having one that loud, but I understand that as long as the original horn is still in place and working, it's legal to have air horns and the like Handy that, since I have some which I'm just persuading to work at the moment. Made by Maserati, and with 3 notes. Someone gave them to me
Are they the proper 60's ones that sound like a baboon having it's nuts grabbed?
Old 12 December 2005, 12:37 PM
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We often fit train horns to trucks at my work which are fookin loud, especially when you're walking throught the pitch black yard and one of the lads decides to give you a blast as you walk past (new pants needed)

I have one of the 20db horns fitted as standard to my subaru, its all very gay i try not to use it
Old 12 December 2005, 12:45 PM
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A friend of mine has got a train horn is is trying to fit to his car!!!!
Old 12 December 2005, 12:50 PM
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Originally Posted by Robbie T
We often fit train horns to trucks at my work
I'd heard of that being done as a one-off. Why do you say "often"? Sounds like a common and perhaps legal mod? Which suggests that either the original truck horns were crap (like scoobs), and/or that it's no big deal?

Need air compressors, don't they? So fitting one to a car would be a pig...
Old 12 December 2005, 12:57 PM
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Originally Posted by Brendan Hughes
I'd heard of that being done as a one-off. Why do you say "often"? Sounds like a common and perhaps legal mod? Which suggests that either the original truck horns were crap (like scoobs), and/or that it's no big deal?

Need air compressors, don't they? So fitting one to a car would be a pig...
Some guy's who we used to go rallying with had a pair of train horns on their VW LT35 service barge, They used to drain a fairly hefty air reservoir with a couple of good blasts

Running a compressor on a car is not that difficult, you can use a modified A/C compressor, the biggest PITA is siting a decent reservoir
Old 12 December 2005, 01:00 PM
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PS On the same subject, does anyone know where I can get a proper 12V klaxon from?
Old 12 December 2005, 01:11 PM
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Originally Posted by CrisPDuk
Running a compressor on a car is not that difficult, you can use a modified A/C compressor, the biggest PITA is siting a decent reservoir
ooh cheers - this could come in useful on Portuguese roads
Old 12 December 2005, 01:41 PM
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Originally Posted by Brendan Hughes
I'd heard of that being done as a one-off. Why do you say "often"? Sounds like a common and perhaps legal mod? Which suggests that either the original truck horns were crap (like scoobs), and/or that it's no big deal?

Need air compressors, don't they? So fitting one to a car would be a pig...
We deal with a customer who has a fleet of lorries, he gets us to fit these to each of his units. Maybe i should have said occasionally
Old 12 December 2005, 06:44 PM
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was guna say presuming i have plenty of space in a sizable car what do i need to do big *** train or similar horns properly?
Si
Old 12 December 2005, 08:22 PM
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SIAL BTW

They are train horns
http://www.hornblasters.com/products/category.php?id=1

And more vids here
http://www.hornblasters.com/vide.php
Old 12 December 2005, 10:20 PM
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yeah but i wasn't doing it as a woohoo look wot vid i have i was doing it as an enquiry on legalities of doing it which was nicely demonstrated by the extreme nature of those vids lol
Si
Old 12 December 2005, 11:32 PM
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Originally Posted by scooby_si
Just wondered having seen this video: where a guy has a ferry horn fitted what legalities would be of doing something or anything similar on a loud theme on car horns in UK?
Ta
Si
Construction and Use Regulations, Part II, Section F, States under the guidelines for Audible Warning Instruments that the tone of a horn must be..."continuous, uniform and not strident"...typically ambiguous, although the dictionary clarifies "strident" as "harsh of tone, grating or jarring"
I guess that a ferry horn would be fairly "jarring" so they could have you under Construction and Use Regs!
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