Community Forums

clyon51 · 12-01-2012, 06:29 AM

Not that it matters, just curious. These chrome horns on my '99 Dolphin do not work but there are 2 very loud automotive horns behind the grill, which look stock to me. So were these horns just bling in '99 or did they actually work?

DaveG39 · 12-01-2012, 09:44 AM

They worked. Are electric. Have given many problems.

sidewinder2 · 12-01-2012, 09:52 AM

Both sets work on mine too!

clyon51 · 12-01-2012, 10:09 AM

Ok, thanks guys. When I get ambitious I'll take'm apart and see what's up.

luvmydolphin · 12-01-2012, 10:14 AM

When I bought my 1999 Dolphin the roof horns did not work. I took them appart to see if I could track down the problem. The tubes of the horns were filled solid with everything from bugs and grass to mud. The diaphrams were also totally rusted. Cleaned out the tubes and used an SOS pad to clean up the diaphrams as best as possible. Put them back together and they worked great. They actually sounded very train like and were very loud. Pleasently surprised with the result of the cleaning.

njs42 · 12-01-2012, 11:43 AM

I'll need to clean my roof horn but I did upgrade my Fiam under hood snail horns by installing some Hadley 5" electric horns one Hi/ one LO pitch under the hood. Very "sound" improvement.

PS: Not of this topic but I installed on board air for multiple resons having to do with my hobby but since I did I added air horns as well and I can air up my tires. Multihorns for every occassion.

Too expensive if you do not really crave an air horn or the luxury of airing your tires or have another good reason.

Walter5555 · 12-01-2012, 09:29 PM

I installed a set of Air Horns under the hood of our R.V. they have a small compresser and a tank for the air.
It comes in handy when some one is coming on to the freeway and not looking as to where they are going or even looking to see if a car is adjacent to them.
But when I give them a blass of the Air Horns it sure wakes them up.

I still have my City horns they are all in one, if I just press on the horn a little bit the city horn sounds and if I want the Air Horns to come on I just press a little harder.
Just a thought.

bigdog · 12-02-2012, 01:02 PM

The air horns on my Tradewinds are great,but for some reason kinda wussy. I would have liked to have been able to get the air horns off of one of the old Gillig school buses that our district sold several years ago. Now that was an air horn. Some of the new ones have great ones now too.

96 Wideglide · 12-02-2012, 01:12 PM

What the ..........

How come I did'nt get any chrome air horns

?

tropical36 · 12-02-2012, 02:49 PM

Mine work, both under the hood and on the roof, but I still wanted a little more, so I added these right behind the grille as well. They were something like $18 delivered to my door and most acceptable for the money so far... 12 Volt Air Horn Loud Horns Truck Car Boat 12V New | eBay

Wolfpack Fan · 12-02-2012, 08:17 PM

Our Dolphin has them on the roof, but they've never worked since day one. Saw a nice train sounding horn on ebay. 125 or 135 db I think was the volume. That's pretty darn loud. Maybe one day.

clyon51 · 12-03-2012, 06:11 AM

I worked for a RR for 35 years and collected a lot of old RR stuff. I got a set of old diesel horns off an old GMD GP-7 locomotive. They probably weigh 70+ pounds, need a huge resevoir and at least 140 psi to operate well. So that idea is out, but that would certainly get someone's attention!

Anyway, you guys really got me going now. If it doesn't rain today, I'm goin' up there today and get them working.

Wideglide - I always knew your Dolphin looked bad, just could never put my finger on it.

GREGORYJ · 12-03-2012, 09:46 PM

My roof horns also didn't work. I also dis-assembled & cleaned. They where very
dirty inside - mostly bugs. There were gaskets on both side of each diaphram that
fell out in pieces when I dis-assembled the horns. These had to be replaced to make the horns operate again. Not being able to find replacement gaskets, I purchased a sheet of gasket material of a similar thickness from an auto parts store(like Napa) and cut out new gaskets myself.
Now they work.