USE of AIR HORNS

[Dogman635UT]

When to and when not to use your RV Air Horns over your horn is my question.

I find some don't even care or think about it they just use it, whenever it hits them to use it. WHY? I don't understand. I was told you only use your airhorn during an emergency, run away down hill, in a fog about to hit something in front that needs to get the H #&#%# out of the way now.....

[BigSkyBob]

I don't have any other horn except the airhorn. And I'll use it when I deem necessary but not unless i have to.

[BigRedLancer]

I added air horns to my pickup/camper. At 11,000 lbs, I wanted to make sure that people heard me if they were not paying attention. I could not stop as fast with the loaded camper as without. I had a semi drift into my lane right next to me and I wanted to be sure the driver noticed me. He did!

[LVJ58]

We rarely use ours, but on a clear highway with no cars close by I'll do a horn check to make sure they're working.

On occasion I've used them if I see a vehicle on a side access road that looks as if it's about to pull out onto the highway, but then I'm also slowing down just in case.

[Dadeaux]

I had only a couple of incidents when the airhorns were handy, but I've always wanted to blast them at 5 am when leaving some sleepy little RV park for an early start.

[Doggy Daddy]

Air horns are great for getting ones attention. I have one on my harley for when cars crowd in along side and need one on my Outlaw. Thinking of getting a train horn. Already had some nut try to crowd his way in on the right side when a lane merged. He rode along the right side of my RV on the shoulder for a quarter mile till a bridge rail stopped him.

[Chickadee]

Air Horns eh??

Well, we seldom, if ever use ours, but it might have something to do with the following

So...we'd just driven away from the dealer in our first ever, MH on our first ever solo cruise, and we didn't know much about the thing we were driving. Although the rig was basically empty, as we hadn't returned home yet to fill er up for our full time life to come, we DID have our cats with us for the journey.

So...we pull into this campground FIRST TIME EVER, and proceed to manage our parking and hook ups o.k. After ordering a pizza, there we sat, grinning at each other and scanning ALL the literature to begin trying to figure out how everything worked.

Outside the sun had long ago gone down, and the campground began to settle down for the night. It was beautiful!!! Moon coming up, campfires dying out, light going out in other rigs, and as peace and quiet came over the campground.....ALL WAS GOOD!! Around 11 p.m., I turned in, and while wife sat up awhile, I soundly fell asleep.....UNTIL.....

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.... Echoed through the campground about 1 a.m.!!! I bolted out of bed and stumbled forward to find out it was OUR AIR HORN blasting the whole place awake!!!

It took a quick second, but in the confusion I looked toward the driver area,......and there.....calmly sitting atop the horn pad on our now tilted steering wheel was our rather disinterested look CAT. I dashed ahead and quickly plucked the animal off the horn pad, and the horrendous air horn blasting ... stopped!! WHEW!!

Geeeze, we thought they might kick us out of the campground as we watched numerous rig entry lights come on all over the camground, and a few folks peer out of their windows.

Took awhile, but we finally figured out how to toggle the air horn button off and to cat proof the horn pad....and we went to bed.

Love those AIR HORNS though....and we'll occasionally blow ours if we're on a lonely stretch of highway.. after all...ya don't get to use em much...huh? Steve & Lynette

[Flagelpater]

I too seldom use the Air Horn, and that is all I have. I have been looking for an additional horn to install for "courtesy" use. What I would like is something that sounds like the old "Bicycle Bell", like the one we used to have on the handle bars and push with our thumb. I have seen some electronic horns but none with the Bicycle Bell. Any Help?

[RVThere]

I posted this in the Humor section of IRV2 a few months ago but it seems to be applicable here:

My sons tell me that I use my horn too much. But they were raised in a time of road rage where they fear a simple ‘beep’ will be met with the business end of a 44 Magnum.

It never ceases to amaze me how I can be driving a 40 foot long, 13 foot high brown vehicle that is INVISIBLE to cars. Or maybe they think those big air brakes can stop 12 tons of fiberglass and metal on a dime? Either way, it’s my civic duty to alert them with 95 decibels of wax-rendering sound waves.

Thinking back, I grew up in a time when a horn was more of a communication device:

Beep –> Please get moving.
BEEEEEEP -> WAKE UP and move your car forward.
Beep, Beep -> Hey honey, looking pretty good today!

Most Americans are very ‘honk shy’. Towns have noise ordinances. New York City has ‘honk free’ zones. Like most men, I view a horn as an extension of my masculinity. Small car horns? Come on, no one is going to move for that low-decibel ‘chirp’. Pickup truck? Now you are putting some testosterone behind that baby. Semi truck air horn? The ULTIMATE in getting the attention of all drivers and pedestrians within a city block. And probably sending a few of them off to purchase a hearing aid.

Now Europeans really know how to use their horns. Especially the Romans. Spend a few moments observing the drivers (from a safe distance) navigating their way from Via Marmorala onto Viale Marco Polo in downtown Rome. Cliffs of thousand year old buildings confining a sea of cars that would fit into one of your basement compartments. Notice that the staccato of horns is constant and reverberate off those hallowed walls. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. As if the drivers felt that silence would cause all traffic to stop. FIAT must make a bundle on replacing horns that just plum wear out. I’ve never been to Asia, but looking at pictures of traffic in Bangkok or Beijing, I’m SURE those drivers know their way around a horn. When you have to encounter livestock on city streets, a horn is your ONLY weapon.

Maybe Americans just don’t know where their horn IS anymore. My steering wheel has a mongo airbag with two microscopic ‘bugles’ embossed on the black plastic. Black on black – almost PERFECT camouflage. I have to switch to my reading glasses just to find the darn horn! Press one inch away from those symbols and NO SOUND. Sometimes you have to press down with all your weight just to get a toot. Other times your elbow accidently hits its while your fishing for something that fell and you nearly scare yourself to the ‘big campground in the sky’!

There HAS to be an accepted time to use your horn. So if Emily Post had to create an ‘Air Horn Etiquette’ FAQ, what would it look like?

Q: Can you honk if the driver in front of you is on the cell phone?
A: A courteous beep will remind the driver that their primary responsibility is DRIVING!

Q: What if a person is ‘texting’ while driving?
A: In order to obtain an immediate response, LAY ON THAT AIR HORN!

Q: Can I still beep at a nice looking woman?
A: Although in some states this would be grounds for sexual harassment, privately, the woman MAY be appreciative that she still ‘has it’ after all these years. On the other hand, she could copy down your tag number and haul your sorry butt into court.

Q: When would you use the coveted ‘multi-note’ horn?
A: In the upper echelon of tag-wheeled DP’s, this is never acceptable. However, if you want to be viewed like the Gornicke’s in the movie RV, go for it.

Q: What if one has have escalated from a regular horn to the air horn and the offending driver still does not capitulate?
A: You may want to provide directions to heaven with the finger of your choosing.

[chasfm11]

Interesting timing on your post. I actually sparked a case of road rage this past Monday because I lightly tapped the air horn at a women beside me who was smoking and texting while driving in heavy traffic. She had run over into my lane twice (I saw her weaving at me as she came up my right side and dropped back behind her) She took offense and flipped me off (I couldn't have cared less) but then accelerated and moved over into the lane in front of me and slowed down hard. That got her a long air horn serenade. I switched lanes two more times, trying to get away from her and she switched with me. That is the first time that even a light tap on the air horn set someone off.

Fortunately, she turned off a couple of exits later, flipping me off the entire way down the exit ramp while weaving back and forth. It was only after the incident was over that I realized that she might have been intoxicated.

[wa8yxm]

Yesterday I pulled out of he MOOSE lodge I"ve been at for the last week, Pulled up to the pumps at a local Marathon, put 100 worth of motion lotion in the tank and started to pull out... Well, as I begin my turn toward the station exit someone in "Store" parking started to back out.

He heard my Beep Beep horn.. but folks.. I WISHED I had air horns (He missed me)

THAT is when you need air horns.. To assist an idiot in his pursuit of clean undies.

[motorhomeguy]

This is a no'brainer, I don't use my horn unless I need it, and when I need it, I want to be heard. The air horn stays engaged...

[bldrbob]

I once had a little old lady who was preoccupied chatting with her friends run a stop sign.I think I interrupted her conversation.
BOB

[Meandering Retiree]

I use the air horn sparingly, but I do have fun in the tunnels in the mts. I do not honk unless some car honks, but then I hit the air horns and look at the reaction. Fun for me but not the wife.