Losh's VR Ute build thread

[keith reed]

I have air horns on my vh. Just a single blast, they are very good. On my ute I have twin horns, they came off I think a senator. Not as good as the air horns but not bad either. I had air horns fitted to a previously owned vy 11 ss. The auto sparky wired them to a switch rather than replace the standard horn. He told me that it was illegal to wire them to the standard horn button. If I had known this I would not have had them fitted

 

[vc commodore]

I have air horns on my vh. Just a single blast, they are very good. On my ute I have twin horns, they came off I think a senator. Not as good as the air horns but not bad either. I had air horns fitted to a previously owned vy 11 ss. The auto sparky wired them to a switch rather than replace the standard horn. He told me that it was illegal to wire them to the standard horn button. If I had known this I would not have had them fitted

Interesting you mention that having standard air horns fitted is illegal...I was under the impression, as long as they weren't musical, they were an acceptable warning device...Things have probably changed in the last 25+ years since I moved from QLD...Then again, they are acceptable on trucks.....Would be worth checking into with your state transport department before fitting them anyways

 

[keith reed]

Interesting you mention that having standard air horns fitted is illegal...I was under the impression, as long as they weren't musical, they were an acceptable warning device...Things have probably changed in the last 25+ years since I moved from QLD...Then again, they are acceptable on trucks.....Would be worth checking into with your state transport department before fitting them anyways

There wasn't a problem with fitting them. Just that they had to be wired to a switch rather than the horn button. The point was that the original horn had to be operational. The vh was different in that they were already on the car when I brought it into the country and overlooked when I had the roadworthy done.

 

[losh1971]

Losh you would only have the standard single high note horn which is pretty average, but add the low note additional Calais unit and it is pretty damm loud. I have these fitted to all of our 4 Vs vehicles and no one has ever missed those. The good thing is they mount on the standard mounting points behind the front bar on the RHS and the best part is you use the normal wiring and don't have to mess around with it. There are just a set of small jumpers added so as to feed power from
one unit to the second.

Calais' are pretty rare, would a VS Stato have have the second horn?

 

[keith reed]

Calais' are pretty rare, would a VS Stato have have the second horn?

They do.

 

[Immortality]

A set of train air horns is where it is at!

 

[Skylarking]

A set of train air horns is where it is at!

Train air horns would be illegal likely in all of Aus. According to this web page, it’s definitely illegal in Vic.


Vehicles must comply with the standards set out in Schedule 2 to the Road Safety (Vehicles) Regulations 2009 (Vic). Clause 34 of those standards says:

1. A motor vehicle must be fitted with at least one horn or other device that can give sufficient audible warning to other road users of the approach or position of the vehicle.
2. A motor vehicle must not be fitted with a device that can make a sound like the sound of a siren, exhaust whistle, compression whistle or repeater horn.

Unfortunately a train air horn would be classified under the exhaust whistle or compression whistle definition making it illegal to wire up to the vehicle’s horn circuit. Wiring it to a seperate switch may keep the car roadworthy status but using a train air horn would still be illegal on other fronts...

But anything is better than the Motorsport‘s single tone factory horn which is worse than that in a Kia Rio

 

[Immortality]

All these laws make us dull....

 

[vc commodore]

There wasn't a problem with fitting them. Just that they had to be wired to a switch rather than the horn button. The point was that the original horn had to be operational. The vh was different in that they were already on the car when I brought it into the country and overlooked when I had the roadworthy done.

It's a surprise that air horns can't be operating off the normal horn switch.....

 

[keith reed]

It's a surprise that air horns can't be operating off the normal horn switch.....

I am only going on what the auto sparky told me at the time. I will do further checks tomorrow.