would ilke to know if anyone has done a test run with running a k3 at 200 and at 150 and if the 200 would be heard further… i seen one person say that they think they got greater sound distance with droppin it down to 150
im also guessing the tone of the horns would be more deep at a lower psi like 150 then 200 ?
I thought 200 psi made them squeak more and it wont travel as far i think. Someone will correct me if i am wrong lol
Does 200psi make the louder? Yes… But do they still sound like a train horn? No!
Running 200psi thru them makes them squeek more and shortens there life.
If it changes the pitch higher with more psi, which is what I have read. It will be heard further at lower psi than at 200psi and a higher pitch. Lower frequencies travel further than higher ones.
I’ve been running 200psi to my K5 and have thought about trying 150psi out just to hear the difference. But what do you guys think about this… I’m running at 200 which some may say doesn’t sound “proper” or sqeaks. Never heard mine squeak and I wouldn’t know what “proper” even is supposed to sound like, but I do know this…after a short blast I’m already down to 165psi and if I keep going I’ll pass 150psi right up. So for right now my thought is that running at 200psi gives me a little extra horn time ya know?It may not sound “proper” but after a blast or two they should sound just like what some people are suggesting others go with…150psi.
My other question is that people are saying 200psi can tear the horn up. Has anyone seen this happen? There are a few of us on here running at 200psi happily and even hornblasters suggested to me going with 200psi for a louder horn and that they have many customers who switch from 150 - 200 and never go back and do so without incident. Of course that’s why I even got the horn, to have the loudest thing I could put on my truck, not as much as the ability to sound as close to a real train as I could. I do however understand that others prefer to go as authentic as possible and that’s cool too.
May be playing devil’s advocate here a bit and by no means am disputing what y’all are saying, but I’m also looking for support one way or the other of how increasing the pressure 50psi is actually going to damage my horns. Otherwise I’m guessing it all comes down to gaining as much info as possible and then going with your own preference.
150 sounds perfect IMO.
I Have ran both sets of my K3’s at 200psi and never had a problem. Like big yella said I only have five gallons of air so at 200psi it gives me about three more good burst of the horn. I had three people stand in my drive way and I drove across town and on my odometer it was ruffly around 4.5 miles and they could hear my horn at night. Even if the sound does travel farther at 150psi I dont need it going any farther then that distance anyways lol. My first set of K3HA’s were running 200psi for well over a year and I sold them to my buddy and there running 200psi on his vehicle now and still no problems so I dont think there is anything to really worry about. Nathans are a very tough and reliable horn.
wow 4.5 miles holy crap wait to u live in a area with all trees or a surburban area with all houses mixed in with trees etc i live in long island
Best thing I can say on this is Canadian tuned horns sound good at 200 psi, American tuned do not sound good at 200psi.
yea i run mine at 155-160 compressor kicks on at about 130-135ish thing could kick on and off for a hour and dont even get hot i love the AZ ob2
I have been heard at 4.3 miles. I was amazed!
I live in a semi rural area which is awesome cause I can play with the horns pretty much where ever I go.
See even AVFROG said he has been heard at 4.3 miles. I think thats pretty cool lol. Thats a long distance
i heard a airchime
on 200psi i felt
bad for the the horn
i think 150psi with
1/2" air line is loud
enoff on a K horn
hell wean diesel
sniper put his 1/2"
on his K5LAR24
its LOUD !! as hell
Yeah, cause people defend their opinions fiercely around here. lol. Not me, anywho, In my opinion, the K5 is a larger horn, therefore I believe it take more air to push it. So I dont think the 200 psi will damage it. Also taking into account the psi loss you get from the length of your line from the valve to the horn. There may be 200 in the tank but what actually makes it to the horn? K3’s may be a little more fragile. If you want true reserve air, I suggest a regulator. Then you can play with your psi output until you get the desired sound. I regulate mine at 150 so I have an extra 50psi in the tank which means a lot to me since I only have a 5gal tank.
Nathans are pretty forgiving. Did you run both K3’s at the same time?
As to not confuse people a K5 needs more cfm/volume of air. Not psi. As wildhorn said above the correct way is to use a regulator. A good one that flows about 150 cfm. They run about 80-100 dollars.
Either a K3 or K5 will have no bearing on wearing out the nozzle and diaphragms quicker. But at 200 psi things will wear out quicker. Diaphragms are cheap to replace. Machining the bell is not.
Be that said, I am too lazy to install a regulator, with 2 Canadian k5s, 2 8.5 gallon tanks, I run 200 psi. I love the sound of Canadians at 200. American’s not so good. Plus I need the extra volume for car cruises or parades.
I replace my nozzle side disk every 6 months, prob every 3 years the nozzles will need machining. Eventually I will replace the bells once there isn’t enough material. Do I care no. Does running 200 psi accelerate wear. Yes.
I’m very happy with 150 psi and 6mm air inlets… 
do you have pics of the damage 200psi can do to nathans? I’m just curious as to what it would look like. 
Aside from typical wearing into the disks everyone see’s, your not going to see the wearing away of the surface. It’s easily noticed when using a micrometer.
Ive been running 200 on my 2 sets of K5’s that are on my corolla for 4 years now and everything is still fine with them.