I recently got a 2011 Ford Escape to replace my older one. When I opened the hood, I was shocked to find a pretty large amount of space. There’s enough space to mount a K5LA (without the factory mount) to the bottom side of the hood, and for a Graham White E-bell.
I do understand that train horns have been known to suffer heat and smoke damage when placed behind the exhaust stack on a locomotive, and am curious if a similar issue would be present in a car. The horn would be directly above the engine, so it would most certainly get quite hot.
I have thought of simply putting the horn under the spare tire well like I did before, however, I do live in a climate where there’s snow in the winter (southern Ontario) and salt would probably destroy the horn. How effective would a metal guard around the horn be? I had my EMD bell under the car for a while and several times the ringer froze, and when I removed the bell after I parted ways with my old car, there was a significant amount of rust present.
I’m aware the EMD bell is likely a no go due to practicality issues, but I’m definitely still adamant about the K5LA installation.
You’d have to monitor how they go if they’re above the engine, but as you say - there’s a lot of heat. No chance to put the bells on individual mounts up front somewhere? The other thing you should consider is how they will sound if they’re blanketed by the hood or other enclosure. You should aim for the trumpets to face out somewhere.
Thanks. Yeah, they’d face forward, so I’m hoping a good chunk of the sound will simply pass through the radiator. I am more in it for the sound though than having a horn war with a semi. Lol.
There isn’t any room any where else unfortunately but under the car, which I don’t want unless I can protect it somehow. I’ve looked into creating a depression in the roof and hiding the horns up there. Certainly would be awfully expensive though.
Or get a roll bar and mount the horn up on top! I do not know the laws in Canada (eh?) where my hero & teacher, Robert Swanson (Inventor of the chime horn including your K5) was a native. Anyhow, below the roll bar you can mount a twenty or thirty gallon tank for blowing duties.
Do NOT mount them under the hood, over your engine. The intense heat will certainly damage the horn. Die cast zinc/aluminum is subject to warping under high heat. I always recommend never mounting a locomotive horn under your road vehicle. These horns were never meant to be exposed to the rigors of grime, rocks, chemicals, oil, grease, sand. The plastic Shocker horns are better suited for that kind of mounting. Just my 2¢
Thanks. Canadian laws are actually quite harsh in my area, probably more so than many American states. A lot has changed since the 70s-80s when tons of people had light bars and horns on their roof. My car is a medium size SUV, which is where the tank becomes an issue.
Nonetheless, I am definitely gonna do my best to put the horn on the roof now. I think the only way I can be somewhat secretive about it is a relatively decent sized roof rack, like a safari rack.
My intention was to keep the car as stock looking as possible, but I guess I have to compromise if I want a big sound.
I might have to make it a special occasion thing to use it, and have something less aggressive for times I need to be stealthy.
I have seen Shocker installs under the hood of cars as well. Have they held up from the heat?
I kind of figured that would be the answer. Lol. I’m far too afraid to mount anything underneath the car again. Sounds like I need to invest in a roof rack that some how is stealthy. Thanks.
Keep in mind the Shockers give you far better mounting options. You could certainly squeeze them in front or behind the radiator, which is totally fine. They also cope well underneath.
I know a guy who actually makes PVC train horns, and tunes them to the proper notes for horns. I had the setup for a while. Horns got extremely dirty, but held up well. Didn’t use a regulator though, and blew out all the diaphragms after about a month. I’ll check the rad space on this car. My older Ford Escape had no room whatsoever for anything.
Physically ugly as these PVC horns are, I do agree that many of them sound very authentic. I have actually toyed with the idea of mounting a PVC “K5LA” instead of using any of my real locie horns. However, when my rig is finally done, the road “horn” will actually be a bronze 5-chime steam whistle.
