I believe you man. We have real trains running K3 and K5 that pass about 2-4 miles from the house and we can usually hear them when we are outside and listening for it, especially at night. But when indoors with the doors and windows closed, or even a few windors open, we rarely if ever hear them.
I am still debating whether or not to upgrade to a K3 in the future. If it gave me twice the distance/volume or more then I might do it, but then it would probably be too loud for use up close. Anything less than double the distance/volume and I would prefer to keep my current setup. Not enough bang for the buck IMHO, at least for my needs.
Good point. Seems to me, if you couldnt get someone’s attention while driving down the freeway then there’s no uses. A lot of people sacrifice the spare tire well. Mine are RIGHT IN THE FRONT GRILLE. I hope that when I hit my horn, it sounds like the world going to end. But, thats just in my imagination. Now this dude makes it sound like the world is going to end. Check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCYwL_4uKfk
That truck was at least 200’ away like you were saying. LOUD. I wouldnt go to that extreme though. Heck I wouldnt even be able to get my hands on half the horns that dude has if I wanted to.
Im not sure what your horns sound like but I’ve heard an outlaw. The K has a meatier sound that the outlaw. The shockers have a deep note. So its about sound. I mean K horns are tuned to a specific chord. Im not sure you can match that putting your own combo together.
Real trains have the horns mounting very high up and have a straight, clear path in front of them. This makes for the horns to be heard from very far away…
On a vehicle its limited by where they are mounted and the environment tremendously. Still a mile to five is a damn long way. I’ve heard on the rails horns can be heard up to eight… again different conditions though
the only reason my RS5t was heard for 8 miles was cause of low wind…cool air.low humidity…horns on tailgate of truck on the top of a small mountain in mexico…pointing toward the town and letting it rip from 200psi down to 105 on 25gallons of air…just a longgggg toott…
I was initially satisfied with the Omega AH-500. It wasn’t identical to a real train tone but it was close enough and loud enough for my purposes. Then I decided to upgrade to a bigger tank, which meant a new compressor set, and then once I had all that I figured I might as well get the Shocker horn set and be done with it. I was pleased with the Shocker set but it is a deeper tone, a bit deeper than a real train even, so I missed the highs from the Omega horn. Which is why I ended up mounting both of them with separate switches. Now I can do either one or both. And they sound pretty decent together too but they sure suck the air down in no time. I will probably end up replacing my 7-gallon tank with a 10-gallon unit to offset the extra air consumption but I like having both on the truck to choose from.
This is very true. Which is why I really doubt that any normal train horn hidden on a vehicle will be heard for more than 1-2 miles away, at least under practical real-world road conditions, unless it is a ship horn, multiple horn setup, or it is mounted high on top the roof. Even then the sound would still have to clear traffic, buildings, hills, trees, etc. and sound just doesn’t carry that far under those conditions. Heck, even the thunder from lightning is pretty quiet and muted after traveling only a few miles.
I did notice a BIG difference in the tone of my horns when I changed the mounting location and direction under the truck. Angling them down helps the sound to be more omni-directional but it also makes them a little softer and less harsh. Pointing them forward or backward makes the sound louder in those directions but at the expense of less volume to the other sides. So my current setup has the Shockers near the front and pointed forward on a slight down angle to clear the chassis. The Omega horns are mounted inside the back left quarter panel pointed to the right and down a bit. So the sound is pretty loud in all directions when I hit them both at the same time, with just a bit extra noise to the front and right which is where most of my threats (and victims) would be located.
If I had a small car like a Geo I wouldn’t install a horn, but if I did install one then it would be mounted on the roof and disguised inside one of those luggage carriers which look like a big-mac container. Just cut a few round openings in front for the sound to escape from the horns and cover them with mesh screen so it still looks like a cargo container. Plenty of room for everything up there and it would keep out the weather too, plus you might even get a small amount of extra storage space to boot.
Not really. People can be looking right at the horns and still jump when you hit em.
Big-Mac container?? lmao Good mental picture on that one. You know what youre talking about though. I couldnt imagine having two horns. my my my. Seems like if I had one louder than the other. i would go with the louder one. But thats only cause I want a leslie next but that joker is Loooooong.
I did a test with my Shockers ( 8 trumpets ) @ 200psi last night and my cous told me he heard me from 2.5 miles out. I then went on paradise island bridge that’s 110 feet at the crest and blew them and I got a distance of 5.2 miles being heard. This was late at night so there really wasn’t any competition with other noises. Definitely the altitude made a difference.
I currently have 1 set of shockers and the Omega horn set for a total of 9 trumpets @ 150 psi. I cranked them up a bit higher and didn’t like the way the tone changed at the higher psi - it was noticeably higher pitched and less of that deep rumble - so i think I will stick with 150 psi for now. But I am wondering if replacing the Omega horn set with another set of Shockers would be worth it or not. The key for me is total volume and distance. For normal road usage I would stick with 1 horn set but when the threat is farther off, I need to signal someone from a long distance, or I want to really get the point across then I like the option to use both horns.
For your 2.5 mile and 5.2 mile tests: was your cousin outdoors or indoors? Was it faint and just barely audible or clearly audible like an approaching train? What kind of terrain was between you and him: hills, houses, roads, trees, buildings, etc? Were your horns pointed at him? Where are they mounted on your truck? Sorry for all the questions but the detail is important when trying to determine the practical distance for a dual shocker setup. I am pretty confident that I can get several miles if I test under ideal conditions but I want to know how it will work during actual road use which 90% of the time will be during the day with competing noise, numerous obstacles, indirect sound, and listeners closed up in buildings or other vehicles.
So can people hear your horns when they are closed up in their car? Seems like it wouldnt be that scary say, on the freeway. Going about 60. Seems like you would barely get a head turn.
Threshold of Hearing (TOH) 0 dB
Rustling Leaves 10 dB
Whisper 20 dB
Normal Conversation 60 dB
Busy Street Traffic 70 dB
Vacuum Cleaner 80 dB
Large Orchestra 98 dB
Walkman at Maximum Level 100 dB
Front Rows of Rock Concert 110 dB
Threshold of Pain 130 dB
Military Jet Takeoff 140 dB
Instant Perforation of Eardrum 160 dB
Most of these horns put out 152dB or more. At what distance I dunno, but it said a busy highway was 70dB so the horn should definately be noticed, even on the freeway. Who knows?
i dont think that any fake train horn puts out 152db…everyone advertises that but i think only a rs5t puts out 152…i know a k3la does 113db at 100feet…
Of course horns are audible on the highway. Even the whimpy factory horns can be heard but not very far, and with the windows closed and music on the other horns can quickly fade away. When I hit any of my train horns, though, it is clear that they are loud enough to make most people react quickly. If I am too close to them then they often jump a bit in their seats and they sometimes swerve a little which is why I try not to honk in close proximity to other cars on the highway. It can prevent wrecks but just as easily cause wrecks if you are not careful.
The DB numbers are interesting but still not a true indicator of how they perform in a real-world test. There are many differences in how sound is measured and each person perceives loudness differently.
I do have a DB sound meter, though, and I plan to measure my horns at several distances soon just to see what they kick out. One issue is that I have to be within a foot or so of the meter to read it and I don’t want to stand in front of the trumpets even with hearing protection. I might be ok with dual hearing protection which I use for firearms. Hope to post a video of the results soon.
I didn’t perform the DB meter tests or film my videos yet - hope to do those this weekend. But I did some real-world testing on the drive home today.
There is a railroad crossing about 2 miles from my house - straight line, not driving distance. Trains roll through a few times per day and they always hit the K3s which they have on top. You can hear these horns clearly when standing outside in our yard, somewhat muted during the day and a little clearer / louder at night.
Well I drove to a spot that was halfway between my house and the train crossing - exactly 1 mile straight line. There was a hill a few hundred feet tall covered with trees on the left and plenty of homes / buildings on the right in between my vehicle and my house. My truck was on a flat road with trees and some wooden fencing on both sides. I called the wife at home and asked her to stand in our backyard with the cordless phone. I put her on mute and let the factory horn rip - she didn’t hear it at all. Then I blasted the Shockers at 150 psi for 2 seconds - she heard it clearly and said it was just about as loud and nearly identical to the sound of the real train. Then I blasted the Omega AH-500 at 150 psi for 2 seconds - she said it was noticeably louder and she assumed that I had driven closer to our home but I hadn’t moved at all. Then I blasted both the Shocker and Omega horns together at 150 psi for 2 seconds - she said it was MUCH louder than the other blasts and a lot louder than the real train. I know she wasn’t kidding because the combined blast was so loud that I heard it come through the cordless phone loud and clear about 6 seconds after I let it rip - exactly the delay you would expect for sound to travel a little over a mile.
What I learned: the higher pitch of the Omega horn set makes it sound a bit louder, especially at longer distances. Up close they both sound about the same loudness - just different tones. My guess is that the Omega sound actually travels farther because the higher frequency waves are less distorted by the physical objects and they reflect a bit more off of hard surfaces such as the road. The Shocker horn tone sounds much more like a real train, and up close it is amazingly loud and punchy, but it doesn’t carry as well at longer distances - at least when there are objects in the way. Sounding both horns together really ups the total volume and helps the sound carry a lot farther, plus I like the tone of both sounding at once. Not identical to a K5 but pretty close in my books.
So when I do get a chance to conduct the DB meter tests I will try to test at several distances: probably 1’, 10’, 50’, 100’, and 200’. I also plan to run some tests with my truck parked next to the train tracks facing the same direction as the train, and film the sound of the train vs. my horns from a distance of maybe 200’. This should give a pretty good idea of how much total volume to expect from these horns. If anyone has seem similar test results or videos please share.
Yeah that high pitched horn is gonna CUT. I wonder what it wouldve sonded like 2 miles away like the actual train is. plus the tone drops in pitch the farther away it is.