Finally finished my horn install. went relatively painless.
Im currently running the dual viair 480C compressors, an 8.5 gallon tank, and a nathan K3L purchased from Curt S.
i set of my switching so that that when a switch is off, the steering wheel honks my regular horn, and the switch on, the steering wheel honks the nathan.
i used to have a set of Maximus horns on my dodge, and let me tell you, these nathans blow them clear out of the water. im pretty sure they can wake the dead.
the 8.5 gal tank is nice because it lets you still rip on the horn for a good 10 seconds, yet it doesnt take forever to fill up.
I need help with my new K3la. I am hoping you can help me since it looks like you know what you are doing. I went to a store today and bought a 1/2 inch ball valve. Then I had to go to another store and buy airline and fittings. They gave me 1/2 inch fittings but 5/8 clear braided airline. The fittings they gave me are1/2 inch ID and the OS is 5/8. Will this work or do I have to take the airline back and get 1/2 inch. If I do I will probably have to switch the fittings too to 1/2 inch??? I don’t have an air tank yet, I am going to go to the wreckers and take one off of a transport. Thank you very much in advance
as long as all the threads are 1/2" then your okay in that department. for the airline, as long as that barb fittings work for 1/2" ID line then there is no problem.
The threads are all 1/2 inch, but the airline ID is 5/8. I am looking at other pictures on here and they are all using 1/2 inch plastic airline with compression fittings. I think I might take my rubber airline back and get plastic. That way everything is 1/2 inch, not 1/2 to 5/8 and then back to 1/2 inch again at the horn.
I have decided to take the 1/2 inch fittings and the 5/8 airline back and get all 1/2 in airline and compression fittings. Did I make a good decision or should I go with all 5/8? I can only find a 1/2 inch ball valve around here bu I haven’t looked too hard. I still don’t have any air tanks. I am going to the wreckers tomorrow to see about transport air tanks. They will probably be 1/2 inch ports.
Hey Reverb - you have any videos? And that’s a K3L - not K3LA right?
bigred - I don’t want to clutter up Reverb’s thread too much, but if you have enough parts to get it done I would just use them. Unless they’re barb fittings. Then, yes, the other style fittings are sensitive the the ID & OD. Also keep in mind that pipe measurements are weird. The OD of 1/2" pipe measures .840". The ID of 1/2" pipe fittings is probably ~close~ to 1/2". Anyway you can’t go wrong with the DOT tubing. Also you will not find a 5/8" NPT ball valve.
If you have any more questions, why don’t you go ahead and start a new thread.
We’re happy to help…
I am sorry for hijacking your thread Reverb, I don’t know how to start my own thread. I couldn’t find where to start. They were barbed fittings. I went to the wreckers again today and found 2 truck air tanks, they were already off of the truck laying beside it. They have 4 ports on the top and 2 on both ends and a drain. I’m not sure how many gallons they are. They both say 150 psi max. So i can link them together and have one compressor? I don’t have the compressor yet but soon. I ma sorry again Reverb for hijacking your thread. Thanks for the help on the airline and fittings. If some one can tell me where to start my own thread. Thanks
Most of the truck air tanks I have seen on E-bay are 10-11 gallons and like you said are rated for 150#. If you measure the diameter and length you can get a pretty good value for the volume.
Mine sounds exactly like yours based on the porting. Mine had a ton of oil residue in it, so I washed it with every type of soap / cleaner I could find. What worked best for me was soap and boiling hot water. That cleaned it right up - no residue.
If you do “link them” make sure they are in parallel and not series. In parallel both will be available for supplying your horn. In series the first tank will fill the second tank as it blows your horn and regardless of the size line you have between them there will be a bottleneck / restriction.
What about volume (DB)? I noticed with my old setup that the first 1 second honk was the lodest and then every honk after it was kinda lower in volume, although the tone stayed the same for the most part.
I’m on a 4 gallon tank right now… I’ll be getting rid of it to use the 8.5 gallon I got this week. I hope it stays constantly loud for more than the first couple second long honks.
