Hello from the great white north! Looks like I am going to get into another new interest, LOUD, nasty horns.
I’m 54, and spent 6 years travelling the world with the Navy, and sort of developed a casual interest in foghorns and ship horns. I recently found myself googling these subjects and had fun seeing and listening to some cool examples online.
Fast forward to now-I bought a new Dodge Dually and was looking into installing airbags in the rear and thought, why not go the route of an onboard air system to control the bags, heck I could fill tires, rafts when we go fishing, and what’s this on the internet… crazy people buying or building train horns??? Even ship horns? What the f***?
The gears started turning, big long air tank inside the frame rail, nice onboard air system with gauges and controls, and HORNS!
I have a good ear and an understanding of physics of sound, and used to be a trumpet player. In the Navy I was a Sonar Tech, we used audio frequencies in the human hearing range for our gear.
I also have a fairly well equipped shop and have the ability to fabricate stuff. This is going to be fun! My occupation is Telecom Technician for AT&T, and I am into Ham Radio, I have an audio oscillator that might come in handy tuning horn projects.
Anyway, looking forward to learning more and getting my hands dirty.
I’m one of the Dodge Ram guys on here, and I have airbags, so if you need some help or advice please hit me up with a PM. I just installed mine over the summer, and had to redo the airbag system with some upgrades.
Welcome. Be aware of the problems associated with cold weather on relays, pressure switches, check valves, and freezing air lines. You may need some military grade components and a little antifreeze in the air tank occasionally.
Hey thanks guys, yeah the cold here would definately cause problems. My truck doesn’t get used much in the winter though, I’ve only driven it 300 miles since September. That might change when I have some horns installed.
I’ll need to know the cold weather tricks, thanks danh. I’ll look at your site I only want to do this once. MarineOne thanks, first thing I need to know is if Firestone bags ( liked them on my Super Duty) will fit with a B&W turnover hitch like mine, I read they will work. I found with my fiver or my Bigfoot camper the rear was a hair low so I will add the bags real soon. I don’t like the cheesy red airlines though, want to use some real lines. The photo shows it a little low in the back.
Nice truck! Is that the '10 or the '11? And yeah your rear is squating a little bit, I’m surprised about that. Ever thought about some WD bars for it?
If you do the bags, don’t do what I did. The Firestone kit’s dual needle gauge failed on me twice in one year and they only covered the first failure under warranty. Talk about being ticked off … I ended up deleting most of the kit (everything but the bags and some of the red lines) and replaced it with AirLift’s Wireless AIR controller and manifold. It’s a small remote control unit about the size of a large pack of gum with built in presets (25 psi and 75 psi) so it’s just a simply push button design that will automatically go until it hits the preset.
The bags on mine (SRW 3500) replaced the overloads:
I have a smaller electric valve that replaces the air compressor on the Wireless AIR system since it’s a tankless design and this prevents overfilling the bags. When the bags need air, the manifold activates the valve and air goes in until it turns the valve off. Air is released by the manifold when I need to air down … no more bag air smell inside my truck.
I’ll have more pics of the manifold setup come summer.