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Tourer
Posts: 307
Columbia, SC | I was checking out the vision reference forum and saw an install of a new horn. In it, the poster mentioned that he rewired his stock horn with a thicker gauge of wire and it greatly increased the volume of it. Anyone else find this to be true? And enough of an increase to forego purchasing another horn?
Haven't bought the wire yet, but too easy to buy if it turns out to be true. Just don't wanna bother wiring stuff if I'm gonna have to UN-wire it and install a different horn anyway.
Alexi
Edited by sfalexi 2011-09-13 2:58 PM
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Visionary
Posts: 1365
Central Maryland | A thicker wire would have less resistance and therefor more current available. That has been the case and I have evidenced it with previous Stebel horn installs on other bikes previously. |
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Visionary
Posts: 3773
Pittsburgh, PA | A stebel horn is a easy solution. I personally wouldnt mess with the visions wiring... To many people have complained over the years about adding leds or modding other wiring then all the sudden the cruise control no longer works or turn signals dont function properly |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 741
Central New York | Hard to beat - http://www.harborfreight.com/bad-boy-air-horn-94117.html
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Iron Butt
Posts: 742
North Orange County CA | sfalexi - 2011-09-13 12:53 PM
I was checking out the vision reference forum and saw an install of a new horn. In it, the poster mentioned that he rewired his stock horn with a thicker gauge of wire and it greatly increased the volume of it. Anyone else find this to be true? And enough of an increase to forego purchasing another horn?
Haven't bought the wire yet, but too easy to buy if it turns out to be true. Just don't wanna bother wiring stuff if I'm gonna have to UN-wire it and install a different horn anyway.
Alexi
That was/is my seat of the pants assessment of the volume change. I don't have a way to measure the decibels.
I must point out that working with the stock horn wiring can be problematic (especially if you are a bone-head like me) because the 22 gauge leads terminate into a special waterproof plug that inserts into the back of the Visions horn. These leads are very short and you have to be very careful cutting and peeling back the insulation to splice in the new 14 gauge wires. Its also very easy to mess-up when stripping the wires in such confined areas and cut/ break the fragile 22G stuff further shortening the leads.
Mistakes like that can be costly because the leads are VERY VERY short and if you mess-up too badly then you are soon working so close to the main wiring harness that you are thinking of trying to cut into it as well just to get a little more room to work instead working on the horn wires alone.
You also have to think ahead and make sure that you cut in the right place so that you have enough lead left to keep the waterproof plug in the system. There does not appear to be a way to attach wires to the vision horn without it. When I started the horn install I was not thinking about keeping the stock horn so I cut the leads very close to the plug.
By running a new relay and 14 gauge wires direct to both sides of the the battery you get what seems to my ear to be a significant volume increase out of the stock horn.
My statement that the stock horn seemed almost as loud as the air horn was true - Until I discovered that the seat was flattening the air line and blocking a good deal of its flow. Once I rerouted the tubing the Howard's horn was much louder than before and the comparison became invalid.
Making this change did not effect any other systems on my bike.
Hope this clarification helps.
Edited by Tarpits99 2011-09-13 5:38 PM
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Cruiser
Posts: 133
, AR United States | I am satisfied with my stock horn. It seems as loud a car horn to me. I don't think all Vic horns are as loud though, the mechanic at the dealer seemed surprised it was so loud when he tooted it. The horn on my HD Sportster was too wimpy so I put a BadBoy on it 2 years ago, now the chrome is flaking off the plastic.
Edited by BillyJoe 2011-09-13 9:06 PM
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Can the stock horn be louder?