Boat Horns
 

The 210 that we bought never came with a horn and I think that its about time to install one.

Has anyone installed an aftermarket horn on their boat? What do I need to look for when shopping for a replacement horn online? I am pretty sure that there is a single horn wire but Im not 100% sure.

The Stock horn is here but doesnt have much info about it.
http://www.nautiqueparts.com/hornrep...available.aspx

Thanks
B

The horn may only have one wire but on a car the horn is grounded to the chassis through the mounting bolt. You need to run a wire from the mounting bolt on your boat to a ground block to complete the circuit.
What to look for? Sound you want, cheap as it may not like moisture and you need to replace it, or good enough that it is really moisture proof. Or a small air tank and compressor, which is handy for lots of things, and a couple big train pipes on top of the tower.

It's pretty simple, there are actually 2 horns mounted side by side behind the glove box under the stainless vent in front of the windshield. Check the breaker and wire connections.

Did someone say trainhorns, tank & compressor on a 210??? Done it...

http://youtu.be/i_Z71u5ZA3M

Is that chick taking off her glasses or massaging her temples because of the horns being too loud?

Damn, is that other chick in a back brace? That is dedication to get out there and party with that thing on.

Haha, I think chick 1 was trying to hear her phone over all the music playing. This was at the Wakefest tournament in TN back in 2007, so tons of music blasting in the boat line.

Chick 2, Yes she was actually in a brace. That spring she had a severe motorcycle wreck after looping out on some gravel and hitting a guardrail. I believe that was the first weekend or one of the first weekends she was out of the hospital and she was ready to get out and see everybody. It was inspiring to say the least.

That horn was on my 2006 Malibu V-Ride. It was one of the triple trumpet 140psi "train" horn kits off ebay. It was super loud an a ton of fun, but I went thru alot of the cheap compressors. I padded the tower with foam/electrical tape and used exhaust "U" clamps from the auto parts store to hang it. I think my favorite thing was to lay on it when boats and jetskis would cut me off when I was pulling a rider.

how did you run the air hose up the tower?

With a lot of paitence.

If you look real closely at my picture on the right rear tower leg you'll see fancy black wire loom and black zip ties about every 8 to 10 inches running all the way to the horns. I did this as a temporary install as I knew I would be selling the boat after that season and didn't want a terribly time consuming install or uninstall for that matter.

bhyatt, this is the best thing I've ever seen. I am absolutely installing these on my 06 v-ride. Any tips or advice???

They are alot of fun. You need to get a $ figure in mind that your comfortable spending when purchasing a horn set. There is everything from cheap plastic setups to full on Nathan brand locomotive train horns out there. I ended up spending about $300 on my set off eBay. The manifold was metal, but the horn bodies were hard plastic and chrome finished. It did what I wanted it to do and was much louder than I expected. We all know sound travels a long way on the water as is, so keep that in mind. Any large 3 trumpet 130psi + set is going to be extremely loud. The set weathered pretty well that summer with minimal fade, but was a bug trap up there on the tower when towing the boat home from the lake.

I installed a "dummy" toggle switch hidden well underneath the dash on mine and I would suggest one as well to anyone installing one. I had the train horn tapped into my factory horn switch, but for events like wakeboard tournaments, it was nice to flip the train horn dummy switch off to disappoint any drunks that may cross the boat line and hit the horn. That was also nice for any normal horn situation in a marina, or just to get a buddies attention or something.

I ran a small 2 gallon air tank with dual 12v pumps. I would suggest at least a 3 gallon setup and a very high quality compressor(s). It does not take much honking to pull down a small tank and you want some reserve at your disposal. Then again, the 2 gallon tank and two compressors fit well under my passenger seat on a piece of 3/4" plywood i mounted it on. This was also nice because it was hidden. Again as i stated, I modified the train mount that came with the kit by drilling out the mount plate and installing U shaped exhaust clamps from the auto parts store in corresponding size to the OD of your tower. Allow space to pad the tower so it doesn't scuff, but not too much that you dont' get a firm hold on the tower.