Looking for a replacement Horn

jws123

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jul 24, 2016
Messages
309
The stock horn on my 1994 sea ray sundancer 270 is bad have tried a few at the boat store for $40-60 and they all suck not loud enough or they sound like a crappy car horn lol. Can anyone recommend a good horn setup? where I live there is a lot of stupid/Unconscious people driving boats/jet skis they love to stop in the middle of the channel so a loud horn is necessary currently have a air horn but thats getting old.
 

JimS123

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Jul 27, 2007
Messages
8,251
The best horn I ever had was an air horn. Originally with a hand pump mounted on the dash, eventually I bought a compressor to let the blast last longer.

Maybe your compressor just needs to be replaced. I don't think the horns themselves ever go bad.
 

Scott Danforth

Grumpy Vintage Moderator still playing with boats
Staff member
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Jul 23, 2011
Messages
50,314
I believe the OP's electric horn died and he has one of the hand-held air horns

I have a electric 120 decibel dual-trumpet horns that look like air horns. not quite as loud as a true air-horn, however its a good alternative to the horns like FIAM and others.
 

jws123

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jul 24, 2016
Messages
309
The best horn I ever had was an air horn. Originally with a hand pump mounted on the dash, eventually I bought a compressor to let the blast last longer.

Maybe your compressor just needs to be replaced. I don't think the horns themselves ever go bad.

Yea its a electric horn not sure i would have a place to put air horn as much as i want to.
 

Texasmark

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Dec 20, 2005
Messages
14,782
Spray some WD-40 into the horn. Sometimes they get corroded.

Good point. The horn should have a bezel on the rear with a centered screw holding it on with 2 wires coming out. Take the bell/bezel/chrome plated semi'circle off and measure the voltage across the horn's 2 input power studs, not wire terminals attached, the actual studs of the horn and see if you get 12 give or take volts when the horn button is depressed. If not, it could be a problem in your wiring or your switch. Easy to check the switch, just short across the terminals on the rear of the switch and see if the horn blows.

If you get 12v on the horn's studs, then see if you have access to any moving parts internally that could be sprayed. Other thing is rap on it with something hard while pressing the horn button. If it breaks free, exercise it a couple dozen times to possibly free up what was stuck/corroded/
 

JimS123

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Jul 27, 2007
Messages
8,251
Yea its a electric horn not sure i would have a place to put air horn as much as i want to.

Well now we need a picture of the horn to see what you got. My last boat had a whimpy electric horn on jt and I merely removed it and used the existing wires to mount a dual trumpet horn in its place.

Not as commanding as an air horn, but it surely notified all those little water bugs that I came up, on.
 
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