Ive got some way cool horns from a 37 Lincoln Zephyr and I know the car was 6volt. I have tested the horns on 6v and they work. My question is what would happen if I feed them 12 volts? Will they work ? sound different let the smoke out?
You probably need something to drop the voltage down. I had an old small 6 volt police siren that I wanted to run on 12 volts, and I used a 1 ohm 50 watt power resistor in series with it. That knocked it down to about 7 or 8 volts when it's running, and that was close enough. A ballast resistor might get you in the right ballpark too.
I run my horns from a 12volt relay and they work OK, just dont sit on them for a great length of time.
Yeah, I've used an old pancake Klaxon on 12 volts for a few years now and it hasn't let the smoke out yet. It's really loud though!!!
I have my original 51 Buick horns in my car running on 12 volt with no step down conversion. The only difference is they are WAY WAY WAY louder then when they were being feed 6v. If you really want you can use a step down but there is no need. Unless you are driving around with the horn on, nothing is going to happen to them in a 12v environment.
Run 'em. I've run every set of 6V horns on 12V for all the cars I've converted - they sound "angrier". Also, keep the 6V relay - the 12V relays can't really handle the extra current & tend to stick if you lay on them longer than a second or two - the 6V relays seem to keep on truckin w/o any worries.
running my 53 chevy horns on 12 volt, just changed the relay and they work fine..a bit louder but thats great to get the blind drivers attention out there. give it a try, bet you will be surprised.
Just yhooked up a set of trumpet horns on a 47 Zephyr on 12 volt. They are Loud and won't hurt them a bit. Butch
They LIKE 12V. They can really express themselves at that level. You should hear a Model B ahooga on 12!
12volts is fine. They'll only pull half the current they would at 6. So you can use a smaller wire too.
My dad always told me his story about adding a third horn to his '55 Chevy (Slate Gray 150 w/ the powerpack 265) and ti dimming the lights when he laid on the horn
You might want to google "Ohms Law" and do the math. I believe you'll find that you're slightly off on your statement regarding current.
I have a set of 6v trumpets that have been in several cars of mine for almost 20 years now. Never burned anything yet! I use a Mopar starter relay from the 70's for the horn relay. Have them mounted in the fenders of the 97 Saturn now.
Yep - only slightly off! Gotta run the original 6V wires - 12V wires are gonna melt & why I mention keeping the 6V relay too. The 12V relay I had on one of my cars kept sticking from the excess current!
So you are saying that if the load (the horns) doesn't change but you double the voltage feeding them (from 6 to 12V)....the amperage won't go down?
I had 2 horns on my 54 Chebby, ran 'em on 12 volts, and it'd scare the **** out of any-one within cowee of the car. I took great delight in waiting until some unsuspecting person - usually female - was just starting to nod off whilst out on a long cruise - and toot the horn, and watch 'em jump. Then I'd make some excuse up as to why I blew the horn I've got a real dry sense of humour .
Current equals voltage divided by resistance, so if the horns are 1 Ohm (for ease of math) then 6 Volts divided by 1 Ohm = 6 Amps. 12 Volts divided by 1 Ohm = 12 Amps. I have no idea what the resistance of a 6 volt DC electrical horn is, but the principle is the same, double the voltage, double the current (for a given load). Of course each horn you add will increase the draw (as you will have to wire them in paralell). Or were you using that new sarcasm thing?
Correction then: Using the above example of 6 volts with 1 ohm resistance then yes 6 amps of current are required to produce 36 watts of power. To produce the same amount of power at 12 volts requires only 3 amps current but 4 ohms resistance. Wiring the horns in series will reduce the current necessary to operate both but increase chance of complete horn failure. Wiring the horns parallel will increase current draw but decrease the chance of failure.
Ohms Law: I = V/R I = Current V = Voltage R = Resistance Amperage = Voltage/Resistance So yes, if resistance (load) stays the same & you double the voltage, you will approximately double the amperage too (in the horn case, it's not 100% 1-to-1 due to inductive resistance [inductance]), but pretty darn close).
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