I haven't had the Ural horn installed for the several years. The PowerArc ignition system that I had installed back in September 2015, has its coil mounted in the spot where the horn normally sits. Since then, I haven't had the stock horn installed. Removing the Ural hydraulic steering stabilizer and its brackets once again made room the horn.
In 2014, I had purchased an air horn and electronic module on Kickstarter called the Screaming Banshee. The air horn is the one commonly sold in many stores but the electronic module is what made it different. If you just tap the horn button, the stock horn sounds. If you hold the horn button down for more than ¼ second, the air horn comes on as well. There are jumpers to change the delay between ¼ and ½ second and select between a continuous blast or a pulse. The module also has a wire that can be connected to flash your high beam when the air horn goes off. I tried it out on the BMW but couldn’t find a good place to install the air horn. The Ural made the installation challenging since the horn button switches the ground connection (like just about every other vehicle with a horn relay). The Screaming Banshee module assumes that positive 12 VDC is supplied to the horn (like most vehicles but unlike the Ural). I added a horn relay and rewired the stock horn accordingly. Power for both horns now comes off one of the unused terminals (#5) of the PDM60. It's set with a 15-second power on delay. The power for the relay still goes through the stock wiring so still goes through the BRS (kill switch).
Adding the horn relay and 2" square control module is about all that can be squeezed into the headlight housing. It's really packed. After testing the system out, honestly, the air horn isn't that much louder than the stock horn. But today was the first time I've actually tried it and it has been attached to the sidecar frame for the last 30,000 km. Maybe it's worn out just from the vibration, dirt, water, snow, etc. It looks a lot different than the first picture of the item when new. I've installed similar air horns on other cars before and I remember them being a lot louder.
I've tried a similar horn, winter killed it.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that’s why this horn isn’t as loud as I thought it should be… it’s been installed on the sidecar frame for a couple of years.
DeleteRichard, your horn must get used a lot more than any of mine do. The last time I pushed a button, corrosion in the switch had to be arced through. I suppose I'll need to up my usage.
ReplyDeleteNo, very little use. I just thought that it may be a good idea to have a functional horn. With the relay, the full current of the horn no longer runs through the button as it originally did. The relay is rated for 50 amps DC. Plenty for just about anything on the Ural except maybe a dead short.
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