The truck I drive has a set of train horns on and they are to be honest a neccesity and are used regularly, particularly when driving around Gibraltar. As some on here will know Gib is very small, the roads are really suited to artics and the traffic is horrendous. The biggest problem is the motos (scooters), they are like wasps round jam and come at you from all directions, hide in blind spots and generally behave in a suicidal manner.
They are also used regularly on the stretch of road between Marbella and Benalmadena (N340), its a very fast, windy coastal dual track with lots of very short on slips. Cars on here have a nasty habit of being undecisive about entering the main carriageway and invariably pull out too slowly and far too late - the airhorns help to keep them on the slip roads till ive gone past.
stagedriver:
Personally I prefer merc and IVECO horns…
The Merc i drive has a horn that sounds like it came off a bloody scooter
My Merc’s the same
I can well remember driving through NewtonAbbot one saturday night on my way to load. There was a group of nice looking girls on the pavement on the way home from a night out. As i approached at 20mph or so, one of them beckoned me with the “pull down on the chain” hand signal for a good blast!
Needless to say that didnt quite work out with a Merc!
How insignificant did i feel for those few seconds?!
DoYouMeanMe?:
I’ve often wondered if you could be done for scaring someone with air horns?
Dunno about that but it’s fun to do. Fetched my current motor back (air horns fitted) from our Presteigne mill, drove into our yard and spotted one of our bulker drivers in his cab, totally engrossed in paperwork; crept up just alongside him but behind his cab for maximum effect and gave it both barrels.
Tea,mobile, paperwork and pen went flying in all directions; had to keep out of his way for an hour or two till he’d calmed down.
I had some on an old volvo 340 i had, had such a laugh with them scaring the crap out of friends and strangers alike. Gutted modern cars just dont really have the room in the engine bays or else where to put a set in plus of course you need an air tank. Well inless you get them crappy ones powered off a little compressor but i think there a waste of time. Still have them waiting for the day i have a car where its easy enough to fit them to or the temptation gets to much and i just chuck them on the roof
Back in the seventies when i was on the post office i had the bandit alarm go off after driving over a brick that had fell out of an overflowing builders skip, the road was just off Whitehall between Downing St & the Tresury building the sound of the alarm was like a fog horn going off,iv’e never seen so many coppers appear from nowere in my life there must have been 50 of them wondering what the [zb] was going on,“whats up son” say’s the sargent i told him the ■■■■■■ things had a premmie,“ok turn it off then” “can’t do that it runs off a sealed battery unit” had to wait a hour for the fitters to come out and turn it off i couldn’t here a thing for hours.
My Iveco only gives a quiet little peep, hardley anything noticable to the stupid person(s) who wait until very last moment & then pull out straight in front of you on a roundabout or other
My first 6w (Foden 3275) had them fitted and these had the pull chain in the middle of the cab roof. When Smiths changed to 4000 series cabs someone had the bright idea to fit the leather pull cord near the drivers door; When I got a 4000 with air horns (someone paid for them, then left ) I joined the list of many who’d shut the door, trapping the pull cord. Once, at a school during exam time, and once in the centre of Oxford…It certainly distracted the nip tourists from their photography
Muckaway:
My first 6w (Foden 3275) had them fitted and these had the pull chain in the middle of the cab roof.
Early in my Class 1 days I drove a Foden 3325… or was it 3320? Something like that, anyway…Tiny skinny cab for tramping in all week, Fuller Roadranger box, knackered exhaust brake which had been permanently disconnected, upright exhaust so we could drive through the floods on the Somerset levels to get to farms in winter but which cooked you from the heat up the back of the plastic cab in summer, 6x2 unit pulling 44t and the above mentioned pull chain for the airhorns in the middle of the cab. I swear those ■■■■ horns were the only thing on the [zb]ing heap that had any grunt! Happy days…
Muckaway:
My first 6w (Foden 3275) had them fitted and these had the pull chain in the middle of the cab roof.
Early in my Class 1 days I drove a Foden 3325… or was it 3320? Something like that, anyway…Tiny skinny cab for tramping in all week, Fuller Roadranger box, knackered exhaust brake which had been permanently disconnected, upright exhaust so we could drive through the floods on the Somerset levels to get to farms in winter but which cooked you from the heat up the back of the plastic cab in summer, 6x2 unit pulling 44t and the above mentioned pull chain for the airhorns in the middle of the cab. I swear those ■■■■ horns were the only thing on the [zb]ing heap that had any grunt! Happy days…
They made great cabs for site work Lucy, visibility second to none. We had ■■■■■■■ powered ones that always idled too fast and made selcting gear fun, especially if the clutch brake was wearing. Those exhaust brakes were a joke; the button would stick down if the cab floor was muddy.
On the 1st artic i had a Daf 85 Spacecab it was top spec jobby as we ran 30+Scanias so Daf put 3 of these trucks into the company to try and win business.
It had all the bits and pieces including a set of very loud air on the roof complete with pull chain by the door.Whilst taking the long way back to our depot through Bicester town centre i spotted a girl i was quite sweet on so gave her a quick toot on said horns needless to say i scared the living day lights out of her and about 20 people around her.Never did get a date with her
Muckaway:
My first 6w (Foden 3275) had them fitted and these had the pull chain in the middle of the cab roof.
Early in my Class 1 days I drove a Foden 3325… or was it 3320? Something like that, anyway…Tiny skinny cab for tramping in all week, Fuller Roadranger box, knackered exhaust brake which had been permanently disconnected, upright exhaust so we could drive through the floods on the Somerset levels to get to farms in winter but which cooked you from the heat up the back of the plastic cab in summer, 6x2 unit pulling 44t and the above mentioned pull chain for the airhorns in the middle of the cab. I swear those ■■■■ horns were the only thing on the [zb]ing heap that had any grunt! Happy days…
They made great cabs for site work Lucy, visibility second to none. We had ■■■■■■■ powered ones that always idled too fast and made selcting gear fun, especially if the clutch brake was wearing. Those exhaust brakes were a joke; the button would stick down if the cab floor was muddy.
We used ours “off road” a lot as well; we did General and Ag, so if it wasn’t farms (where we didn’t just deliver the swill, we also fed the pigs) it was structural steel on to building sites or bricks on flats etc. etc. etc. - I did my first long and wide loads there, with all of about 3 months Class 1 experience. There were 2 on a fleet of about 16, the rest were ERFs - and yes, mine too was ■■■■■■■ powered. It was an old-fashioned rural haulage firm, with ideas, practices and wages out of the ark, but boy am I glad I did my time there. Haven’t learnt so much in the whole of the rest of my career, and what I did learn in the 6 months I was with them has served me well ever since. wistful smile
Picked up a machine in Ireland and was heading for the boat at Rosslare, missed it by 10 mins and had hours upon hours wait for the next one (day cab motor), finally got on the boat that night, in my cabin sharpish for a kip and they sounded the horn on the boat…which got stuck on for about 20mins, i swear i could have killed that night
Doyoumeanme…what some people find funny…ha ha …i wished it had been done to your wife and it was the weekly shop…ha ha …would you have laughed so loud then, you moron with no brain !!
