How do I wire my train horns to the alarm?

I have the shocker 228 train horns, love them by the way, and had them installed for me with a relay and switch hooked up to the stock horn, this makes it so I can honk my regular horn or flip a switch and the train horns honk with the regular horn all from the steering wheel.

My question: How can I hook the train horns activation switch up to the panic alarm system?

If you brake into my truck, no alarm will go off. It sucks but I'm not the only one. I will be getting a viper soon enough. The only weapon I have is my panic alarm which is well, wimpy... If i could hook it up to the train horns it might just cause so much noise that any offender I see would get the fuck away from my truck. Also I'd like to note that the compressor was not wired to the ignition so if it needs to refill the tank due to a loss of pressure, it will with the truck off. Dangerous for my battery but that's how the guys wired it...

Any advice?

 

have you tried putting the switch to on and hitting the panic button? it might already work how you are hoping..

 

Nah sure doesn't, def tried that. I can have the switch on and try to honk the truck manually or with panic when the truck is off but it won't activate them.

 

I know this is really vague since I don't have any pics or information of how it is wired to the horn or anything... I'll settle for theories if anyone has some

 

Thread title made me LOL. That's one way to deter thieves.

 

I know right? And once I get the alarm I'm almost positive I won't be asleep should it go off outside my house as someone tries to break in. They better run faster than I can get my gun.

 

+2 the tital was the only reason I looked here.

That would be great if a train horn went off when someone tried to break into your truck.

 

My house has camera's in front of it to so If the guys derps because of it and I dunno hits his head on the glass of the window he just broke, tooootally posting it on TW.

 

The steering wheel button sends a ground signal to the horn, and somewhere in between all that is the ecu and whatever controls the panic. Obviously its not that simple but just follow along. When you trigger a panic, the signal starts at the module and goes straight to the horn. That means the whole first half of the circuit (from steering wheel to module) it not being used during panic. Your relay is installed somewhere in that first part of the circuit, which is why if you leave the switch on and hit panic it doesn't work because the signal starts after your relay and switch setup.

Your solution is simple if you know electrical and relays and stuff. Here are your options:

A) relocate you relay in the second half of the circuit (after ecu and alarm module) probably in the engine compartment just before the actual oem horns.

B) keep your relay setup intact but locate the wire that send the panic signal (either from the ecu or from OEM security/key less entry module) and tap it to run a wire to your relay. I would need to know how you have it wired now to determine where your new wire gets connected, but basically that new wire is going to the same pin that you switch goes to. This way you don't have to leave the switch on in order for panic to trigger the train horns. You should diode isolate that wire to protect the ecu and/or whatever module you tapped into. So now this new wire is an automatic switch override and works by itself.
*NOTE: I need wiring diagrams to confirm this method will work as I have described. Worst case you will have to connect the new wire to a different pin of the relay and still have to leave the switch on in order for it to work.

C) once you install an alarm, you connect the (-) horn trigger wire to your relay and and it will work automatically regardless of switch position. Same as method B except your getting your panic trigger from a better source and the outcome is guaranteed to work and you won't need factory wiring info and have to mess with OEM keyless entry modules and ecu. This is all assuming your current relay and switch setup is normal and not done some weird way.

Method C is the fastest easiest and most reliable option once you get an alarm. Method A is your best most reliable option for now without an alarm. Only problem is that you will have to keep the switch on when you leave the vehicle otherwise it still won't work. Option B is the correct way to do it without an alarm, but is the most difficult, challenging, time consuming, risky, and resource intensive method of all. It is best because panic should trigger train horn regardless of switch position.

I would rate this a 2 of 10 on difficulty if you know relays and electrical, but probably a 8or9 of 10 if you don't know anything about relays and circuits.

My professional recommendation is to leave it as is until you get an alarm, then use method C. I can assist you method A through PM but will need time to draw a schematic for you. I cant help with B because I don't have access to factory wire diagrams.

Good Luck!

 

Your neighborhood will love that on false alarms.

 

Wait wait wait!! I should have read this before writing out my previous response Dam it this changes things!

OK, forget option A and everything in said about the circuit. Option B is also a waste of time, although it will still work its just stupid now. The new plan is very very simple. Try to follow this... a relay has 5 pins on it. They are labeled 85, 86, 30, 87, and 87a. The way it works is that a relay at rest (as is without even connecting it) pin 30 and 87a are connected together and. Any wire you connect to either of those is like not even having a relay, the signal will pass straight through. Now, on order to activate the relay switch, 85 and 86 have a coil in between them that needs to be charged. In order to do this, one of those pins needs ground and the other needs 12v power. It does not matter which is which, as long as 85 and 86 are powered up. When that happens, pin 30 switched off of 87a and goes to 87 instead. Its a mechanical switch.

SO, the way your system SHOULD be wired is as follows:

OEM horn wire anywhere you can find it needs to be cut in half. The horn side goes to pun 87a and the steering wheel side goes to pin 30. Like this its like the wire was never cut and still works normally.

Now, pin 86 is fused and goes to the battery. Pin 85 goes to one side of your switch inside the cab and the other side of the switch gets grounded to metal. This way when the switch is off, nothing changes and horn still works normal, but when switch is on, it completes the relay circuit and makes it switch.

Lastly, pin 87 goes to whatever wire triggers your train horn.

**IMPORTANT** IF they are using that relay as a power source for the train horn, then this entire thing needs to be changed. If the train horn is powered some way else and the relay is only acting like a trigger or switch then this will work fine**

The way they wired it is that the relay only has power on ignition or accessory and therefore even the switch can't trigger it if the truck isn't on. Most likely its only one simple wire from the relay that needs to be changed from accessory/ignition to constant. If you have a DMM and know circuits you can do this. If not I need to know exactly how they wired it to confirm this. Its hard to explain in a paragraph. I need to get my hands on the truck and can have it working in 10 minutes.

I recommend you go back to the place that did it and tell them what you want, or even show them this thread so they understand and I'm sure they can take care of it real quick. Hope I helped.

 

This is why I would NOT recommend doing this with an aftermarket alarm. If you have all the extras like me (motion sensor, audio/glass break sensor, shock sensor, hood and tailgate pins, etc) then false alarms do happen. Even without all those sensors, accidents happen. Your going to pop the hood one day without disarming or use the key to open door or something and end up pissing yourself and going deaf! Since he only wants to connect it to panic, there is no chance for false alarm unless you sit on the remote or something crazy and accidental hold the panic button down

But no matter what your neighborhood is going to hate you for this

 

You sir, take the cake. First of all major +1 for the in depth and very informative answer. I'm trying to save for my lift so an alarm won't be too soon and I will attempt option A in the closest to reversible way (for the future alarm).
I will take some pictures/do some scavenging around for the relay setup tomorrow. I'm sorry to say but I have very very little knowledge/experience with relay's. I do know someone who does though
I'll work on this and see what I can come up with and report back to you.

Again, thank you, your effort in helping me out is fully appreciated.

 

LOL about the hood sensor I totally visioned that whole thing and saw myself jumping off the ground and flying back because they are right behind the bumper. I don't care too much about all those little alarm extra's It's mainly the doors I care about. If someone opens a door and the truck is already locked I want to know. I'm not saying I wouldn't want to know about the others but I've more concern over the cab foremost.

 

Alright bud I read It all, I get it, but because I have no visuals I am pretty confused about how to do it. I am SURE this will help though, either to the guys who did it or my friend who knows relays. This is better than pearls thank you VERY much. If I can't get it done within the next two weeks I'll be living in SoCal again and I'd be happy to drive over! I'll even bring a few beers as a thank you
thank you thank you thank you thank you

 

I'll try to draw up a diagram for you tomorrow and post it but with little knowledge of relays its going to be difficult. I also need to know how your air horn is powered too. Well figure it all out hopefully. And if not, I'm sure a couple beers will do the trick I'd be glad to help.

 

when, not if, you get this idea done, will you do a write up? looking forward to it.

 

Yeah I'll help him out with the technical stuff for the write up. I basically already posted a quicky version of one but I'll make diagrams and post too. Then we can put it all together :thumbup:

 

Amen. I can easily envision the "disturbing the peace" complaints to police from those neighbors now. Even non-false alarms will likely result in such complaints.

If used on the highway in such a manner as to to cause an accident, charges could result from that as well. It happened to a friend.

-

 

I'm almost certain anyone who buys the train horn kit from hornblasters ends up wiring it in a way that it works when the truck is off if the switch is still on. The reason my ordeal is like this is because I had it installed for me and hooked up to the stock horn. I will definitely keep progress noted and try to accommodate it with some pictures so that a thread can be made if anyone ever has the same situation or just wants to learn.

I really like the horns. People say "why, whats the point, it's a truck not a train blah blah blah" but I'm really glad I got them. It's on more than one occasion saved my truck from being hit by someone else who wasn't paying attention, its scared the living hell out of people who have cut me off and it's also been pretty fun.
$479 for the kit, $150 install, $200 noise violation ticket first night in cali with them
& still worth every penny.

They also have enabled me to have an onboard air supply which I use to fill my tires every time we go wheeling.

Plus it's kind of fun to scare the shit out of my army buddies