Supertones with excisting stock horns
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Huh...Good one.
:1pat:The whole point of a horn is to make noise to get peoples attention. Who cares what it sounds like as long as it is loud. Adding the supertones to the stock horn is going to make it louder and in the case of a horn, louder is better.
Then again YOU care about little blue and red lights that twinkle when you open the doors....
Funny, I was thinking about adding the Supertones in addition to the stock horns. I'm thinking the stockers will give the Hella's more depth and effect. I'm not sure what the amperage draw is for the stock horns, but the Hella's will be powered to the battery and on their own fuse.
My only concern is adding the Hella's in front of the radiator in addition to the one stock horn that's already there. I'm thinking this will affect the amount of cooling air hitting the radiator. Perhaps it's a good idea to move that one horn elsewhere? Also, the other horn sitting behind the passenger-side headlights isn't doing any good in that location. It may have to be moved as well.
My only concern is adding the Hella's in front of the radiator in addition to the one stock horn that's already there. I'm thinking this will affect the amount of cooling air hitting the radiator. Perhaps it's a good idea to move that one horn elsewhere? Also, the other horn sitting behind the passenger-side headlights isn't doing any good in that location. It may have to be moved as well.
Reddoak, help a newbie out... for this setup, how would you switch it off the stock horns? Connect the switch wire from the relay to a positive terminal on the stock horns?
...still waiting for my supertone kit to arrive from subimods.com...but I don't think I will wire them in with the stock horns. I may try it to see what they sound like, but I think the two 118db supertones will be enough.
I don't have any red or blue lights that twinkle when I open the doors.Then again YOU care about little blue and red lights that twinkle when you open the doors....
At first my response was "why not, the more the merrier/scarier” But now that I've done the install, I've reconsidered. Just look at the size difference, there is no comparison. If I wasn't worried about warranty issues down the road, and having to keep the OEM parts from mods, I'd use the old horns as hockey pucks!
Curiously, the OEM brackets state "111db". I seriously doubt that rating is accurate. But even if it is, what is the decibel rating when a 111db horn is tucked behind the passenger-side headlights?
Here are some pics of my install. There was plenty of electrical taping, zip-tying, and dielectric greasing. I used a bracket that was lying around (wrapped in black electrical tape) to mount the Supertones, and the SubiMods harness which I highly recommend.
...just an FYI here...before I disconected the second horn (the one behind the headlight, I connected one of the hella's and tried the horns together as I said I would...WAY louder than the OEM horn. IMHO...you don't need both sets of horns with both hella's, the OEM's would be barely noticeable. Here are some pics of my install.
http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/452446-post1172.html
http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/452446-post1172.html
Agreed. :29:
It looks like you used the subimods bracket for a nice symmetrical look. What's the quality of the bracket like? Is it machined and painted well?
The subimods harness was worth the price in my opinion, do you agree? If I had to buy the wire, socket, relay, terminals, fuse, and inline fuse holder, I would've had to spend $30USD. Even with shipping, it's a good deal.
So their bracket just puts both horns in the front of the radiator?
Also, how necessary is the harness? What would I have to buy/modify if I didn't get the harness?
You'd think they'd make a combo pack with both, $30 seems a bit steep for that bracket and $60 total is more than the horns.
I used the whole subimods kit. Well worth it! The bracket is a powder coated, stamped piece of metal...not sure if it is aluminium or steel but it was well done. The harness now includes an inline fuse integrated into it. Great idea but it can make it a little tricky for threading the harness through the tight space at battery side of the grill area. I had to pay an extra customs brokerage fee (Canada) but still better than trying to do it my own.
I left the horn behind the headlight in place seeing as it did not need to be taken out...just disconected the wire to it.
Overall...on a scale of 1-10 on the mod difficulty scale...this was a mayabe a 2.
Thanks for the info. :29: If I ever get around to upgrading the horns I'll have to get these parts.
If you want to mount them symmetrically, there are no factory holes to use. So you have 4 choices:
1) Mount them in the OEM position. This is a bad idea since one of them will be deep behind the passenger-side headlight.
2) Measure and drill. This is a bad idea, at least for me, for many reasons.
3) Custom/Macgyver style bracket. That may take a while... took me about an hour to get it in the right spot so the horns wouldn't be in the way of the grille. For aesthetics, I wrapped the bracket in black electrical tape. That took a couple of tries.
4) Subimods bracket. From what I can tell this is a nicely powder-coated bracket and the spacing/sizing is just right. Pretty much plug and play. I’m actually thinking about ordering it and replacing my custom bracket. Not sure. This one isn’t as much of a MUST as the harness.
Placing the horns in front of the grille looks to be accepted practice. I wondered about decreased radiator performance, but I don't do any towing and the surface area covered by the horns is not large.
Also regarding the harness… I too was on the fence. Hard to justify spending that kind of money on a part that's really an amalgamation of easily available parts. However unless you have all the requisite pieces and if you do that math, add in the time it takes to make a custom harness, you'll agree that the harness is well worth it. Also, the way they put the harness together is the way I'd do it, so that would bring my cost up. All wires are wrapped, terminals are finished in heat-shrink tubing, and the inline-fuse holder includes a fuse and appears to be waterproof. Best of all the wire lengths are perfect for the Outback. In case you want to go it alone, you'll need quite a few things...
1) Female terminal x 4... two horns, two terminals each. Example: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31M0Ijt-dNL._AA115_.jpg
2) Male spade x 1 This goes to the factory OEM plug which runs from the steering wheel and acts as the positive switch for the relay. See diagram 2b of your hella install doc. Example: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31ni52nTPbL._AA115_.jpg
3) Ring terminal x 2 one large for the Positive battery terminal and one smaller for the Negative terminal. Example: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41qrzWrZHXL._AA160_.jpg
4) Relay socket x 1 This is not my area of expertise and I would have been frustrated wiring this up correctly so another plus for subimods. Example: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21qjzhUuEiL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
5) Relay x 1 The Supertones come with a 4-pin relay, Subimods recommends a 5-pin. They include it with every harness purchase (if your order and there is no 5-pin, contact them, they'll ship one to you). This is also an area I don’t know much about and would be nervous getting into. Example: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/418wJOPFKYL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
6) In-line fuse holder x1 Example: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21GFVc+hSFL._AA160_.jpg
7) 20-amp blade fuse x 1 Example: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51cex91LkmL._AA160_.jpg
8) 5 or more feet of wire wrap Example: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31u63XnoyhL._AA160_.jpg
9) Wire… not even sure what gauge would work well for the voltage/amperage.
Again, unless you have these things lying around, you should save yourself the time, money, and guessing/frustration and get the subimods harness. I'm glad I did.
Hope this helps.
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