New Toy! (Nathan K3HA)
12-04-2008, 04:44 PM
#1
New Toy! (Nathan K3HA)
I got a great deal on a set of nathan k3ha air horns from craiglist (ebay is incredibly overpriced on air horns), so I bit the bullet and bought them from the guy who happens to salvage and rebuild train horns as a hobby. I have had air horns for a few years now and always wanted a real one, so merry Christmas to myself. I have a viair 420c and 480c compressors with a 5 gallon tank.
For those of you who arent familiar with air horns, Air Chime/ Nathan (along with Leslie) make ACTUAL train horns. The K3H is the standard horn on Canadian Pacific diesel freight trans, the "a" at the end, means the last horn is tuned to the key of "a". The "K" is the model family, "3" is the number of bells, and the "H" means a high manifold design (L being a low manifold design), hence K3HA. American regulations require the horns to be tuned to certain frequencies, mainly d#, f#, and a. The K3H isnt normally tuned to a so the other version, the K3HA has a bell tuned to a. The standard on american freight trains are the K3 series, while the standard on passenger trains is the K5, which is basically the K3 with two more bells for two extra notes. I found one of those also, but the guy would never return my phone calls and emails so whatever. So the horn I just bought is seriously a no-bs authentic train horn.
Im replacing my siege engineering "kong" which is the largest horn you can buy thats not a "real" train horn. Let me say that dont even compare to real train horns in terms of quality, sound, and size, heres some pics to see the difference.
Kong on the left, Nathan on the right. Pay attention to the bore of bell and the diameter of the diaphram:
These horns weigh approximately 25 pounds, whereas the Kong is barely 15. As I said before, they arent even in the same ballpark; the kong is outclassed in every way. The manifold of the nathan feels like cast iron and the bells are die cast steel.
I mounted these in the same spot as the old horns, the spare tire area since I dont have a spare anymore. Due to the bolt pattern of the nathan being different than the kong and the air inlet being on the bottom (versus the front for the kong), I had to drill 4 new holes, and a large hole (about an 1" diameter) in the middle of the mounting plate where the spare was (cobalt drill bits FTMFW!). This made installation a 4 hour process and a real PIA. Because of the sheer weight of the k3, I used 4 3/8" bolts; hopefully more than enough beef. I reused my 1/2" SBC valve and 3/4" OD (1/2" ID) air line. Because the inlet is on top (horn is mounted upside down) fitting the valve was a PIA due to the limited space to work with, and the inflexibility of the huge air hose...but eventually I got it going. I had to use an elbow joint, which isnt the best thing to do, but I didnt have a choice. With such a big hose and valve, I doubt the joint will be a limiting factor in terms of flow.
Fitment was tight on both ends. There is maybe 1/8" from the back caps to the frame, and about 1/2" from any of the bells to the crossmember. There is roughly 6" to the exhaust pipe.
These horns suck some serious air; the 5 gallon tank goes from 200psi to 150 in roughly 3 seconds so its a good thing I have two compressors. I suppose its lucky I didnt get the K5s, because I probably couldnt fit it anywhere (they are 30" wide) and I would need a bigger tank... It would be a good idea to use a regulator, but finding one that can flow enough air and not be outrageously expensive is a big problem.
To decribe how loud these are is a bit of a challenge, after all whats the difference between really really loud and holy **** I just pissed myself loud? When I finished installing them I gave it a test blow and a friend of mine who lives about 3/4 of a mile away was in his room, called me a few minutes later and asked if that was me since I told him I was installing them today. Bama2door also heard me blow them (he is in the middle of a building mind you), but he thought it was an actual train downtown since there are alot of trains going through here.
It was getting dark when I finished so I dont have any videos during the day, but videos really wouldnt do justice to how loud this thing actually is. I made one after a test drive for the hell of it and you cant tell how loud it is, you can just hear the tone. I am used to loud horns, and the first time I blew this one I scared myself even when I knew it was coming. Using this one in public is definately going to be seldom because it is a very real possibility of hurting someone or causing a serious accident in traffic. Case in point, I showed my roomate and he was standing by my passenger seat (with the door open) and he jumped in and was in the fetal position in about .5 seconds after I blew it.
There is a lot of construction going on around campus, and the kong wasnt off my truck for 10 minutes before one of the construction guys came up to me wanting to buy it. He said he has been wanting some train horns and we worked out a price, except today he wont answer his phone so I dont know what that deal is.
For those of you who arent familiar with air horns, Air Chime/ Nathan (along with Leslie) make ACTUAL train horns. The K3H is the standard horn on Canadian Pacific diesel freight trans, the "a" at the end, means the last horn is tuned to the key of "a". The "K" is the model family, "3" is the number of bells, and the "H" means a high manifold design (L being a low manifold design), hence K3HA. American regulations require the horns to be tuned to certain frequencies, mainly d#, f#, and a. The K3H isnt normally tuned to a so the other version, the K3HA has a bell tuned to a. The standard on american freight trains are the K3 series, while the standard on passenger trains is the K5, which is basically the K3 with two more bells for two extra notes. I found one of those also, but the guy would never return my phone calls and emails so whatever. So the horn I just bought is seriously a no-bs authentic train horn.
Im replacing my siege engineering "kong" which is the largest horn you can buy thats not a "real" train horn. Let me say that dont even compare to real train horns in terms of quality, sound, and size, heres some pics to see the difference.
Kong on the left, Nathan on the right. Pay attention to the bore of bell and the diameter of the diaphram:
These horns weigh approximately 25 pounds, whereas the Kong is barely 15. As I said before, they arent even in the same ballpark; the kong is outclassed in every way. The manifold of the nathan feels like cast iron and the bells are die cast steel.
I mounted these in the same spot as the old horns, the spare tire area since I dont have a spare anymore. Due to the bolt pattern of the nathan being different than the kong and the air inlet being on the bottom (versus the front for the kong), I had to drill 4 new holes, and a large hole (about an 1" diameter) in the middle of the mounting plate where the spare was (cobalt drill bits FTMFW!). This made installation a 4 hour process and a real PIA. Because of the sheer weight of the k3, I used 4 3/8" bolts; hopefully more than enough beef. I reused my 1/2" SBC valve and 3/4" OD (1/2" ID) air line. Because the inlet is on top (horn is mounted upside down) fitting the valve was a PIA due to the limited space to work with, and the inflexibility of the huge air hose...but eventually I got it going. I had to use an elbow joint, which isnt the best thing to do, but I didnt have a choice. With such a big hose and valve, I doubt the joint will be a limiting factor in terms of flow.
Fitment was tight on both ends. There is maybe 1/8" from the back caps to the frame, and about 1/2" from any of the bells to the crossmember. There is roughly 6" to the exhaust pipe.
These horns suck some serious air; the 5 gallon tank goes from 200psi to 150 in roughly 3 seconds so its a good thing I have two compressors. I suppose its lucky I didnt get the K5s, because I probably couldnt fit it anywhere (they are 30" wide) and I would need a bigger tank... It would be a good idea to use a regulator, but finding one that can flow enough air and not be outrageously expensive is a big problem.
To decribe how loud these are is a bit of a challenge, after all whats the difference between really really loud and holy **** I just pissed myself loud? When I finished installing them I gave it a test blow and a friend of mine who lives about 3/4 of a mile away was in his room, called me a few minutes later and asked if that was me since I told him I was installing them today. Bama2door also heard me blow them (he is in the middle of a building mind you), but he thought it was an actual train downtown since there are alot of trains going through here.
It was getting dark when I finished so I dont have any videos during the day, but videos really wouldnt do justice to how loud this thing actually is. I made one after a test drive for the hell of it and you cant tell how loud it is, you can just hear the tone. I am used to loud horns, and the first time I blew this one I scared myself even when I knew it was coming. Using this one in public is definately going to be seldom because it is a very real possibility of hurting someone or causing a serious accident in traffic. Case in point, I showed my roomate and he was standing by my passenger seat (with the door open) and he jumped in and was in the fetal position in about .5 seconds after I blew it.
There is a lot of construction going on around campus, and the kong wasnt off my truck for 10 minutes before one of the construction guys came up to me wanting to buy it. He said he has been wanting some train horns and we worked out a price, except today he wont answer his phone so I dont know what that deal is.
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