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air horns - illegal?

16K views 18 replies 11 participants last post by  Jamie XR6 
#1 ·
Yeh g'day all, I was just wondering, since I have one myself, are air horns really illegal, some say they are and some say they are... Now i know that the ones that "sing a tune" are! but what about the ones that are constant but have three notes???

and if it is different in each state, anyone know what it is for WA?

cheers all
 
#2 ·
Have a look at the website for your State's Roads and traffic Authority. It will have the laws there.

As far as I'm aware, air horns are legal if they play a constant note whether they are one or three as long as the pitch doesn't change. It's only the horns that play a tune that are illegal.
 
#3 ·
Musical air horns: Illegal (Shhhh!)
Air horns: Legal

A horn must be a single monotonous tone (Source: VicRoads) but I don't know about other states though. I am thinking about puttin an air horn but need to hear different sounds that are available. Should be legal in every other state though.
 
#6 ·
LTDHO said:
In Victoria the original horn has to remain connected.
I was going to say you must be joking!

But I guess if you were, you would have said "A horse walks into the bar....."

What is wrong with Victoria? Here I thought NSW was bad.
 
#7 ·
LTDHO said:
In Victoria the original horn has to remain connected.
Well that's a bit steep! I've still got mine but if I get an air horn I'm going to rip out the original. You sort of get sick of the "everyday" horn.
 
#8 ·
I believe you will find that musical horns are illegal because they continue to sound. The horn must cease operation as soon as the button is released. So long as the button is momentary and in easy reach of the driver, the original horn can be removed. This was the case in NSW last time my car was registered there, and in QLD when last I checked.
 
#9 ·
WBT56 said:
I believe you will find that musical horns are illegal because they continue to sound. The horn must cease operation as soon as the button is released.
That is not the case. :whip: Musical horns stop as soon as you let go of the horn button as is the case with mine, it doesn't continue after the release of pressure on the pad. Horns must be a single tone which rules musical horns out because of the variations in the tones.
 
#11 ·
Spaniard said:
That is not the case. :whip: Musical horns stop as soon as you let go of the horn button as is the case with mine, it doesn't continue after the release of pressure on the pad.
How foolish of me to assume there is a model of musical horn available other than the one you have. I thought my post made it obvious that some horns do as I stated, and are illegal for said reason.
 
#12 ·
While I'll was getting a new steering wheel fitted at Ford the tuck truck came around and blow its Dixie horn.

It made me wonder how they get around it, or do they?
 
#14 ·
depends on decibels as well doesn't it? air horns produce a louder sound. Legally, horns are only for one use - let other road users know where u are to aviod an accident. So a louder air horn would draw more attention to this law IMO.

Still, three tones are better than two.
 
#16 ·
What about the truck airhorn i have sitting the shed that's stainless steel and about 4 feet long? can i fit that? i reckon that'd give a nice warning!
 
#18 ·
I broke the original horn in my AU, (was trying to make it sound different by adjusting a screw it just sounds like a big fart now ;-( )

I put tripple air horns in instead, it was like $40 from supercheap auto, sounds great!
 
#19 ·
I think from memory the reason they made air horns that play tunes illegal was because the different tones made it hard to judge where the sound was actually coming from.

If you have some one blow their horn at you from behind you know where it came from. Musical horns can sound like its coming from all directions.
 
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