HowTo: Wolo big-boy horn installed F3S

[whodat]

Today was quiet contemplation day. Just kidding, it was cleaning up the mess I've made in the last three projects so I could actually work in the barn again. Once it was clean it was time to mess it up again, naturally. The other day a buddy and I were talking about how pitiful the stock horns are on bikes, and I've recently had quite a few opportunities to use mine and agreed. I had a wolo big boy horn on hand for reasons, so I figured I'd see if it would fit in the bike. Short answer is yes, long answer is yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Barely. I started out trying to work through the side of the bike where the stock horn is, but that way lies madness. Ended up picking the whole shebang up on one of my craftsman motorcycle lifts and working on it from underneath.


Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr


Once I removed the stock horn and it's bracket, I was able to assess how much space I had to work with. Basically the size of the wolo plus a tiny bit. Here's the beginning of the bracket I made for it. Used some old stainless shelf a neighbor gave me.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

I ended up bending it a few more places, and cutting some more off it for clearance, and painting it black because why not.

As stated, the wolo is in fact a big boy (that's grande boy for the metric folks) and had to be clearanced quite a bit to fit. Sanded off one side of the plastic body and part of the horn.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

Drilled a hole in the back (didn't go into the horn part) to clear a suspension bolt.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

And the bracket installed to the horn, locktited.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

Here it is installed, looking up from underneath.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr


And here is all you can see

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

For wiring, I decided that I could just reuse the stock wires and figured it'd be fine. I couldn't even finish the thought before I said no. The stock horn doesn't have it's own fuse, it appears to be covered by the 'load shedding' circuit fuse, so if I blew that (no pun intended) I'd lose a lot of other stuff. So I added a relay (left side) that's activated by the stock horn wires, gets power from the battery directly (wire going across the front of the battery, fuse is under the rubber battery hold-down strap). Now it's much better and significantly louder, and has it's very own 15a fuse. I laid on it for about 30 seconds to break the horn in, and didn't blow the fuse so I call it successfull. Oh I also drilled three 1" holes in the plastic splash guard directly below the horn to let the music free. And once again, it fit my requirements of being done entirely with stuff I had on hand.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr


Oh yeah, I did it all while it was up on the lift and turned the bars side to side throughout the process so worst case scenario, even if I'm jumping and turning full lock, I still have clearance around the horn.

 

[ThreeWheels]

How did you figure that you needed the relay ?
I know in all of my bikes previous to the Spyder, the WOLO or Stebel needed a horn relay.
On my 2014, it was just a one for one swap and I never had an issue.
I'm seeing the same on the 2020. The WOLO is a one for one swap with the OEM horn.
I'd really appreciate any advice you might have to offer.

 

[whodat]

Technically it may in fact have been fine. As I've said before, BRP really doesn't know how to build these things. Looking at the wiring diagram, the horn fuse is the load shedding fuse. 25A, and getting it's power from a 40a accessories fuse. The load shedding relay has nothing to do with the horn other than a shared power supply, but powers all customer accessory circuits, the rear heated grips, front heated grips, accessory lights. However, here's where they get stupid. The horn + wire is hot all the time. The negative wire is directly switched by the horn button, which means that whenever you hit the horn that button carries all the current it draws. I didn't test this horn for current draw, but the stebel nautilus, which is a pretty direct competitor, draws 18a. That's way too much to be carrying through a regular button, and only leaves 7a available for all the other accessories. Have the heated grips and aux lights on, hit the horn and there's a pretty good possibility of blowing that fuse. For me, however, it's just more reassuring to know that I'm feeding it as much power as it can take, through the shortest wires possible, highest gauge possible, through a relay that's rated for the power. YMMV.

Edit: Just checked their website, Wolo specs it as pulling 17a. I'll swap my 15a fuse out for a 20a now. Edit again: fuse swapped out for 20a

Second edit: Checked the wiring diagram and the horn wires are 18g. That's only rated for [email protected]', and I'm guessing that the length of wire from the handlebar switch down to the horn is at least that.
https://jascoautomotive.com/automotive-wire-amperage-capacity-chart/

Third edit: because I’m awesome I just went out and measured the stock horn. It draws [email protected] and 4.2a@12v. So the stock wiring is completely appropriate for the stock horn, but the wolo pulls 3-4 times as much current as the stock horn.

 

[Rattlebars]

The OEM horn is beeped by completing the ground. Adding horn(s) works better if you use a relay and wire them directly to the battery. I added a set of GL1800 Goldwing horns, LO & HI notes, in the cavern under the frunk bowl and switch them using a relay from the ground of the OEM horn. I also have a time delay relay that gets triggered when it gets voltage from the +12v out of the relay. It flashes and strobes my grill lights for 10 seconds. Full details on hooking anther horn up on my page in my sig.

Just a note of caution. I've found over the years (too many) that the air pump will stop working after a few K miles from road grime getting into it.

(Yes, I know there is a light out in the video)

 

[ThreeWheels]

OK. You guys talked me out if it.
Better leave it alone.
I don't really have the ability to jack the bike up that high anyway.

 

[Mikey]

whodat, that must sound sweet pointing down towards the road like that!!!!:thumbup:

 

[whodat]

Yup! However this is a single tone, so to me it sounds a bit broken, I prefer the high/low tone combo of the stebel, but the wolo is what I had on hand. I may find a way to put the stock horn in with it to get the higher tone.

 

[whodat]

The wiring is easy, so don’t let that discourage you. As for jacking the bike up I did because I had the craftsman jack handy. You could also use car ramps, a regular jack and jack stands, you could even just lift rhe right front wheel and get enough room to work.

 

[cptjam]

Nice job.

 

[billybovine]

Well done.

I have always advocated for using a relay. Because there is no way of knowing how much current the horn switch can take. To replace would cost more then $400 in parts, plus labour. Always get the same response. "I did not use a relay and it works fine." Not an good excuse for not doing it right and how long will it last.