Air Horns

Do fire trucks mess up their horns?

In places like NY with a lot of traffic fire trucks just keep honking the horn non-stop. I know that if you do that with a normal car you would burn out your horn, but does the same happen to fire trucks. Sometimes they honk 20 straight. You can't do that with a car. BTW My aunt ran out her horn within the first 10 minutes in a traffic jam.

Public Comments

1. Firetrucks use very loud air-horns, the same kind that you see on a semi or train. I'm not exactly sure how a car horn works but it's different than an air-horn. Air-horns aren't used on cars mainly because of how loud they are. To answer your question, though: as long as there is air to be blown, an air-horn can go and go. It's just high pressured air shooting through a tube.
2. No, their horns will not burn out. They need to honk them because cars with the windows up and the stereo blasting are quite insulated from them until the firetruck is almost on top of them. People don't seem to know any more that firetrucks pursuing rescue have right of way and law requires you to move out of the way and stop . Car horns are simple and rugged. If yours burns out after 10 minutes of constant use, I'd call that excessive use and not blame the horn. If you ran your starter motor for 10 minutes constantly, it probably wouldn't work any more either, unless the wires to it burned out first. Those items are electric. Firetruck horns are airhorns that work differently and are much more durable.