VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Radios, Tools, Accessories Town & Country horns

Hello everyone,

I have a question that comes from posts under the '37-'42 site. It's a general question so I think I'm in the right forum........

Can town & country horns be hooked directly to the horn button?? (via the relay)

First - Town and Country horns were an accessory for 1939. The dealer could install the dual horns and the factory beep-beep horn was kept in place. A dash mounted switch enabled the driver to select the beep-beep horn for city driving anf the T&C horns for country driving. The switch rerouted the necessary wiring for all to function.
In 1940 and 1941 a T%C switch mounted on the dash and the city selection enabled only one of the two production horns to work.
There was also a rare accessory in 1938 that used an accessory horn ring to work the accessory country horns.For the 1934-1938 the accessory dual horns were refered to by Chevrolet as dual air-tone horns and just took the place of the single factory horn.

Yes. I wired mine through a three position (on ckt 1/off/on ckt 2) toggle switch that I hid on the lower dash lip. In position 1 the stock single town horn honks while in position 2 the dual horns honk. Both are controlled by the stock horn button.

Wondering again.

Correctly wired, which tone or sharpness or loudness horn was used in the town and which was active in the country or were both active in town or country?

In other words, what was the correct mix (town vs country) for sharpness/loudness/tone, single or dual?

Why was this option discontinued after 1941? Lack of sales, messing up the dash appearance (just my opinion here), better tone if both horns used, etc?

Charlie

I have my stock horn wired as the "town" horn and both accessory horns together as the "country". Both of the accessory horns were/are wired to the same relay switch. My single, stock horn sounds remarkably similar to the Dodge Roadrunner horn.

Tiny,

I see. ... well, maybe.

{This next part is meant as humor, noting more. So let's see if I can slide it by.}

But why would one want the quieter horn in the noisy town/city and the louder horns in the relatively quiet countryside? Out there, those louder horns may startle the mom and pop drivers, scare the daylights out of livestock and "freeze" bunnies (they got big ears) in the middle of the road? See what I'm saying? Just wondering. Seems to be basackards.

Charlie

I always assumed it was because they can hear the louder horn(s) farther away, beneficial when you're traveling at a "high" rate of speed.

Is anyone got their eye on those T&C horns on Ebay...? Comes with the bracket...Bidding at $50 bucks...Ends today @ 2:40 PDT...Kevin

Been lots of discussion on T&C horns but frankly it's got me confused. Can someone walk me thru the introduction of the T&C horn (the year) and the following years it came out either as an accessory or not? I thought the 39 was the first year it was introduced as an accessory and that people who had 38's bought them in 39 and installed them on their 38. But now I see talk of 34-38 horns with a different name but which I "think" look like the T&C horn. As you can see I'm confused and can use some detailed history. thx. Billu38

The 1939 was the first year to have a T&C horn switch on the dash. The accessory dual horns came with the switch and the production horn was retained for the city horn. The 1940 and 1941 cars came with dual horns and the switch merely cut out one horn for the city.
In 1938 there was a horn ring accessory for the accy. wheel that made the horn ring honk the country horns only and the horn button the city horn. It is advertised but never saw one.