Horn Honking

A brief rant from The Rally -

Why do some RVers feel the need to announce their departure with a blast on their horn at 7 in the blessed a.m.?

One year at Estes Park, a group of Monaco coaches left at one time and every one just had to play "On the road again" on their damn musical horns   We were not impressed in the least.

The same reason you can stopped in traffic and be starring at a wall of brake light and some joker honks his horn. 

I only honk when going across a covered bridge.

Or through a tunnel. Just an old habit, but never in a campground at 7am 

What's the problem - they've already been up an hour or two while they broke camp and let the diesel idle to build up the air pressure while they had coffee and breakfast.  After all that there can't be anyone still asleep, right?

Personally, I've been tempted to lay in wait with a tennis ball or two to lob at the side of the rig as they pull out. 

Let's put it this way: Some folks bear a very strong resemblance to the south end of a north bound cross between a horse and a donkey.

Talking about slow moving traffic and the idiot with the horn two stories

Woman runs out of gas, I spot her problem and pull off and park at the last cross street before the light she's stalled at, Go up and with my one good arm (Other is broken and in a cast) push her over the hill to the gas station and pump.. Idiot in Taxi cab WITH PUSH BUMPERS, behind her honking he blasted honker.

Not only did he have a push bumper equipped ex-police car, I had a broken wing!!!

Story 2: Brother tells me of a snow storm "Smokey" got on Chan-19 and ask the truckers to slow traffic,, Of course some ...er... jerk, in a 4x4 is cussing 'em out over the CB  and demanding to pass.... So they let him

Then all pull on the lanyards and toot their tooters as they go past him stuck in the median cause though a 4x4 can go like the wind on a road like that... It also stops like the wind.... when it hits something (in this case a snow bank, no major damage)

I have about a hundred 4x4 on ice stories from when I dispatched Police too, We would find 'em with the aid of our cameras and .. Well.. The joke is: Front end in ditch rear on road, Front wheel driver,  Rear in ditch front on road, Rear wheel drive.

Swing the camera around hit the zoom and track 'em a quarte rmile out into the field, FOUR WHEEL DRIVE and winching back to the road,,They charge BY THE FOOT.

Those stories are almost all the same.. and that joke more or less describes them.

Wendy:

It was moving day.

What time did you finally get up? 8)

Jeff said:

Wendy:

What time did you finally get up? 8)

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7 am, when the idiots started honking 'goodbye'.

so, can anyone tell me "for real" why they must idle their rigs for an hour or two at such a godawful hour?  Is it an old-age thing to leave so early?  is it really, and I mean REALLY, necessary to idle for such a long time?  my family is all sleepyheads in the morning, and we leave by noon if we are lucky.

--janis

Air brake equipped vehicles need air pressure to operate their brakes.  If the vehicle loses air pressure they also lose their brakes, so there's a backup system that uses large springs to apply the rear brakes if the air pressure goes away.  These are also used as a parking brake by pulling a knob that dumps the pressure from the brake lines.

It's normal for the air system bleed down if the vehicle sits for a while.  So they do have to idle for a bit before departing to let the engine driven compressor build up pressure in the air reservoir before they can release the parking brakes and have the main brakes apply normally.

But pressurizing the system should only take a few minutes, after which the motorhome is ready for the road. Some people like to "warm up" the engine by letting it idle until the temperature gauge reaches normal operating temperature.  But this goes against the recommendations of the engine manufacturers, because diesel engines produce almost no heat while idling and letting them run cold does bad things like building up soot on the piston and cylinder, and letting unburned fuel leak down and dilute the oil.  It's much better, and warms up the engine much quicker, to just drive off as soon as the air pressure has built up.

I did not know that the air brakes system had to be pressurised before hitting the road until I visited the local fire station with kids for a birthday party.

All the trucks were connected to a coiled air hose that was coming down from the ceiling, they explained that was to keep it pressurised, so when they get a call, they disconnect, jump in the truck, start and go.

my coach has an auxiliary air compressor to air up the bags, and brakes. I turn the block heater on if its cold. When I see that the suspension is up, I start the engine and leave.

Speaking of honking...

I was in a campground recently where a Class A with all the shades and curtains drawn tightly, kept honking their horn every few minutes for hours. I have no idea what that was about. Then I began to wonder if someone had a heart attack and they were using their last ounce of energy to weakly press the horn for help every few minutes. I realized he had been honking every few minutes for a few hours. Matter of fact, his horn honking woke me up that morning, and it continued for hours throughout the morning.

So I went over and knocked on the door. A healthy man came to the door and I told him I heard his horn honking every few minutes the past few hours, and wondered if he needed help with anything.  He told me to mind my own business and slammed his door shut.

I felt like a real idiot. Shame on me for checking to see if he needed help.

But his horn stopped honking and all was peaceful again. Whew!  I must admit, the chronic horn honking was becoming pretty annoying.

I still wonder why he was honking his horn all morning.

DearMissMermaid said:

I felt like a real idiot. Shame on me for checking to see if he needed help.

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The idiot was on the other side of that door.  I believe you did the right thing.  If something would have been wrong he would be thanking you.  Nothing was wrong and you can thank yourself because the honking stopped.

I still wonder why he was honking his horn all morning.

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Any kids around once they got up?  My son would do that when he was younger if I did not stop him.

I was in a campground recently where a Class A with all the shades and curtains drawn tightly, kept honking their horn every few minutes for hours. I have no idea what that was about.

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We were in a campground last summer parked next to a motorhome with the same kind of beeping horn. Turned out that the owner's small dog would climb on the driver's seat when they were gone and try to look out a window. Its front paws would lean on the horn and when it beeped the dog would jump down only to do it again in a few minutes. Many of us were happy to see this motorhome leave the next day.

can anyone tell me "for real" why they must idle their rigs for an hour or two at such a godawful hour?

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I've never seen or heard anyone idling their rig for an hour or two, but adding to Lou's response ....

The air on our coach takes more than a few minutes to build up pressure, partly because we will have dumped air as part of our arrival/leveling process. But we rarely leave at the crack of dawn, and we never honk the horn before leaving.

BTW I never understood either before we had a diesel coach.

Interesting story about the honking horn.  Two years ago we were visiting Canyonlands National Park.  My wife and I had parked the motorhome and walked a short distance to an overlook when I heard a horn blowing.  Not honking, full on blowing.  I commented that it sounded sort of like the horn on my motorhome.  We started walking back and I found a crowd of people around the front of the RV, and one of my beagles, Paisley with her front paws on the steering wheel looking out the window and merrily blowing the horn as only a beagle could do.

And the back seat driver howling.  Funny....

Too funny, but also an argument for putting the horn on the switched ignition circuit instead of leaving it active all the time.  That's how my VW was wired.