Benjamin

[Robin Boyce]

The Benjamin horn on my 12 volt Chummy works well but I worry that it won't last.  Is there some way that I can help it, explained in simple terms?

[Ian Williams]

Convert your chummy back to 6V and the whole thing will be more happy

[Robert Foreman]

All you need to do is fit a resistor in line.

[Renaud]

All you need to do is fit a resistor in line.

Agreed!
As resistor one can use a short length (around half a meter, to be tested!) of thin (1 mm) MIG stainless steel wire wrapped on some insulator (wood).

[Malcolm Parker]

My RL saloon has a Benjamin horn that came out of a farmers outbuilding.   It was given to me in the late 1980's.  I brushed the rust off it and opened it up, the inside was quite good and when I connected up a 12 volt battery, it worked fine.   I duly fitted it to the saloon in 1998 and it has been working well ever since on 12 volts.  in my part of the world it gets used quite a lot.  I have never worried about it wearing out.   Presumably on 6 volts it will not be so strident!

[Dave Mann]

    I found that the Benjamin horn worked OK on 12 volts whilst the Rist horn didn't like it. My solution was to fit a dynamo field resistor in series with the horn. However I found that modern car drivers couldn't hear my Rist horn so I replaced it with the twin air horns father had on his Rover 2000, they hear that.

[Robin Boyce]

Thanks everyone, Benjamin and I are now happy.
Dave, I have a very loud Klaxon horn which would be more in keeping, if there was space under the bonnet to conceal it

[David Stepney]

My RP saloon has its original Rists horn. Unkind people say it sounds like a duck!

[Terry McGrath]

My RF Rists horn wouldn't frighten a duck.

[Tony Griffiths]

As people stand and stare - and smile broadly - as you drive past in your Seven, a toot on the Rist or Benjamin only adds to the entertainment. Some expensive cars used to have a "town and country" setting for their horns - gentlemanly progress thus assured. Horn stories? I had a Citroen AX Diesel whose horn was a miserable, pipi-squeak affair; I replaced it with a pair of loud and stately-sounding two-tone jobs from a retired Triumph 2000; the amusing thing was, that when used, everyone looked around for a bigger and more stately carriage.