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I posted this today on an F-150 forum. Figured it might be a generic problem on older trucks and might be useful to someone here:
The turn signals on my ‘85 shortbed F-150 are not as loud as normal road and engine noise, so on turns or lane changes that don’t swing wide enough to cancel the turn signal, I’m the stereotypical old guy that’s driving down the road with the turns flashing away. I had replaced the flasher with the Novita LF12 that is advertised as being “5 times louder than the standard flasher”. It is nowhere near loud enough.
Long story short, every once in a while, I’d research on-line for a simple solution, and came across one idea that seemed simple and cheap enough - if it worked.
Today I finally tried it, and it worked. The answer: Amplify your flasher noise by gluing an empty cat food can on top of the flasher.
They have two sizes of cat food cans - I experimented by holding the cans to the top of the flasher and found that the larger can is louder. (Standard tuna fish and salmon cans should work too):
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I determined where to position the flasher on the can for the loudest sound and for the can to fit between stuff (parking brake pedal, clutch pedal, etc.) when installed, removed the flasher and glued it to the approximate position on the can using Gorilla glue:
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Here it is installed back into the fuse block. Good distance from my foot hitting it too:
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I did take some videos so you can hear how loud it is. I may post those later. *Plenty* loud at normal in-town road speeds. At worst-case conditions (55mph and window vents open and windows rolled down - that’s my a.c.), it’s audible, but may not get my attention - will see how that goes in normal driving when I’m not really thinking about it. The real test will come with my wife in the passenger seat to see if she yells “Your dinker is still on!”
The turn signals on my ‘85 shortbed F-150 are not as loud as normal road and engine noise, so on turns or lane changes that don’t swing wide enough to cancel the turn signal, I’m the stereotypical old guy that’s driving down the road with the turns flashing away. I had replaced the flasher with the Novita LF12 that is advertised as being “5 times louder than the standard flasher”. It is nowhere near loud enough.
Long story short, every once in a while, I’d research on-line for a simple solution, and came across one idea that seemed simple and cheap enough - if it worked.
Today I finally tried it, and it worked. The answer: Amplify your flasher noise by gluing an empty cat food can on top of the flasher.
They have two sizes of cat food cans - I experimented by holding the cans to the top of the flasher and found that the larger can is louder. (Standard tuna fish and salmon cans should work too):
I determined where to position the flasher on the can for the loudest sound and for the can to fit between stuff (parking brake pedal, clutch pedal, etc.) when installed, removed the flasher and glued it to the approximate position on the can using Gorilla glue:
Here it is installed back into the fuse block. Good distance from my foot hitting it too:
I did take some videos so you can hear how loud it is. I may post those later. *Plenty* loud at normal in-town road speeds. At worst-case conditions (55mph and window vents open and windows rolled down - that’s my a.c.), it’s audible, but may not get my attention - will see how that goes in normal driving when I’m not really thinking about it. The real test will come with my wife in the passenger seat to see if she yells “Your dinker is still on!”
