Electric Fencing

[Ed Thayer]

Does anyone else have trouble with electric fencing in the winter. My Haflinger keeps testing the fence and has gotten out a couple of times. I think the snow and ice must insulate them from ground.

This may sound silly, but I can touch the fence with my finger and get whacked, but if I grab the wire with my hand I feel nothing.

Any thoughts,

Ed

[Simple Living]

My fence has 4 strands starting about a foot off the ground and 12-14″ apart from there. The top strand and the bottom 2 strands are “hot” , the 2nd from the top is connected directly to the ground rods. With this pattern, even if the horse is not grounded, he will get zapped when he makes contact with the fence. This also works for long runs of fence if the ground is dry and the current fades. All you have to do is install ground rods out along the run and your ground is restored! I think I have some drawings of this. I will try to find and post them.

Ok, I can’t find the page I was looking for. This is a Manual for Electrobraid fencing and makes the most sence of any I have looked at. Everyone with and Electric fence should read this and think about how their system is set up. Somewhere around page 23 or so it talks about the extra ground strand with a diagram on page 25 for areas with heavy snow. Hope it helps!

http://www.electrobraid.com/download/EBManual.pdf

Gordon

[Ed Thayer]

very helpfull,

Thank you, Ed

[blue80]

I like the 3 hot with ground as described, also because you can grab the ground and get through the fence-carefully-at any section of the perimeter…

Kevin

[Simple Living]

That is true Kevin, but let me tell you from exp. Be careful how you stradle the hot wire if your charger is good. I have seen mine jump an arc of around 2inches. When I last tested it, it was metering out around 10,000volts.
OUCH!

Gordon

[Ed Thayer]

That brings up another question, there must be differences in chargers and thier output?

Maybe mine is cheap or just not powerfull enough.

[sanhestar]

yes, there are differences in chargers.

Check the manufacturers data for the output of your charger type.

And it’s not always that the cheap ones have less output. Sometimes they simply have less additional functions.

[Scott G]

What Joel said, you need a better ground for the charger and double check that you’re not arcing to a ground along your line.

Electric fence is all I use. The current one for my “pasture” holds steers, horses, and a donkey. No problems…

[Does’ Leap]

@highway 13901 wrote:

That brings up another question, there must be differences in chargers and thier output?

Maybe mine is cheap or just not powerfull enough.

If you end up purchasing a new charger you should consider a low-impedance charger (Kencove.com is a good resource). Higher quality chargers are measured in joules – the more joules the better. I have a 48 joule Gallagher which powers miles of high tensile fence and up to 15 net fences at a time that I use for goats (and horses).

Also, if you have any metal culverts near your charger, run your ground wire to it/them and attach with a self taping screw. It takes a lot of ground rods to equal a large steel culvert despite the better conductivity of copper. Also, a good volt meter takes a lot of the guess work out of fencing. I like a minimum of 3500 volts on my fence.

Good luck.

George

[mink]

snow doesnt seem to bother mine as i see quite a spark when i hook the gate in the dark. seems like most problems with electric fencers are ground related . i use smooth wire for my cows and horses and ive noticed that i have alot better luck with the porcelain insulators than the plastic ones…….mink

[Anonymous]

chargers by the biggest one you can afford! low impedance chargers are the only way to go!! jewels are the measurement of stored energy on the wire the higher the jewels the more bite the fence will have!!!!high impedance chargers (weed burners) are a joke DO NOT PURCHASE ONE!!!! if some one gives you one, put it in a yard sale!!!!Cyclopse by taylor (USA) is what i have now 30 juleson the wire loaded! Pell makes a good charger Gallagher also makes a great charger as well!!!!! both are out of new Zealand they do high tensile fence right !!!! i think the site is http://www.kencove.com sells wire and droppers, strainer, etc etc … but the most important thing they sell is a little book on the proper way to build high tensile fencing by the book before you buy any thing else hope this helps post script i build fences and our entire farm is high tensile wire!! dont cut corners! DIGETAL fence testers is the only way to go!
This is 20 jules from a cyclops by taylor use the ground rods and the stock will stay in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhKd_VJ1t7Y

[Anonymous]

chargers by the biggest one you can afford! low impedance chargers are the only way to go!! jewels are the measurement of stored energy on the wire the higher the jewels the more bite the fence will have!!!!high impedance chargers (weed burners) are a joke DO NOT PURCHASE ONE!!!! if some one gives you one, put it in a yard sale!!!!Cyclopes by Taylor (USA) is what i have now 30 jules on the wire loaded! Pell makes a good charger Gallagher also makes a great charger as well!!!!! both are out of new Zealand they do high tensile fence right !!!! i think the site is http://www.kencove.com sells wire and droppers, strainer, etc etc … but the most important thing they sell is a little book on the proper way to build high tensile fencing by the book before you buy any thing else hope this helps post script i build fences and our entire farm is high tensile wire!! don’t cut corners! DIGETAL fence testers is the only way to go!
this is a 20 Jule Cyclopes made by Taylor of Arkansas! a ground rod drove 8 foot in the ground covers a 16 foot circle! so a ground rod every 16 feet hooked in sequence is a heck of an ANTENNA (5 rods 16 foot apart ) gives every one a reason to stay in the pasture !!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhKd_VJ1t7Y

[Author]

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