Anyone put breaks in electric fence?

[herofan]

My brother puts a lot of breaks, or places where the electric fence can be unhooked, for ease of finding problems. For example, if we notice the electric fence isn't working, we go to our first break and unhook. If the fence then works, we know the problem is beyond the first break. If not, we know the issue is up to the first break. We repeat the process until the problem area is found. We have a steep, wooded hill that we hate to walk, but it must be walked to check the fence; therefore, we have a fence unhook at the top and bottom with the ability to drive around to each area. We can determine if the problem is in that area without walking the fence; if not, we can skip the walk in the woods. We use this method to eliminate the need to walk the entire fence with the possibility of overlooking something if there is an issue. This at least narrows the issue down to a certain area.

This came up in casual conversation with a couple of older guys working at TSC, and they acted like they never heard of doing that. Is this really that uncommon?

 

[dun]

Some folkd do, some don;t. Usually people that have used hotwire for a while will do it when they put up more. We have a lot of "occasioanl" gates set up that way. Normally used gates we have a buried connector to the other side so that we can leave the gates open most of the time unless there are cows in the pasture. At those we use a disconnector switch on the fed side, the gate is insulated at the unfed end and when the gate needs to be hot it's connected to a hotpoint at the fed end.

 

[Aaron]

Usually what you do is put switches in place to cut the power out of sections of fence. Cheap, easy to put in and makes checking fence a lot quicker, especially if you have a digital fence meter.

 

[Caustic Burno]

One fault finder cures that problem.
http://www.kencove.com/fence/Voltmeters_detail_VPK.php

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Usually what you do is put switches in place to cut the power out of sections of fence. Cheap, easy to put in and makes checking fence a lot quicker, especially if you have a digital fence meter.

Where I used to work, this was what they did. Worked well in that situation.

Katherine

 

[herofan]

I guess that's why the guy at TSC was puzzled. As with everything else, it appears there are gadgets to handle the situation.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I guess that's why the guy at TSC was puzzled. As with everything else, it appears there are gadgets to handle the situation.

I don't like break's in my electric fence as everytime you put one you increase resistance.
Everytime you add a break or switch you are adding another place to have a problem.
All of mine are straight run's. With the straight run if the fault finder say's go south I never have to get off the mule.
Check every hundred yards or so until it zero's in on the problem.

 

[Ouachita]

I guess that's why the guy at TSC was puzzled. As with everything else, it appears there are gadgets to handle the situation.

I don't like break's in my electric fence as everytime you put one you increase resistance.
Everytime you add a break or switch you are adding another place to have a problem.
All of mine are straight run's. With the straight run if the fault finder say's go south I never have to get off the mule.
Check every hundred yards or so until it zero's in on the problem.

This is my thinking too. After last years drought, I don't need any added resistance. That why I am currently doing a complete do-over of my fence system. There will be zero areas that depend on a gate being hooked up for the down stream fence to work. Underground cable at every gate, and cut-out switches everywhere I want to be able to isolate a section

 

[dun]

I guess that's why the guy at TSC was puzzled. As with everything else, it appears there are gadgets to handle the situation.

I don't like break's in my electric fence as everytime you put one you increase resistance.
Everytime you add a break or switch you are adding another place to have a problem.
All of mine are straight run's. With the straight run if the fault finder say's go south I never have to get off the mule.
Check every hundred yards or so until it zero's in on the problem.

That would work good except where there are legs running off the main backbone. The compass seems to get lost when there are multiple legs fed from one drop.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Dun that is why there is a charger per run , that can be backed up by the other's.

 

[dun]

Dun that is why there is a charger per run , that can be backed up by the other's.

We use one charger for everything, i.e. the backbone concept. The only runs that have a seperate charger are the temps that are run off 12 volt batterys.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Dun that is why there is a charger per run , that can be backed up by the other's.

We use one charger for everything, i.e. the backbone concept. The only runs that have a seperate charger are the temps that are run off 12 volt batterys.

Dun when i was selling bull's I had two charger's on the bull lot with each one running two hot's with 7 strands of barbed wire.
Yearling bull's can tear up a lot of fence.

 

[dun]

Dun that is why there is a charger per run , that can be backed up by the other's.

We use one charger for everything, i.e. the backbone concept. The only runs that have a seperate charger are the temps that are run off 12 volt batterys.

Dun when i was selling bull's I had two charger's on the bull lot with each one running two hot's with 7 strands of barbed wire.
Yearling bull's can tear up a lot of fence.

We've never had a problem keeping bulls in with a single strand of hotwire even with heifers on the other side riding each other. They usually stay back about 5 feet from it. By the time they're weaned they have been lit up enough times that the lesson sticks.

 

[muleskinner]

A cheap and easy way to find grounds in electric fence is to take a Walk man radio with the head phone on and put on an AM station that is not coming and walk along the fence and listen for the pulse. When it is grounded out you hear it on the radio. you will listen to a lot of static but you will find your grounds.

 

[Caustic Burno]

A cheap and easy way to find grounds in electric fence is to take a Walk man radio with the head phone on and put on an AM station that is not coming and walk along the fence and listen for the pulse. When it is grounded out you hear it on the radio. you will listen to a lot of static but you will find your grounds.

Now that was some sharp thinking.

 

[Dave]

I put in a few breaks in the fence. It is less about finding the short and more about not having to go clear back to the charger to shut it off for a fence repair.