Drought and electricity.

[cmjust0]

there's nowhere I could drive a ground rod more than a few feet deep within a reasonable distance of where my fencer is going to be. There is, however, some fairly deep soil in a valley about a quarter mile of fence away, and it stays moist a lot of the time. I'm gonna shoot for five rods, 10' apart each, driven six feet deep..

Yes, I did just quote myself.. :roll: :lol:

Anyway, not that anybody should or does care, but I got my groundrods driven.. Only had enough room for four at 10-12' intervals, so that's what I put in.

We got some good rain last week, so Sunday I dug four holes with the auger just so I could cheat on about 3' of pounding.. I was able to drive the first rod 7.5' straight down , so I thought I was in high cotton.

The next three, however, hit rocks at 4', and had to be driven at angles.. I figure the ends are around 3.5' deep, with only about 6-8" sticking out of the ground at a 30* (or so) angle.

Overall, I've got about 30' of galvanized 5/8ths rod in the ground, and I'm figuring that a good 25' of that is at least a foot deep. I figure it should be a heck of a grounding system -- better than most -- but I'm a little leary since I had to drive 3 rods at angles.. What do you guys think?

 

[SaskHerf]

sounds better than the single peice of rebar i have always grounded our fences with......enough moisture and fairly small areas.... our 600 acre pasture has one 8ft ground rod. Always makes the cows respect the wire... :shock:

 

[cmjust0]

our 600 acre pasture has one 8ft ground rod. Always makes the cows respect the wire.

Well, I'm feeling better already! :lol:

I've only got about 22 acres to fence in, which doesn't even account for 2 miles of hot wire.. I'm probably going to go with a 100-miles (6 joule) fencer, which is advertized at 14,000 volts on 1 mile of clean fence. I'm shooting for five digit voltage at the back corner, just on general principal.. :devil2: :lol:

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Overall, I've got about 30' of galvanized 5/8ths rod in the ground, and I'm figuring that a good 25' of that is at least a foot deep. I figure it should be a heck of a grounding system -- better than most -- but I'm a little leary since I had to drive 3 rods at angles.. What do you guys think?

That should be plenty of ground rod. The only point depth plays is it can sometimes have moisture at a deeper level during dry periods. The amount of ground rod/soil surface contact is what is important. In shallow soils it is not unusual to drive rods at an angle or bury them horizontally in a trench. Also buried galvanized sheet metal or steel cuvert pipe make very good grounds as they have lots of soil surface contact area. Do not use a building or power pole ground for your fence as this can backfeed a lightning strike into your charger. Your fencer ground should not be used as a ground for anything else for this reason.

Sounds like you should have an excellent fence.

Good luck & happy trails.

Brock

 

[cmjust0]

Sounds like you should have an excellent fence.

I'll be stringing wire before too long, so I guess we'll see!