wade
Well-known member
I have an interior fence, cedar posts and 4 strands of barbed wire. I decided to put 2 strands of electric on this fence also. I put one strand of electric above the top strand of barbed wire. The other strand of electric I put on the inside of the fence between the top strand and the second one from the top. This is where it all gets confusing. When I hooked the electric up and made it hot my barbwire that is stapled to the posts also became hot. All the electric is run through insulators at every post and corner post. I used plastic nail on insulators and switched them out to porcelain insulaters with the same affect. There is nowhere on this fence that the hot wire is shorted to the barb wire. (I have had 4 people look at this fence and everyone says the same thing, we have no idea). The top barbed wire is the hottest (but not quite as hot as the electric fence). The second barbed wire down from the top is not quite as hot as the top barbed wire. The third wire down isnt as hot as the second wire. The bottom wire you can barely feel the current in it. So, the top barbed is the hottest and the bottom is the least hot. On one top barbed wire I even put an insulator on each end of it and tied it to the corner post. The barbed wire is still hot. If I cut the juice to the electic wire along this stretch of fence the barbed wire doesnt stay hot. I am at a loss here. Please dont say I have a wire laying on the barbed wire because that isnt the case. Even if I did, I would have to be shorted to all four strands of barbed wire. None of the barbed wire is touching eachother at the corner posts. The only thing the barbed wire has in common is that it is stapled to the posts. I have built lots of fence, the hired man has been on the same farm maintaining and building fences for 40 years and he also is stumped.