Electric Fence Problem - Arching at Ground Rod

[schastain]

I just set up a four-line fence around the garden to keep the deer out. My charger is inside a shed about 10 feet from the beginning of the wall. I have a 6' ground rod in the ground near the fence. The fence is held up on t-post with insulators. I'm only getting about 2.2 and lower as I go around the fence checking. At the beginning of the run I'm hearing clicking at the ground rod. And when I touch the ground near the rod, I get a nice little bite. There is nothing touching the fence, and the lines do not touch the t-post.

So I guess I have multiple problems...low voltage in wires and arching at the ground rod. Any ideas what I should check? Thanks Everyone.

Steve Chastain

 

[sstterry]

I just set up a four-line fence around the garden to keep the deer out. My charger is inside a shed about 10 feet from the beginning of the wall. I have a 6' ground rod in the ground near the fence. The fence is held up on t-post with insulators. I'm only getting about 2.2 and lower as I go around the fence checking. At the beginning of the run I'm hearing clicking at the ground rod. And when I touch the ground near the rod, I get a nice little bite. There is nothing touching the fence, and the lines do not touch the t-post.

So I guess I have multiple problems...low voltage in wires and arching at the ground rod. Any ideas what I should check? Thanks Everyone.

Steve Chastain

There are a lot of unanswered questions here. What is the size of your charger? How close to the charger is the ground rod and is it really 6' deep in the ground? Have you checked to make sure you do not have a short somewhere, ie against a metal post, touching the ground?

Pour some water around the ground rod and see if you still have the same problem. You may need more ground rods.

 

[greybeard]

You can sometimes have a problem if your electric fence grounding rod(s) is located close to another voltage source's ground rod, such as a 120-240 volt mains equipment ground in an out building. I forget the description of it, but somehow backfeed comes from the mains rod.

 

[shaz]

your lost voltage is between your ground output and earth ground most likely. Add another ground rod several feet away

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Add another ground rod or two at least the length of the rods apart from one another.

 

[schastain]

There are a lot of unanswered questions here. What is the size of your charger? How close to the charger is the ground rod and is it really 6' deep in the ground? Have you checked to make sure you do not have a short somewhere, ie against a metal post, touching the ground?

Pour some water around the ground rod and see if you still have the same problem. You may need more ground rods.

The ground rod is about 12' from the charger. The charger is for 50 miles. Should the ground be close to the charger? Thanks

 

[schastain]

your lost voltage is between your ground output and earth ground most likely. Add another ground rod several feet away

Thanks. Should it be close to the charger?

 

[Nick Wagner]

Two feet or twelve feet makes no difference, as everyone above says, add more ground rods, minimum of three.

 

[wbvs58]

My money is on you have a blatant short somewhere on your fence taking the charge to earth. the circuit is being completed when you try to connect the earth wire to your ground hence the arcing and you probably get a bit of a shock when you try and connect it.

Ken

 

[sstterry]

The ground rod is about 12' from the charger. The charger is for 50 miles. Should the ground be close to the charger? Thanks

The whole "miles" thing on fence chargers is just marketing. What really matters is the joules of output. My guess is that the output on your charger is about 2-3 joules (normally they tie output to miles for marketing purposes). The normal recommendation is a minimum of 3 ground rods. However, it really helps if the rod is located in an area that gets plenty of moisture.

https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/spes/spes-204/SPES-300.pdf

 

[chaded]

I keep my ground rods and wire going to them closer to the charger and away from the fence. I would start there actually. Move it so it isn't arching with the fence. Test it again.

If you still have low voltage I would check for cracked insulators. Having a fault finder would make things easy here.

You may need more grounds as well and a couple more will certainly help regardless.

 

[shaz]

Thanks. Should it be close to the charger?

Not really, the problem is likely the ground you're on if you have a lot of rock. Measure your voltage between the ground output and earth ground. Should be zero but a couple hundred volts isn't terrible. If it measures low then your problem is not ground.

 

[kenny thomas]

At least 3 6-8ft ground rods 8ft apart.

 

[1982vett]

You don't have the hot side going to the ground rod do you?

If your hearing a pop at the ground rod you need a better clamp also.

 

[sstterry]

You don't have the hot side going to the ground rod do you?

If your hearing a pop at the ground rod you need a better clamp also.

I wondered that myself. But he did say he was getting 2.2 at the fence, so I ruled that out.

 

[kenny thomas]

I have posted this s few times before so i will make it short. Lay a t-post or something on your fence to totally short it out. Check the single ground rod and it will be high. Keep adding ground rods until it shows 0. Take the t-post off the fence and thd fence will check high. Also will be nothing at the ground rod.
Im not sure if the old fence chargers from 50 years ago required as much ground. But the new low impendance chargers of today require a lot of ground. I have 3 8ft ground rods buried in the drip of the barn.

 

[Ebenezer]

Sounds like a loose connection. Are you using dissimilar metals?

 

[Duke]

I just set up a four-line fence around the garden to keep the deer out. My charger is inside a shed about 10 feet from the beginning of the wall. I have a 6' ground rod in the ground near the fence. The fence is held up on t-post with insulators. I'm only getting about 2.2 and lower as I go around the fence checking. At the beginning of the run I'm hearing clicking at the ground rod. And when I touch the ground near the rod, I get a nice little bite. There is nothing touching the fence, and the lines do not touch the t-post.

So I guess I have multiple problems...low voltage in wires and arching at the ground rod. Any ideas what I should check? Thanks Everyone.

Steve Chastain

I had a similar problem a few years ago which turned out to be the depth of the ground rod. I have hard pan about 2 - 3 feet below the ground. I eventually had to daisy chain several ground rods together to get the appropriate charge. Now it will knock ur socks off. Not sure if that's ur problem but doesn't hurt to try.

 

[shaz]

You can never really know if the ground is good until you measure it. You may drive an aluminum rod 1ft into good dirt and be fine. You can also put 3 of them into bad ground and have nothing. Rock seems to be the determining factor around here. I have some places where I just can't get a ground and some places where I can't miss

 

[kenny thomas]

You can never really know if the ground is good until you measure it. You may drive an aluminum rod 1ft into good dirt and be fine. You can also put 3 of them into bad ground and have nothing. Rock seems to be the determining factor around here. I have some places where I just can't get a ground and some places where I can't miss

Everyone thinks of driving a ground rod and many places here you can't drive them 8ft. We dug a trench along my barn and mine are laying flat in the trench about 2ft deep. The rain dripping off the barn keeps the ground wetter and works great.