Electric Fence Troubles.....

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Ohio Cowboy

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So i need some electric fence help. Recently I installed a brand new 4 wire high tensile fence. The bottom wire is grounded and the top three are hot. I had a solar charger hooked up to it and had a decent shock last year and the start of this year, until recently. It basically stopped shocking at all. I figured its a solar charger and not reliable so i hooked up a brand new plug in unit. Still no shock. Barely anything at all, saw a calf with it in its mouth. We havent had any rain so i know the ground is dry affecting my grounds. So i added another rod which gives me 1 set 8 foot in the ground and three rods set 4 foot in the ground. My pasture is on top of a rock shelf hence the 4 footers. At the back of the 30 acres, opposite side of the pasture from the charger is the 8 footer with the better ground but no power for the charger. Any ideas to improve the shock?
 
Get a Gallagher Smart Fix fence tester......about a 100 bucks. it will tell you how volts you have on it and will also tell the amps that's going thru the fence. The amps is the amount of current flowing to the ground from the fence, hence a short.
I couldn't do without mine.
 
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If you have water access near your ground rods take a few buckets of water and dump on the rods, and then put a tiny pinhole in the bottom of it and set it next your rods, so that it slowly drips out keeping the ground moist.

Just another idea to get a better ground, but I'd also ensure there's no major shorts, or grass dragging it down and that your connections are good.
 
Kingfisher":crnksz0z said:
Time to go for a walk...
Click to expand...
Sometimes you just don't visually see a dead short. If haven't done so already, disconnect each wire and test each separately. Might help narrow down which wire the problem is on.
 
Ok. So the short loacted has been ordered. I went on two walks and visually everything looks great. If it is a dead short would it still have any shock in it up until the point of the short or will the short take all the shock? Reason i ask is i can touch the wire directly next to the charger.
 
Depends on the energizer, the short, what footwear you have on, how dry it is, how you naturally react to shocks (some ppl don't respond the same to a shock)... etc
 
Dead short can kill the whole fence. I'll often short a fence out to work on it instead of driving back to the charger to turn it off.
Sometimes the wire will wear through an insulator and cause a hard to find short. There's a million other reasons one can short.
Disconnect fence from the charger, shock you now. :D ..you got a short. Hook it back up and check every insulator. Don't just look put your hands on em wiggle the wire in the insulator, you'll know when you find it. Get the wife out to help :mrgreen:


When you get a chance build yourself a proper 6 wire Barbwire fence.
 
Another dumb statement. Until the tester arrives, a walk at night will sometimes show a slight spark at the point that is shorted out.
 
We have this fence charger. We can tell from my kitchen window if its charging enough. We have trouble with a wire grounding out usually 2-3 times a month. Its always grounding out somewhere from wind or rain. Usually getting caught up on the barb wire from the neighbors fence. I agree... Time for a walk and go find the short.
 
Ebenezer":3i4bs4ze said:
Another dumb statement. Until the tester arrives, a walk at night will sometimes show a slight spark at the point that is shorted out.
Click to expand...
Who made the dumb statement??
 
If there is wire any where around......old fence wire, old electric fence wire, it always seems to find the electric fence sooner or later. Don't know how it happens but it does.
 
Plastic or porcelain insulators. I've had the plastic ones wear down until the wire shorts out. the porcelain can crack but most likely will hear it sparking.
 
Having a few switches around on your fence are handy to be able to isolate various sections and help greatly with finding fault, you can often narrow it down to a lot smaller section needing to be checked. They don't cost much either.

Ken
 

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