Ever tried cable for a hot wire?

[SBMF 2015]

I put up a hot wire every fall around about ten acres of crop residue for my cows to winter on. I’ve always used regular 12ga electric fence wire and T posts. The wire is a pain to wind back up in the spring.
I got to thinking that a light 1/8” cable would be easier to roll up in the spring.
Anybody ever tried it?

 

[504RP]

Have 20 acres under electric fence. The main problem I have with it is when it gets really dry like during this drought. It sometimes won’t work at all. Am pretty sure it’s because the ground rods aren’t making good ground. The only thing I would think might be a problem with using cable for hot wire is its resistance. Might not have the conductivity needed especially for long distance like your 10 acres.
I have ground beds two of them that have five copper ground rods at each end of the 20 acres. When it’s a normal wet year. The fence works great. When the drought first stared I added 4 more ground rods spaced around 200 foot apart and still didn’t help. I know you’re not supposed to run hot wire on the same post as barbed wire but I run 4 wires one of which is a ground. Got tired of breaking up bull fights. And as long as the ground stayed wet and the both bulls wasn’t completely crazy. It would keep them a part. Might stand their ground pawing the dirt for hours at a time but a couple times testing that wire with their nose they would move on.

 

[CowboyRam]

What if you used the lighter 14g wire? It might be a little easier to wind back up.

Or you could use this.

IntelliBraid® 6.0

6mm (1/4") dia. braided rope conductor for electric fences. Black/white color is easy for humans and livestock to see. Polyester for high UV-resistance.

www.premier1supplies.com

 

[Mountaintown Creek Ranch]

It was so dry up here this year that I lost my fence also and I have a array of 8 ft ground rods.
but with no moisture it doesn't work. So I ended up running a dedicated ground wire about 3 in from the hot wire.
After I got done working on it I was trying to check it with one of those crappy meters and It bit me and it seemed to work better than it ever has ! LOL

 

[SBMF 2015]

What if you used the lighter 14g wire? It might be a little easier to wind back up.

Or you could use this.

IntelliBraid® 6.0

6mm (1/4") dia. braided rope conductor for electric fences. Black/white color is easy for humans and livestock to see. Polyester for high UV-resistance.

www.premier1supplies.com

Come to think of it. It might be 14 not 12ga wire that I use.
Some guys around here use 17ga. It is pretty fragile.

 

[Springfieldsimm]

We run single strand electric fence around our hay fields every fall and divide up our main pasture year round with poly wire. It works great for us and is easy to wind up when we are done. We learned it is worth the money to spend extra on the 9 strand vs 6 strand poly wire.
The only problem we ever have of them coming out is if there happens to be a short somewhere or if we get an early snow it seems they can’t see it or the don’t care and go right through it.

 

[M.Magis]

Cable would certainly be easier to work with. But it might be cost prohibitive, it sure wouldn’t be cheap because you would at least need galvanized cable. I’d give another nod to polywire. Its much easier/faster to use, works well, and isn’t horribly expensive.

 

[Silver]

My problem is I like the 1/4” poly and it is a pain to wind up. I’d like to be able to put 1/2 mile on a spool but seems no one sells a spool like that. Well, there is an outfit that makes one that is powered for $4,200 CAD but I’m not sure I want to go there lol

 

[Silver]

Some guys tell me they would never go back to poly after using cable for electric fence. I would wonder how well the cattle (and wildlife would) would see it. Might need to hang ribbons, I don’t know.

FE3000 Electric Fence Cable 1/16 x 3000'

Electric fence cable, Measures: 1/16" width x 3000'. Avaliable in wire, narrow tape, and wide tape.

paradisehillranchandwesternwear.com

 

[Stonewall Joe]

I put up a hot wire every fall around about ten acres of crop residue for my cows to winter on. I’ve always used regular 12ga electric fence wire and T posts. The wire is a pain to wind back up in the spring.
I got to thinking that a light 1/8” cable would be easier to roll up in the spring.
Anybody ever tried it?

we built a roller with a crank handle to roll it up on and it comes back off easily.

 

[lavacarancher]

I use the yellow and black poly stuff and I love it. Easy to put up, doesn't require nearly as much tension to keep it off the ground (sagging) and it rolls up real easy. Never had a problem with it.

 

[BFE]

Come to think of it. It might be 14 not 12ga wire that I use.
Some guys around here use 17ga. It is pretty fragile.

I hate the 17ga. It's like dental floss. I use 14 for going around my stalk fields.

I built a bracket to go into the receiver hitch to unspool/spool wire for the exact thing you're doing. I took one of the wire spools and attached a handle from a truck tarp to roll back up. Tie a small wrench to the far end of the wire to keep it from coiling up. It don't work too bad. I'll attach pictures later.

 

[Stonewall Joe]

My problem is I like the 1/4” poly and it is a pain to wind up. I’d like to be able to put 1/2 mile on a spool but seems no one sells a spool like that. Well, there is an outfit that makes one that is powered for $4,200 CAD but I’m not sure I want to go there lol

I made our spool out of 4" pvc as a shaft then I cut some 2x6 "plugs for stoppers at both ends and cut 2 spool ends out of plywood. I made the spool about 20" long. I drilled a hole through the plugs at the end and used a piece of 1/2" pipe for the axle and left it hanging out about a foot on both sides, then I drilled through the pvc with the plugs in it at both ends and secured the pipe axle inside with a bolt going through so the axle would spin the roller. A made a frame out of 2x4's for both ends shaped kind of like a roof truss and got 2 harbor freight wheels and tires and took the tires off and drilled 2 holes in my carrier so the pipe would go through and mounted the wheels on the carriers and ran the pipe through the axle hole so I had bearings on both ends and made a crank to torn the shaft and welded it on the end of the axle so you could turn it and trimmed the axles if it stuck out too far. I think we have about 3 or 4000' feet on it and could put more. It would be easy yo weld a nut on the end and use a cordless drill on it to roll it up. I had all the "stuff" to build it except for the tire and wheel assembly and they cost about 5 or 6 bucks apiece I think and it took about 3 hours to build including beer drinking and engineering time, yu could easily adjust the sizing and make it any size you want to accommodate how much wire you want on there. Ours will sit in the bed on a Mule

 

[Silver]

I made our spool out of 4" pvc as a shaft then I cut some 2x6 "plugs for stoppers at both ends and cut 2 spool ends out of plywood. I made the spool about 20" long. I drilled a hole through the plugs at the end and used a piece of 1/2" pipe for the axle and left it hanging out about a foot on both sides, then I drilled through the pvc with the plugs in it at both ends and secured the pipe axle inside with a bolt going through so the axle would spin the roller. A made a frame out of 2x4's for both ends shaped kind of like a roof truss and got 2 harbor freight wheels and tires and took the tires off and drilled 2 holes in my carrier so the pipe would go through and mounted the wheels on the carriers and ran the pipe through the axle hole so I had bearings on both ends and made a crank to torn the shaft and welded it on the end of the axle so you could turn it and trimmed the axles if it stuck out too far. I think we have about 3 or 4000' feet on it and could put more. It would be easy yo weld a nut on the end and use a cordless drill on it to roll it up. I had all the "stuff" to build it except for the tire and wheel assembly and they cost about 5 or 6 bucks apiece I think and it took about 3 hours to build including beer drinking and engineering time, yu could easily adjust the sizing and make it any size you want to accommodate how much wire you want on there. Ours will sit in the bed on a Mule

I’d like to see a picture of that

 

[Stonewall Joe]

I’d like to see a picture of that

I'll try to get a pic if I go out to the shed today

 

[Stonewall Joe]

h

I’d like to see a picture of that

here's some pics. One mistake I made in explanation is I thought I had made the axle out of pipe, I actually made it out of a piece of 5/8 all-thread. This thing works great and saves us a ton of time and can be scaled to make it as big as you want. I made the crank handle out of an old bicycle training wheel. I'll probably build a stronger one. I think one of my boys stepped on it and bent it. Hope this helps

 

[Silver]

Thanks for sharing

 

[SDM]

I use cable for electric gates where I have pasture divided with a single strand. Found a spool on clearance for a penny a foot. It was almost full and the cashier got tired of counting and asked if I was ok calling it half. It works great because it doesn't want to coil up, just lays down like string. It's big enough that they see it too.

Would it be strong enough to pull tight without a lot of sag? If so and it wasn't cost prohibitive I think it would work fine.

 

[BFE]