annmariemz23
Well-known member
I read through the previous threads about solar fences, and am still have some questions about my set-up that I haven't seen answers for. I have not used electric fence for several years, having gotten discouraged each time I tried it. I am retired now from a demanding teaching job, and because of the drought and forest fires that burned up our summer range, I am pretty desperate to get more out of our home pastures.
Grounding: I thought my previous problems were from our dry, heavy clay soil and merely grounding to an existing barbed wire fence with t-posts. So I did a trial run on a line designed to keep the hogs from pushing under our perimeter fence. I grounded it with three aluminum rods 10 feet apart and 6' deep. (We actually have an aquifer that is anywhere from 14' underground to ground level in winter in a wet year, but we are suffering a severe drought now. I would guess aquifer is at 8' at least.)
Wire: I used some of our previously used twine with 6 steel strands in it. The twine seemed to be in good shape, no stretched places and few if any splices. All splices were correctly done with the wire peeled away from the fibers and twisted together.
Battery: Old battery was toast, so we got a new one.
Success so far: Made me feel all warm and fuzzy to find that the hogs only shorted the wire at first, and now it is rarely compromised. No hog damage near the wired up part of the perimeter.
Strip grazing heifers: Built a line with pigtail posts and pencil-rod grape stakes, having 2 lines with the 6-wire twine running for 947 feet. The last piece of twine I spliced in had some rough places and bubbled up wire, but I couldn't see any breaks. Put in 3 stainless ground stakes 10' apart. Used another unit with an old battery, I don't know how old, but the gauge on the side of it showed it pegging its arrow to the top of the green area. When I turned the heifers in, I watched until they nosed the wire. It backed them off. It also bit me when I fumbled with it. They happily munched away, but the next evening we got home at dusk to find two of them out. Gotta love my cow dogs!!!!
Fixed it the next day by adding a new line of new string with 6 steel wires and 3 copper ones, and by extending the grazing area. Turned heifers back in. Happy happy girls. But the next evening, I watched them push by the strings with no reaction. I had insane panic since I didn't want a repeat of previous failures, so I opened a piece of fence into a permanently fenced field that was to be their next destination.
Charger: When turned on, its click sounds anemic to me and did even when it actually shocked the one heifer's nose. But the gauge on the side of the unit still pegged at the top of the green. My fence tester that shows lights that indicate the amount of voltage depending on how many lights are lit showed nothing. But my little blue tester that just has one light, lit up across the terminals, and from hot terminal to ground, but not from hot "wire" to ground. I adjusted the aluminum wire from the hot terminal to coil tightly around the twine for 1 inch rather than to twist loosely along the twine. Tried again from the coil to ground. The light lit up. Clicking still anemic sounding.
Questions:
1. How do I know if I still have a problem, if my problem is the old piece of twine that visibly looks ok, but...?? or if I need a new battery or panel, or if my ground is just too dry? I didn't take the battery out because of the gauge reading. Can the gauge read at the top of the green if the battery or panel are weak? I ask this especially because my brain doesn't like the sound of the click of the unit. It seems like it used to be (years ago) louder. (Also, I know if I am using 9 strand twine, I need to ultimately replace it all with 9-strand because it can only carry the amperage of the fewest number of wires which is 6 at this point. I plan to do this before stringing up the new section. I am afraid to string up a new section before I can determine that each wire has maximum voltage, or amperage, or energy, or whatever it is I am supposed to be measuring. )
2. It is extremely difficult to find ground rods, and we have some aluminum rods. Is this bad because of the different kinds of metal? Will it work for a season? When I search for aluminum ground rods they don't even seem to be a thing. Is there a problem here? Otherwise ground rods are copper and super expensive or otherwise galvanized, but hard to find in the People's Republic of California.
3. Would I be able to answer my questions by buying an electric fence fault-finder?
4. To tie into a single line of twine with a gate hook, is there any kind of metal plate available to hook on to? It seems like a pair of plates screwed together on the twine would make a good contact for a gate hook. Alternatively, instead should I replace my hog prevention wire near the ground with wire instead of twine so I can hook on to it with a gate hook mechanism?
Any suggestions to my dilemma would be welcomed!
Grounding: I thought my previous problems were from our dry, heavy clay soil and merely grounding to an existing barbed wire fence with t-posts. So I did a trial run on a line designed to keep the hogs from pushing under our perimeter fence. I grounded it with three aluminum rods 10 feet apart and 6' deep. (We actually have an aquifer that is anywhere from 14' underground to ground level in winter in a wet year, but we are suffering a severe drought now. I would guess aquifer is at 8' at least.)
Wire: I used some of our previously used twine with 6 steel strands in it. The twine seemed to be in good shape, no stretched places and few if any splices. All splices were correctly done with the wire peeled away from the fibers and twisted together.
Battery: Old battery was toast, so we got a new one.
Success so far: Made me feel all warm and fuzzy to find that the hogs only shorted the wire at first, and now it is rarely compromised. No hog damage near the wired up part of the perimeter.
Strip grazing heifers: Built a line with pigtail posts and pencil-rod grape stakes, having 2 lines with the 6-wire twine running for 947 feet. The last piece of twine I spliced in had some rough places and bubbled up wire, but I couldn't see any breaks. Put in 3 stainless ground stakes 10' apart. Used another unit with an old battery, I don't know how old, but the gauge on the side of it showed it pegging its arrow to the top of the green area. When I turned the heifers in, I watched until they nosed the wire. It backed them off. It also bit me when I fumbled with it. They happily munched away, but the next evening we got home at dusk to find two of them out. Gotta love my cow dogs!!!!
Fixed it the next day by adding a new line of new string with 6 steel wires and 3 copper ones, and by extending the grazing area. Turned heifers back in. Happy happy girls. But the next evening, I watched them push by the strings with no reaction. I had insane panic since I didn't want a repeat of previous failures, so I opened a piece of fence into a permanently fenced field that was to be their next destination.
Charger: When turned on, its click sounds anemic to me and did even when it actually shocked the one heifer's nose. But the gauge on the side of the unit still pegged at the top of the green. My fence tester that shows lights that indicate the amount of voltage depending on how many lights are lit showed nothing. But my little blue tester that just has one light, lit up across the terminals, and from hot terminal to ground, but not from hot "wire" to ground. I adjusted the aluminum wire from the hot terminal to coil tightly around the twine for 1 inch rather than to twist loosely along the twine. Tried again from the coil to ground. The light lit up. Clicking still anemic sounding.
Questions:
1. How do I know if I still have a problem, if my problem is the old piece of twine that visibly looks ok, but...?? or if I need a new battery or panel, or if my ground is just too dry? I didn't take the battery out because of the gauge reading. Can the gauge read at the top of the green if the battery or panel are weak? I ask this especially because my brain doesn't like the sound of the click of the unit. It seems like it used to be (years ago) louder. (Also, I know if I am using 9 strand twine, I need to ultimately replace it all with 9-strand because it can only carry the amperage of the fewest number of wires which is 6 at this point. I plan to do this before stringing up the new section. I am afraid to string up a new section before I can determine that each wire has maximum voltage, or amperage, or energy, or whatever it is I am supposed to be measuring. )
2. It is extremely difficult to find ground rods, and we have some aluminum rods. Is this bad because of the different kinds of metal? Will it work for a season? When I search for aluminum ground rods they don't even seem to be a thing. Is there a problem here? Otherwise ground rods are copper and super expensive or otherwise galvanized, but hard to find in the People's Republic of California.
3. Would I be able to answer my questions by buying an electric fence fault-finder?
4. To tie into a single line of twine with a gate hook, is there any kind of metal plate available to hook on to? It seems like a pair of plates screwed together on the twine would make a good contact for a gate hook. Alternatively, instead should I replace my hog prevention wire near the ground with wire instead of twine so I can hook on to it with a gate hook mechanism?
Any suggestions to my dilemma would be welcomed!