Posted 2009-05-03 10:47 PM (#104408) Subject: Electric Fence Question
Veteran
Posts: 114 Location: Home of the WNFR at Christmas
We just ringed our little pasture, about an acre, with trees and to keep the horses from thinking they are snacks we put up a two strand hot poly-rope fence.
We seem to be having some grounding problems to get a good jolt out of it, any one that has used this type of fencing got any tips ?
Right now it is set up as the top rope is hot, the lower is ground and then a ground into a rod in the earth, that seemed to be the only way to get a decent jolt.
Just to add to the fun we live in the dry hot desert outside of Las Vegas.
Posted 2009-05-04 12:46 PM (#104422 - in reply to #104408) Subject: RE: Electric Fence Question
Elite Veteran
Posts: 781 Location: La Cygne, KS
This may sound silly, but have you watered the earth/rocks where your ground rod is? We've poured water on the ground to get a good charge on the portable fence when we traveled to rocky areas. That seemed to do the trick. You might have to add some good dirt to get a zippy charge.
Also, is your charger solar or electric? If Solar, it takes awhile to get the battery fully charged to get a good zap.
Posted 2009-05-04 1:35 PM (#104429 - in reply to #104408) Subject: RE: Electric Fence Question
Veteran
Posts: 114 Location: Home of the WNFR at Christmas
I did water the ground rod, actually moved it to a treewell earlier today, that is watered 2 times daily. I am using a plug in charger so that should not be the issue.
Posted 2009-05-05 11:14 AM (#104482 - in reply to #104408) Subject: RE: Electric Fence Question
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 455 Location: Texas
That's a common problem in dry soil. One solution is, instead of having all your strands hot, make one of them a ground strand. Ground it to the ground rod and charger. Then, when a horse touches a hot strand and the ground strand, the conductivity of the soil does not matter.
Posted 2009-05-06 2:16 AM (#104529 - in reply to #104408) Subject: RE: Electric Fence Question
Regular
Posts: 67 Location: Alberta
You may have to use copper bonded and/or multiple ground rods to get a proper ground. You can join 2 rods getting down to hopefully a better ground, or multiple single units connect by copper wire.Before you go to all this trouble, you may want to test your fencer with a known good ground.
Electric Fence Question
