Electric fence problems

[Rob30]

Anyone having trouble with their electric fences? Ours is not giving a very strong shock. I think the ground is getting to dry. Our water table is pretty low right now. We have two 8ft galvinized grounding rods so I think that should be lots of ground. I am fencing goats, sheep, cattle in. Bears, wolves and cyotes out. Usually my fencer gives off about 8000 volts. Right now its onlt about 4000.

[bill not in oh]

Water the ground rods - 40-50 gal per rod. If it doesn't improve your situation you can replace one or more of the hot wires with a grounded one wired into the charger or attached to the ground rod; or simply add a grounded one between two of the hot ones. Just make sure there's plenty of clearance between them so they don't short out. If you do this the entire fence will have a full charge between the ground/hot wire and the earth to hot will remain the same.

[caberjim]

Add a third rod. Most installs suggest at least 3. other option - if you have a ground wire run around, put another grounding rod or two at the farthest location. Before any of that, tho - look for a grounded short as that is generally the most likely reason for the low output.

[Ken Scharabok]

I agree with Bill. Let a garden hose run at a low flow over each of the rods overnight.

[Sand Flat Bob]

Originally Posted by Rob30

Anyone having trouble with their electric fences? Ours is not giving a very strong shock. I think the ground is getting to dry. Our water table is pretty low right now. We have two 8ft galvinized grounding rods so I think that should be lots of ground. I am fencing goats, sheep, cattle in. Bears, wolves and cyotes out. Usually my fencer gives off about 8000 volts. Right now its onlt about 4000.

Don't know the type of soil you have, but in addition to the above, could add a little rock salt around ground rods, as a last resort. Will cause bad corrosion over time. If soil is sandy, my experience in Florida, the sand can cause a glaze of silica on the rod greatly increasing the resistance . There we drove ground rods up to 80 feet into the ground to water, before we had a decent ground.

I am sure you don't want to go to that expense for a fence, I was grounding expensive equip. to protect from lightning. But same principal applies to a 8 foot rod in some types of sand.

Bob

[Cindy in KY]

Yes, water the rods really really well. You can also pour water on the ground where they might be testing the fence, trying to get out. They will stand in the water and get a pop.

Also, if you have added a "T" anywhere to your lines, it could do that too. Ours shocks hot only when the wire is "one wire from beginning to end" - back/forth/back/forth, with no intersections, T's, etc. Also, ours does not work well on tree stumps that are now posts, must be something to do with the roots..

good luck, they can be a bugger to figure out sometimes.

[Gregg Alexander]

Pour water around the ground rods they are dry this time of yr and will not give a full shock to the animals

[ace admirer]

the serious fences use the alternating hot-ground wire...odd numbers of wires...bottom and top usually hot. the animal sticks his neck through. hot wire on one side, grounded the other..one heck of a circuit....

the rock salt around the rods is another method to get a earth ground....stainless steel rods (high grade of stainless) is used to lessen the effect of corrusion.

[Ole Man Legrand]

We have 5 strands of wire The next to the top is hooked to the ground rod. the other 4 are hot.Check the other 4 hot lines to the ground with an ohm meter to see if any of the hot lines are shorted to the ground rod.

[Hammer4]

I'm another one who adds a ground wire or two to my electric fence and tie it back to the ground rod at the charger....I don't do it so much so the animal has to hit a hot and ground wire to get shocked, though it does that as well very nicely. I do it so the size and length of the grounding field is extended along your entire fenceline...so any place an animal is standing on the ground and touches a hot wire, that animal is literally standing right next to a ground rod...so it shocks very well all along the fence, regardless of how dry it gets.

I know others disagree and maintain that an animal has to hit a hot and ground wire to benefit from the additional ground wire...but having that ground wire out along the length of the fence when you are attaching it to a metal t-post, makes for a wicked shock out at the end of the fence, even in the driest of summers.

[bill not in oh]

I've seen grounding done this way before and it's very effective. It's actually necessary to do if your fenceline extends more than about a half mile from your primary grounding rods unless you have really special, moist soil and/or a very high water table.

[michiganfarmer]

Originally Posted by Rob30

Anyone having trouble with their electric fences? Ours is not giving a very strong shock. I think the ground is getting to dry. Our water table is pretty low right now. We have two 8ft galvinized grounding rods so I think that should be lots of ground. I am fencing goats, sheep, cattle in. Bears, wolves and cyotes out. Usually my fencer gives off about 8000 volts. Right now its onlt about 4000.

YUP!

very dry dirt here too. no rain in 5 weeks. I think the cattle are not getting grounded because the earth is so dry

[hoofinitnorth]

How many joules is your charger? How many strands are you running? What is the total linear footage of your fenceline on that charger? Are you grounding out anywhere that you don't intend to (weeds, brush, trees, etc. hitting the fence)?

The fences we put up at our old place were HOT HOT HOT - a 9-joule charger and 5 strands of 1.5" tape - alternating dark/light colors & ground vs. hot. Worked GREAT all year 'round, especially in the winter when the snow cover could insulate the horses from grounding a shock.

We didn't do that here and wish we had. Will probably change the fences here soon to the old system of hot ground hot ground hot.