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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 303
| TwistedK- what brand is your fencing? |
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 Firecracker Dog Lover
Posts: 3175
  
| MT - you are in snow country and trust me when I say that the white tape and rope strands are a PITA when it snows heavily. It must be stretched and tacked on TIGHT every 6-7 feet or so or it will absolutely sag under the weight of snow. MY PSA for the day. :) |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | Use more charger than you think you need. Ground it really well. I just use galvanized wire. The more strands the better, I suppose. All my life we just used one strand about waste high on an average height man. Post were rebar. I like the plug ins better. We have barb wire pastures and just run a strand of hot wire to make it safe.
Edited by Tdove 2015-07-14 7:06 PM
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 Regular
Posts: 53
| I installed electric tape over about 1.5 square miles of turnout and pasture in between the rails of our RAMM Horse last year.
I used a Zareba Red Snapr'. It's a 6 volt, low impedance, and I used 2 strands of 2 inch tape, but as I said this is in between 4 rows of vinyl fencing. As a standalone fence I'd use 4 or 5 rows as I have a terrible clan of escape artists...
I also have an older Zareba which I run from an extension cord. Like everything else, everything that works best was made in the "olden days." Olden days for this box being about 15 years ago. The non-solar box is like old reliable; whenever my solar goes down, I hook it up and I know it'll work. Either way, once your horses touch it, most will stay away. Most. I have 4 braves who test it out every now and then to make sure it's on.
The grounding system and connection of the wiring took me about 3 hours. Since I don't like asking for help, I avoided the males in my life and learned how to do the grounding system with the pamphlet that came in the box (it's online too). It's pretty simple. Digging the trenches to run under gates is the hardest part. It looks nice and has held up well, but lately, I've been eyeing the Electrobraid.
As a side note, with Zareba, if for some reason you need a repair, you might have to ship your box out as most certified repair places are in another state. For this reason, I wish I'd looked at other brands. Other than that, my best advice is to use tape (or Electrobraid) not just for safety but for visibility, use copper rods instead of rebar, and make sure you place the rods in an area where the ground isn't dry as a bone since it'll have a hard time generating the charge.
Edited by heartswideopen 2015-07-14 7:45 PM
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 Total Germophobe
Posts: 6443
Location: Montana | Thanks for more ideas. We put the electric fence in in April and have had really good luck so far. |
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 Off the Wall Wacky
Posts: 2981
Location: Louisiana | lonely va barrelxr - 2015-04-12 8:48 AM
I separated my dry lot years ago with electric tape. Southern States was carrying a taller pole with more holders that I string 4 lines on. I want them to see and respect that line and 2 lines just didn't seem to get their attention. I do restring it almost always once a year. I use the skinny tape. I'd rather use the skinny rope, but it doesn't have as much visual presence. My theory is - if one is going to go through they're going to go through, so I want a fence that won't give me a vet bill if they do.
THIS. I had a very scary, stupid experience over the weekend that involved me and my horse both getting tangled in loose string on the ground. I was not using my brain and really could've been seriously injured. I still ended up with some beautiful rope burns on both my legs bc of course I had shorts on. That string was still tied to a post so it would have broken had the horse taken off with it still on his leg. The tape-he would've had a broken leg when that hit. And I could've been drug. Again, stupid, stupid, painful lack of judgement that won't happen again. I always thought I preferred the tape for visibility, but if rather the string pop if and when one hits it. You just never know. Ours is very strong too, part of the reason the horse freaked when he realized it was "hot" wire on him. |
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 Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | brlraceaddict - 2015-07-14 6:08 PM
MT - you are in snow country and trust me when I say that the white tape and rope strands are a PITA when it snows heavily. It must be stretched and tacked on TIGHT every 6-7 feet or so or it will absolutely sag under the weight of snow. MY PSA for the day. :)
This is a good point that I never thought about. Some things need to be cleared up here... A solar fence is by definition a DC powered fence because it charges a battery that powers the fence through the night. This would make a good backup for when the power goes off. I would look for a tape that is not so strong as to be unbreakable if a horse gets tangled up in it. The thin, high tensile wires can cause horrible damage.
You can rob a horse of it's ability to causally test the condition of a fence if you remove the horse's whiskers. I've seen horses use their whiskers to check if a fence is hot... The tingle they get through a whisker is not as great as the shock through direct contact with skin. Something to keep in mind if your horse used to never test a fence but now does because the whiskers were allowed to grow out. Same thing with using flag-tape. While it allows greater viability, it also creates a way to test the fence without being nailed with the full force of the power in the fence.
Edited by komet. 2015-07-14 10:08 PM
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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | We use just one strand and have never had a horse, bull, or cow go through it. We have real fencing keeping them off the road, but everything inside that is separating everyone from each other is just single strand electric fence. |
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 Bulls Eye
Posts: 6443
Location: Oklahoma | go4broke - 2015-07-14 5:04 PM
TwistedK- what brand is your fencing?
Zareba (Spelling?) from Tractor Supply. Have the 3 mile solar charger with 3 ground rods and then the fencing. Works like a charm. |
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Bulls Eye
Posts: 6443
Location: Oklahoma | We just moved to a new property and set it up again. Works great. I haven't lit this up yet but it will be tonight.
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