Portable Electric Fence Question

[lachelle]

Basically I need “Electric Fencing for Dummies”

Going on an overnight trail ride this weekend and have never had to camp overnight with the horses. The high line makes me nervous because my gelding is a little weird about tying sometimes. He has been in (and respects) electric fencing. We have been loaned a portable electric fence charger that runs off of D-Cell batteries. This one to be exact:
http://www.zarebasystems.com/store/electric-fence-chargers/b10li

So we have been loaned the electric tape, the charger, and the posts. I’m pretty sure I will still need to purchase a grounding rod. I’m not sure where to go from here. Can anyone provide me any links to a good place that will instruct me on how to setup a temporary electric fence? I have been googling but can’t really find anything detailed. Most of the sites I’ve found say really vague things like “install grounding rod and connect to charger” but I’m not sure what length of rod I will need, or anything else.

[quarterhorse4me]

Those chargers work pretty well on a temporary basis but take spare batteries. I am not an “how to” guru, but I do camp with a portable fence all the time. Some of your ground rod length depends on the terrain where you are camping. If you are in relatively soft/moist soil a two foot ground rod works fine with about a foot pounded in the ground. If you are in compact, dry soil you will want to try to drive it a little deeper; say two to three feet. Also, if you pour a bucket or two of water slowly around the rod to saturate the ground and keep it moist that helps in dry areas. Take an electric fence tester (about $15 a TSC) for peace of mind.

I drive my rods considerably deeper at my barn but again we are talking a temporary pen. If my horses just hear the charger popping they will not get near it.

[Heart_s_Journey]

great advice from the above poster. The only thing I have to add is the ground pole should be copper and I have bought mine at Home Depot. Get a solid one as it won’t bend like the hollow ones. I’ve had my solid ground pole for at least 12 years and use it 12-15 times a year.

[tabula_rashah]

I camp with my horses often and use a portable electric fence. I’ve got it down to a science and get the whole thing set up in under 10 mins. For a ground rod, I just got a piece of steel from the hardware store- not sure what it’s actually supposed to be for? but it’s about 4’ long and I had my DH grind the end that goes into the ground into a little bit of a point. I bring along a rubber mallet to bang it into the ground with if I can’t just push it and I bring a pair of vice grips to pull it out if it gets stuck.
I’ve used the same charger you have shown and it does great- packs a mighty punch and the batteries last for several weekends (although I always carry spare in case). I also have one of these that you hang on the fence and it will flash if the fence is not working (great at night because you could easily see that the fence is not working)
I’d suggest that you just practice setting up once at home before you go, but here’s the set up steps I do:

1. Lay out the posts where I want to put them in (I always make the “gate” right next to my trailer tack room door) then push them in.
2. Starting at the top I go thread the posts with the tape and when I get to the last post (which I have placed right next to the trailer to make the trailer part of the fence), I just run the tape down a notch or two on the post and go back the way I started with the tape. Then repeat so that I have a 3 strand fence. I do not string the tape across the gate area- I have pre-cut pieces for the gate with handles attached that I then loop over the post where I started (making sure they are touching the other tape to carry the current).
3. Then I drive the ground pole next to the post where I started running the tape and hook up the charger to the fence and the ground pole. I have a crate that I keep the charger, tape, mallet, etc in and I turn that upside down to set the charger on.
4. Sometimes if I have a new horse or I am worried about them with the fence, I’ll hang plastic marking tape off the fence so that it makes a bigger visual for the horses.

[hosspuller]

I can give two bits of advice:

Run two stands of tape. One high and one low to discourage nibbling under the tape. (horsey reaches under fence and then raises head. Panic ensues when tape is around ears and shocking him.)

Use a screw-in ground tie. (looks like a huge corkscrew) Don’t need to pound it in or strain to pull it out. The screw form provides lots of earth contact area. Merely twist with a stick though the handle.

[tabula_rashah]

[QUOTE=hosspuller;7564812]

Use a screw-in ground tie. (looks like a huge corkscrew) Don’t need to pound it in or strain to pull it out. The screw form provides lots of earth contact area. Merely twist with a stick though the handle.[/QUOTE]

I love this idea! Does it work okay in super rocky areas?

[BigHorseLittleHorse]

I would also suggest staking out the corner poles – it makes the pen much more secure (especially if it’s windy or the ground is soft), and it prevents the tape from sagging. I use reflective paracord from EMS (they sell it by the foot, so you don’t have to buy a huge reel of it; reflective so you don’t trip over it at night) and tent stakes. Two stakes per corner making a triangle with the pole, with the paracord running up from one stake, wrapped around the top of the pole, down to the other stake. Make sure the paracord does NOT touch the electric tape for obvious reasons

[katarine]

Stake the corners- agreed

screw in tie out check - agreed

two strands- agreed

take a tester with you so you know it’s hot.

In a pinch we’ve driven a couple of tent stakes and used that as a ground rod- still got 4000 volts.

[tabula_rashah]

PS- I also love the extra tall step in posts that BigHorseLittleHorse turned me on to.

[Simbalism]

I have that charger and it works great. I use step in posts for my fence. I attach the charger to the grounding rod. I think I have a picture of my setup somewhere. Well, here is one picture. to the right of the picture is my gate. I attached a metal ring to one of the posts and then I put the gate handle on the tape and hook it to the ring. I got the taller step in posts because my mare was trained to jump when she was younger and I didn’t want to think she could pop out over the shorter posts. My charger doesn’t show in this picture, but the ground rod is a little ways to the right of the gate with the charger attached. In the picture you can see that I put a short step in post to attach water bucket to so my horse can’t knock it over as easy. I also got a flat pan to feed grain in. https://www.flickr.com/photos/simbalism/3565389077/
Oh, here is another pic. In the corner you can see the flat feed pan. I also use tent stakes and small rope to stake the corners to keep the fence from being saggy.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/simbalism/3416611415/
Oh, and you can not have too many bungy cords or tarps. Here is a pic of redneck camping with some friends. We had gone to camp the night before a poker ride and it was threatening rain and very windy. We parked our rigs close together and improvised…hehe. https://www.flickr.com/photos/simbalism/2949233590/

[Simbalism]

I also use the reflective cord. I could just see myself tripping over the stakes heading to the porty. Another tip someone gave me was to put a glow stick on your horse’s halter so you can look out and locate horse at night.

[Guilherme]

How tall are your “step in” posts?

G.

[tabula_rashah]

[QUOTE=Guilherme;7566382]
How tall are your “step in” posts?

G.[/QUOTE]

The ones I use are 64"- I am really leery of using the 48" ones

[lachelle]

Thanks SO much to everyone for their responses so far. This has helped immensely!

So, I’m only finding the ground rods in an 8-foot version. I feel like that is way too big to be driving in the ground on private/public property. Maybe I’m wrong (again, never done this before). Can someone let me know if this is too big? Or perhaps where I could find a shorter one? Maybe its possible to buy the 8 foot rod and have someone cut it down to size?

[katarine]

Get the screw in tie out thingie from ANY pet supply store and use that instead. That’ll be just fine.

[lachelle]

The longest I can find is 18". This is sufficient in making a good ground connection?

[katarine]

YEP

[lachelle]

[QUOTE=katarine;7566804]
YEP[/QUOTE]

YOU ROCK :winkgrin:

[katarine]

LOL you’ll be fine. the small-ish corral won’t be much for that charger to power up and if you’re concerned, soften the ground around the screw-in with a little water- not much, just a little. But that’s more for you than anything else

Try it out at home and take your little tester with you, so you know it’s hot.

[hosspuller]

[QUOTE=lachelle;7566770]
The longest I can find is 18". This is sufficient in making a good ground connection?[/QUOTE]

I just measured mine… That 8 inches of screw is equal to 18 inches of ground rod if you were to stretch out the screw form.

If you were really concerned about earth contact, you could use two or more screws wired together. Proper earth grounding depends on moisture and contact area.