Any opinions? There’s a significant price difference with Centaur being $600 for 660 ft and Ramm being $430.
I know the centaur can be made hot.
Not sure where you got the centaur price. We put some of the flex rail up last year and it cost us $459 a roll, for the non electric.
We live about an hour from where the Centaur fence is manufactured so obviously it made sense for us to go with that brand, we saved a lot of money by cutting out freight. I’ve been very happy with Centaur.
You can buy Centaur Fencing through Home Depot and have it shipped free to your local store. See this link:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/CenFlex-5-in-x-660-ft-Black-Flexible-Rail-Horse-Fence-381053/203553048
$397.20 for a 660 foot roll.
The Centaur fencing accessories are sold at Home Depot, also.
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We have Centaur and it is worth the $$. I can’t say how it compares to Ramm, though.
We have the Centaur HTP and it has been great, definitely worth the initial $$$ outlay. The Centaur sold at Home Depot is, I believe, the cheaper Cenflex. So make sure you are comparing the same product line when price shopping. I have no experience with Ramm, so can’t compare to that, but recall back when we were making our choice, the hardware was one big diff between Centaur vs. Ramm.
We did three rails of Centaur HTP, but since then I have seen a single rail at top with multiple lines of the White Lightning (covered single wire, can be hot or not, and comes in the same colors as the rails) and really liked the looks, plus think that could cut the cost and make installation a little easier. kind of wish I’d done that, but when we built ours, I was under the impression the single wire stuff only came in white, but I’ve since found out that was wrong. We wanted brown as our place is pretty NW/Craftsman style and the white would just be ugly here.
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I was looking at Centaur HTP and I had to have it shipped 
Didn’t know Homedepot sold the cenflex…maybe I just do that and put up a line of white lightening at the top?
It looks like Home Depot doesn’t include any of the brackets with the CenFlex.
We put up the CenFlex last year and although it is the ‘cheaper’ of their products it is still very nice and comes with the 20 year warranty. Our price was a little higher than Home Depots but it included the brackets.
I just noticed you are also in Washington. Yes, shipping here makes the price crazy. You should contact BasqueMom on here as she is a Centaur dealer and might be able to advise you. When we got ours, 10 (?) years ago, we bought through Coastal Farm Supply in Oregon. We did a package deal with them for everything (posts, gates, etc.) and our fencing contractor picked it up. I’m not sure who else local carries it and not even sure Coastal still does.
I have Ramm fence and love it. https://www.facebook.com/347546461986279/photos/a.347546808652911.65310225.347546461986279/347546821986243/?type=1&theater
We did not like the Centaur tensioning devices when we put ours in (10 yrs ago now) Ramm at that time had easier tensioning, also had buckles which meant we could run LONG distances without ending the rails only when needed to. Our longest distance was 1800 ft or so if I remember correctly. We put over 10,000 ft in ourselves. Once posts went in, the rails go up pretty easy.
I just put up Cenflex I purchased through Home Depot. ( Actually I paid someone to do it.) About ten years ago I put Ramm over V mesh and I like the Cenflex a lot better than the Ramm I used back then. But both types of fence and the tensioners have improved a lot since then.
The installer I used who puts up a lot of Centaur and Ramm told me there were two "grades’ of Centaur and he didn’t see the need to buy the more expensive grade. So I didn’t. What I bought looks very nice.
The best things about buying from Home Depot: no freight charges ( and freight on this stuff is expensive); I could pick it up from the store with my truck at my convenience ( otherwise I would have to pay to have a forklift at my house when the delivery truck showed up and I work an hour away from my house); and everything I ordered and didn’t use I took back to Home Depot and they credited my credit card. Just more things to consider.
Susan, Khall, others, what size round (width) did you use for your line fencing?
[QUOTE=TrotTrotPumpkn;8096500]
Susan, Khall, others, what size round (width) did you use for your line fencing?[/QUOTE]
Are you asking about post? If so we used 4"x8’ CCA Treated for line post and 6"x8’ CCA Treated for corners and brace post.
[QUOTE=SouthernYankee;8096712]
Are you asking about post? If so we used 4"x8’ CCA Treated for line post and 6"x8’ CCA Treated for corners and brace post.[/QUOTE]
This sounds like what we did as well. The Centaur instructions are pretty specific, IIRC, about what to use and especially important to brace ends and corners as directed.
So you would recommend buying the rolls of fencing from Home Depot and ordering the brackets from the company?
Another question: Since the area where the fencing will be placed is in an area with a lot of wildlife–biggest is bears–would you do four rail or electrified three rail? And do you need a come-along to put up the rail portion or is it tight enough if you just unroll it and put it in the brackets?
Thanks.
[QUOTE=Hermein;8097321]
So you would recommend buying the rolls of fencing from Home Depot and ordering the brackets from the company?
Another question: Since the area where the fencing will be placed is in an area with a lot of wildlife–biggest is bears–would you do four rail or electrified three rail? And do you need a come-along to put up the rail portion or is it tight enough if you just unroll it and put it in the brackets?
Thanks.[/QUOTE]
There are tensioners specifically made for the rail. http://www.centaurfencing.com/cen-flex.html For the coated wire you can use a line or termination point tensioner (or possibly both depending on your run) and tighten there. http://www.kiwifence.com/strainers.php (for example).
You use a ratchet for both.
[QUOTE=Hermein;8097321]
Another question: Since the area where the fencing will be placed is in an area with a lot of wildlife–biggest is bears–would you do four rail or electrified three rail? And do you need a come-along to put up the rail portion or is it tight enough if you just unroll it and put it in the brackets?[/QUOTE]
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It’ll need to be electric to keep the bears out. We have 4 rail and love that look, plus it’s 5’ tall. We got longhorn cows last fall and ended up adding 3 strands of coated wire (electric) in between the 5" rails after the bull decided the neighbors winter greens tasted better than his hay… Nothing touches that fence now and nothing is going to go through it. I’m not familiar with keeping bears in or out of fence but I can tell you that there isn’t much that is going to keep a longhorn bull contained if he doesn’t want to be.
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It’s easy to hand tighten the fence before you get it in the ratchets. Just pull it tight, cut, tighten. With hand tightening we still only ratcheted about 2-3" of slack out of the fence.
For posts we used round and half rounds. Rounds are 8" diameter creosote and half rounds are half that. Bracing is essential for corners and for curves we used full round posts 4’ down with 160 lbs concrete per post. They are not going anywhere!! Love love my fencing, have had many horsie saves due to my fencing, last one was a month ago when my yearling decided to somehow get wedged under the bottom rail with head, neck and front legs on outside of fence. I had to loosen the bottom 2 rails and she was able to shimmy out with no scratches and just retighten the fence, no damage done. I have had horses run full tilt into (one time found hoof prints 8" outside fence line) with not a mark on the horse and no damage to the fence. It is pretty to look at and oh so safe/functional.
I find this fencing intriguing. It looks very nice and sounds strong but for some reason it still worries me. Do you use it for only interior cross-fencing, or an entire exterior fence for pasture? We have round posts and 3-board fencing that I’d like to replace with something that requires less maintenance. Honestly, I find it all a bit confusing about how much/what I’d need.
Do regular fencing people install this, or do you get recommendations from the companies, or ???
For those of you who have it, what was the total price per square foot that you paid (excluding putting the posts in)?
Pocket P, Why are you concerned about the fencing? I have 4 rails, they are 4.25 wide black with 12 gauge high tensile wire in the vinyl rails. It looks fabulous and is MUCH safer than wood fencing, other wire fencing. The only issues I have had with it is that if a horse paws at it and is shod they will hang up in it and pull the shoe most of the time. I do have 2 that will stick their heads through the rails to eat grass on the outside, rails though are too close together for them to get their big bodies through it (why I have 4 rails instead of 3). Much much less maintenance than wood and so much safer with the same visibility.
Centaur has a video that does a good job illustrating the safety: YouTube I had the tree fall scenario occur here this winter but it won’t be quite as easy to fix as the tree broke the post off under ground as well. But the Centaur itself is still intact, just a little mushed in the bracket, and we will fix the post this summer.
We used the Centaur just for our pasture perimeter, then cross fenced with HorseGuard tape on covered t-posts. All brown to match. I wanted the cross fencing to be movable in case I changed my configuration, which has happened.
My cost would be from too long ago to be relevant - I’d contact a dealer with a schematic and have them help with planning and numbers.
