Using a car battery to power a (very small) electric fence?

[Beaudacious22]

Hi all,

My riding friends and I are considering doing a trail riding trip this year, one of the places we are looking into has posts set up for fencing but you need to bring your own tape/charger. We all board so cannot bring the charger from home with us. I was wondering if there was any way to use a car battery to power the fence for 2-3 nights? We could unplug it when we are out riding to save juice. Just to clarify the battery in question will be an old truck batter that still has some life in it, not one currently being used on a vehicle. Also, the area being charged would probably be 2-3 strands and roughly 4 12x12ish areas. Is there any way of making this set up work? or does anyone have other suggestions short of buying a solar charger/round pen panels? Thanks!

[Guilherme]

The short answer is “probably yes” but whether or not is would work is another question.

The first “solar” charger we bought almost 20 years ago was a solar panel on a big, black box that contained a small car battery and a standard “pulsing” charger. That thing never ran out of charge. But it was not just a “car battery hooked up to fence.”

A small solar powered charger and some tape and gates are not all that expensive. Hit your Co-Op or TSC or whatever and price what you need.

G.

[Simbalism]

I bought a fence charger at local feed store for around $75. It takes 4 D batteries. You can get them cheaper(I was paranoid and instead of getting the basic, I went with one with more power). I think the one I have could do miles of fencing, hehe…

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=Simbalism;6249397]
I bought a fence charger at local feed store for around $75. It takes 4 D batteries. You can get them cheaper(I was paranoid and instead of getting the basic, I went with one with more power). I think the one I have could do miles of fencing, hehe…[/QUOTE]

That is better for a portable electric fence.

We used to have car batteries for fence chargers years ago, before the solar ones and you had to keep changing the battery every few days and go charge the used up one.

The ones with car batteries used to really carry a punch, be careful if you use those.

[Frank_B]

Make sure of the voltage your fence charger requires. Most of the small and medium sizes run on six volts. Car batteries are twelve.

[tangledweb]

I used to have something like this for camping

http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=378&cat_id=43

I don’t recall it being as cool looking or as expensive so it was probably a different brand but I’d rather carry something like that than a spare car battery or risk flattening my vehicle’s battery.

It should last many days on a lantern battery or 4 D cells.

[Bluey]

I found at least two chargers that work off 4 D batteries or similar, here is one:

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e07340-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5

Here is another:

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=ac1f3ac2-f318-4ee3-aa4a-da4bf0d69426

We used to have long time ago one of those, similar if not the Yellow Jacket one, that we used for temporary fencing when our big watergap would go out, until the water went down enough to get it fixed.

[jawa]

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e07340-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5

I have used this one at my barn for diet paddock fencing. It was probably a 1/4 of an acre fenced with 3 strands. The 4 D batteries would last 6 months, sometimes more.

The one we had had a high shock and a low shock setting, so you could teach your horse some manners and then tone it down to save your batteries.

The only complaint was that the prongs to hold the batteries into contact would sometimes become bent over time and there wouldn’t be a strong enough contact to allow it to work. It only required taking the batteries out and resetting the contacts.

It worked for 4+ years. We still have it, but haven’t needed to use it, so not sure it it still works.

[Simbalism]

I have the yellow jacket one in the links, it is about 5 years old and still works.

[Frank_B]

If you’re going to be using it a lot, you could get four “D” NiMH rechargeable cells and a charger. Real “D” NiMH cells are expensive, but they make adapter sleeves that accept the readily available “AA” sizes. Because of the flatter discharge curve and high capacity of the NiMH, they’ll function OK.

[Beaudacious22]

Thanks for all of the suggestions everyone. Chances are we’d only need it for this trip, so probably 3 days at most. I was hoping to avoid buying a solar charger or battery powered charger since I know I have the old battery to my truck that still has life in it. Looks like we’ll probably have to look into something else though! Thanks for all of your suggestions!

[foggybok]

[QUOTE=Beaudacious22;6253203]
Thanks for all of the suggestions everyone. Chances are we’d only need it for this trip, so probably 3 days at most. I was hoping to avoid buying a solar charger or battery powered charger since I know I have the old battery to my truck that still has life in it. Looks like we’ll probably have to look into something else though! Thanks for all of your suggestions![/QUOTE]

are you talking about just hooking wire up to the battery with no charger?

if so, then no, it’s not going to work. You need the charger…

[fancyponies]

I regularly power my small (supposed to take 4 D cells) electric fencer for my 50 x 300 paddock with a car battery. When it runs low, in approx one month, I put the battery on the portable charger in our garage and charge it up again. Takes about a day, works very well. The battery doesn’t have enough cold cranking amps anymore for car use in a cold climate like ours, so it was surplus to requirements. Works great, don’t have to bother with the underpowered and overpriced solar trickle chargers.

Edited to say, I replaced the small leads with round ends that came with it, with alligator clamps that easily clamp onto the battery posts, so I can connect and disconnect the battery quickly for access. Don’t need a switch on it.

These small fencers are inexpensive and handy - but you still need a fencer unit!

[4LeafCloverFarm]

I have used an electric fence that uses a car battery. Lasts for months (for the small area we had fenced in for an overweight pony). Then we’d just take the battery to AutoZone to have them charge it. However the fence charger was designed to be used with a car battery, and had the positive and negative leads with the clips on it (just like jumper cables, but smaller).

I have also used the fence charger that takes 4 D cell batteries (this was 15 years ago, so they might be better nowadays). The pony however, didn’t feel that this was quite strong enough of a charge and he’d get out. Which is why we got the one that runs off a car battery.

[Bluey]

Spam reported, this being a resurrected old thread by a spammer.