New electric fence was just installed (electric rope on T posts with plastic insulators, wood corner and gate posts) and if I hold the gate and the chain to latch it at the same time, I get shocked. When the gate is latched, I can see the chain sparking against the fence. Why is it doing that? The chain is bolted onto the 4x4, and like I said, the gate is mounted on a 4x4. It shouldn’t be hot!
You have a short someplace to make the gate hot. Any buried wires undr the gate opening? How wet are the wooden posts? Wet wood will carry electric to the gate. You should go around the fenceline, see if any insulators are not properly placed, allowing electric to get on the
T-posts. Otherwise perhaps one of the digital testers will show a power loss at the faulty post, to pinpoint the problem.
But connecting the two places, gate and chain, completes an electric circut, energizing the gate. There are temporary fixes, putting an innertube over chain, is not fixing the reason it is hot.
If fence was professionally installed, call them to come back. Otherwise it might be fastest to fix by calling an Electrician. He will start at the outlet and work his way thru to locate the issue. Electric problems and stray voltage can be very difficult to solve.
I had stray voltage that was causing shocks at the water tank, coming thru the ground, no heater involved! Ice and wet ground was the conductor in that one spot. Never found the electric leak. I ended up moving the tank 40ft away, put it on 4 rubber mats to prevent horse grounding as she drank. No issues since then.
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if your horse is shod chances are s/he is also getting a shock when passing through that gate…(and they HATE that!!)
Posts are new, and it rained for a week straight while installing the fence, so that could be part of the issue. No under-gate wire is buried. We have a farm worker who installs all of our fencing, he’ll be back out this week to take a look, just wondering if there could be an easy solution so I could stop shocking myself :lol:
If I just touch the gate, or just touch the chain, it’s fine. I only get shocked when I loop the chain to the gate…it seems like the current comes off the chain which is bolted to the 4x4, so if the 4x4 was holding moisture that would make sense, right?
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There are mats under the gate, and the horses have been totally fine walking in and out, so I don’t think it’s shocking them.
you can buy a gate connector at the farm store. They’re made out of plastic and are usually used directly wired to e-wire. But you could improvise onto your chain / latch system to use as a handhold. OR, just cut a piece of rubber hose and slide over whatever (chain, latch thingy) and use that. Or use rubber gloves.
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Get a length of plastic chain to secure the gate for now-- Home Depot or farm stores will have chains that are sufficiently sturdy for the job. I’d put down a rubber mat (just a utility mat, doesn’t have to be a stall mat) to further isolate yourself from any ground current.
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The standard answer you’ll get when dealing with stray voltage from an electric fence is that it’s due to a grounding problem. 
https://www.pasturepro.com/blog/2011/06/stray-voltage-and-electric-fencing/
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getting shocked by the chain is not normal, I would disconnect the fence charge until there is real reason determining why this occurring…and it best be a really good reason as this is something that should not be happening.
How old is the charger? if old it could be a high impedance charger which could even kill small animals… newer chargers are low impedance of “very high voltage and very high amperage, but deliver the electricity in extremely short pulses of about 3 milliseconds, or about 330 pulses per second.”
Whatever, there is a reason and if not determined I would just not use the charger
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just wondering about this fence charger … I am guessing it is Electric? and that it is plugged into an outlet… if at the barn, and the barn is being fed from the main house… if the barn has a sub-panel check the sub-panel to make sure the bonding bridge between the neural bar and the ground has been removed (the bridge is used in a stand alone installation, not as a sub panel)
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@SugarCubes I was hoping to hear what the problem was. Please come back and update us when you get an answer.
Worker will be here today to check it out, I’ll post an update once it’s fixed 
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Simple fix, one of the jumpers had a loose wire that nearly touching the post, creating an arc to the damp post where the gate chain is bolted. I’m sure I explained that poorly, I’m no fencing expert!
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Been getting zapped by latch that connects to the gate. It was definitely the “latch” screws contact with the metal latch then going into wet treated 5" post. What I did was:
1-got 4 rubber grommets to fit the mounting holes in the latch and installed
2-placed a 1/4" thick rubber piece the size of the latch plate
3-took 4 nylon washers and inserted the screws thru the washer and mounted the latch to the post… No More Shock See Image
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This is awesome! How did you come up with that fix?
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Reading other posts I came up with the idea that the screws holding the latch to the post needed to be totally separated from the metal latch. The rubber grommets along with the nylon washers and the 1/4 rubber pad may be overkill but wanted to make sure. The other alternative is to use non-conductive screws which I Googled and came up with the following:
Tungsten and Bismuth are metals which are poor conductors of electricity. There are many, but some include Aluminum, Bismuth, Gallium, Indium, Lead, Thallium, Tin, Ununhexium, Ununpentium, Ununquadium, and Ununtrium.
Went to the local hardware store and they did not carry any of the following. You could order online but I wanted to get this fixed was tired of getting zapped by the latch. Pls note we have a 9 joules electric fence charger to keep away bears so lots of juice going thru the fence. The charger is pluged in by the barn and only about 20 feet from the gate where the electric fence runs. As mentioned in other articles need to make sure you have adequate grounding. I have 5 “brass” steaks 8 feet long about 5 ft apart.
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We had a similar problem to what Hoofer1 did with the hot latch. I went to the local hardware store, bought some shrink-sleeve to put on the latch handles. This is rubber tubing in various sizes that shrinks tight when heated with a blow dryer or heat gun. The shrink-sleeve then insulates your fingers from the current. Ours has been on, out in the weather for years, still works fine.
Shrink-sleeve is sold by the inches/foot, is commonly used to seal electric wire connections tight, keep moisture out. Pretty available at hardware type stores. I was too lazy to do the insulating washer idea, though it is a good one.
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I had a similar issue when I set the fencing up at my new farm. My issue was the middle line was hot when it shouldn’t have been. It turns out that the jumper cable had a crack in the insulation, which was arcing on the connector where it was attached to the wood post.
At my old farm I had a gate that was hot sporadically. This issue was where the fence terminal was screwed in to the wood post on the hinge side. The screw for the fence termination point contacted the lag hinge bolt for the gate. One of the thin wires in the fencing had frayed and would periodically touch the screw, which would electrify the gate.
I use 2 inch Polytape, T-posts in the center of each run and wood posts at each turn out change of angle for reference.
Years ago the BO where we were at the time hired an instructor who knew everything. One of my favorites was walking out to get my gelding. She said she was going out there to fix their electric fence. I said I could unplug the charger because it was still under the newly installed deck on the back of the house. She said no, not necessary. When she opened the gate the electricity would stop. Really. Yes, a friend told her that. Okay, whatever. BO always got the big heavy-duty models. The kind that rearranges your heartbeat for a few minutes. I don’t think she got zapped but one can always hope…
