Electric fencer not working

[Beef farmer]

Dump a tanker load of water on your earth

 

[In the pit]

Need it right
There’s never a bigger waste of time as cattle getting out aswell as upsetting neighbours when they trample there garden

 

[Kiss]

On Facebook/eBay you can get 40mm galvanised box section 2.4m long for £7/8 each from lorry boxes,

Ours burns through poly wire

 

[Jdunn55]

Need it right
There’s never a bigger waste of time as cattle getting out aswell as upsetting neighbours when they trample there garden

100% am absolutely fed up with livestock not being where they should be, I've got enough problems as it is! I'm on good terms with all the neighbours atm, last thing I want to do is upset any of them

 

[Jdunn55]

Dump a tanker load of water on your earth

I cant get near it with a tanker unfortunately otherwise that would be a good shout, where I'm moving it to I can but if i need to make that patch of soil wet i expect I'll have bigger problems than my fencer not working (I'll be in the bigger drought I've ever experienced!)

 

[Jdunn55]

Move the fencer closer to the wet spot!

You don't need an expensive tester, just use a bit of grass.

Ive been using grass until now but I like the idea of being able to turn the fencer off remotely, my farm is over a mile long so a fair way to walk to and fro!

 

[Jdunn55]

Earth Rods - They are rusty. They are not the right size. You will need something twice that diameter at least. 1/2" galvanized water pipe works great. The stainless clamp does not create tight enough connection to ground properly. You should get something like this. The galvanized version. Not the copper.

https://www.grainger.com/product/2CNJ3. They should not be more than a couple of quid.

Hook up wires - You are using single insulated lead out wire. In the picture on the red terminal you can see rust/oxidation on the wire. Not good. The 2 wires will create a arc between each other as they live the terminal. To generate a arc you need electricity. That electricity is coming from your fencing unit. So essentially you are reducing the voltage to the fence as a good bit of the fencers output is being vaporized before it even gets to the fence.

Double insulated aluminum wire is probably a better fit your local. When installing leave a extra foot or so as you should redo those connections once per year by snipping off the old end and stripping the insulation about 1.5 inches from the new end. You will now have a new shinny connection that will last about a year before it becomes oxidized.

The ground wire (green/yellow) connected to the green terminal is unfamiliar to me. It could be ok. Just don't know what the construction is and its rating. I use the same type of double insulated wire that goes to my fence.

I think 300 meters is about the limit to get a working fence with double insulated wire. The only downside is cost of the wire. It might be better to move the fencer and the ground field to place near a building with mains power and then use a longer lead out wire to the fence.

Did your 6000i come with a remote/fault finder? They do here in the USA. That is a very handy piece of kit to have. It works very well. Alternatively a volt meter would give you the same information except it will not point you in the direction of the fault(s).

Mine didn't come with the remote as I was trying to save some money...

I'm going to sink 6 metre long scaffolding poles into the ground on tuesday and hopefully that will mostly solve my problems
I'll have a look for some of those clamps as well, I expect somewhere will have them

 

[Jdunn55]

Who new electric fencing could be so high tech
Bet its something a lot simpler like a piece of crap fence wire

I've redone all the wire! I think it's a combination of things, hoping by the end of the week I'll have mostly sorted everything!

 

[Little squeak]

I would check the earth with a fence tester where it is fixed to a the ground stake. if you do not have a tester touch it with your hand if you get a shock off that you really do know you have an earth problem. My earth is nothing like what others are advising and I have a good voltage unless there is a problem with folage or someone wrapping it round the barbed wire so they can climb over, fallen tree or whatever.

 

[som farmer]

with mains fencers being so reliant on proper earthing, it always surprises me. is that our portable battery hotline fencer, works so well with 4 tiny earths, in a really dry time.

 

[Dry Rot]

Fault tracing needs to be methodical, starting at the energiser and the OP needs a tester with a digital read out. Considering the money already invested, £100 would be well spent.

Test the output from the energiser, 'hot' connector and earth knobs on the unit. Then test the earth. Then the fence in sections. If the voltage seems low, isolate the length of fence beyond the voltage drop and see if it goes up. Sounds to me like a bad joint or a short.

If you can't get an good earth, earth one or more wires in the fence and "live' an adjacent wire. The animal will them touch both wires and cause a short, so maximum shock. That's what we'd do for deer fencing where deer jump through wires without touching the ground. As they don't complete the circuit, they don't get shocked. But if that one wire is earthed, they'll get a good shock from the live wire. To create a shock, the animal must be part of the circuit, if that makes sense.

 

[sheepdogtrail]

@Dryrot is correct. If you need to, revisit how a circuit works. Wiki should explain it well.

What is still unknown to me at least is what type of fence you have it connected too and how those lines are insulated. If you are using any type of metallic post you could easily also be losing voltage at the post the wire is hanging on. Offsets should be longer rather than shorter if you are operating in a environment where there is high humidity (rain/mist/fog) more than 200 days a year.

Keeping the ground field moist/wet is crucial. In some applications it might be possible to set the ground field in a area such as a down spot from a buildings gutter system. In really difficult applications one can try to add some water holding crystals to a excavated small hole and drive the ground rod(s) into it. Those work well on sandy loam soil.

 

[manhill]

Any pics of the rampaging cows?
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Glad you got them all back safely.

 

[vantage]

@Jdunn55 , are your fence wires poly or high tensile? Poly wires can break, especially if chewed when turned off, which obviously affects the stock retaining ability! HT a better bet, but obviously not so flexible if you want to enter a paddock in a different place.

 

[Mr Mackay]

we had to put in 4 earth rods before our big mains unit would work properly, each one 5ft stainless steel pipe, linked together
you are advised not to use the girders of a steel barn, as an earth, never really understood why, and actually have 1 mains fencer attached, that has worked well for 20 yrs.

Because they go rusty ?? Doesnt earth well

 

[Dry Rot]

Because they go rusty ?? Doesnt earth well

Because an earth can go 'live' (don't ask me how, but it can). Not a good idea to electrify a barn!