Hedgecutters and electric fences.

Yesterday I was cutting behind the single strand electric fence on a nearby dairy farm.
From time to time the hood of the hedger made contact with the wire and a spark could be seen.

Now my tractor is 24 years old so I am not particularly worried, but it just got me wondering whether this could have an adverse effect on more modern tractors with their complex electronic systems or even fancy hedge cutter controls?
 

Wellytrack

Member
Yesterday I was cutting behind the single strand electric fence on a nearby dairy farm.
From time to time the hood of the hedger made contact with the wire and a spark could be seen.

Now my tractor is 24 years old so I am not particularly worried, but it just got me wondering whether this could have an adverse effect on more modern tractors with their complex electronic systems or even fancy hedge cutter controls?

It would take more than 12v I’d think. Regularly seen people welding implements whilst still hooked up to fairly modern tractors without adverse effect.

Although there was this one time when someone welded a shaft whist still coupled to the pto and instead welded the gearbox up. 😳
 

e3120

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northumberland
My fencer kicks out 9.5kV when conditions are good. I always switch it off when the hedgecutter man is here as
a) he needs to open a few gates to get about
b) it means he can roughly straighten up a post that invariably gets caught
c) I am not very confident how it would interact with his pacemaker!
 
It would take more than 12v I’d think. Regularly seen people welding implements whilst still hooked up to fairly modern tractors without adverse effect.

Although there was this one time when someone welded a shaft whist still coupled to the pto and instead welded the gearbox up. 😳
Well I will be the first to admit that I am no electrical genius but fencers do put out a heck of a lot more than 12v.
 

Wellytrack

Member
Well I will be the first to admit that I am no electrical genius but fencers do put out a heck of a lot more than 12v.

It won’t really matter, even if that is stepped up from 12v or stepped down from 230-240 mains. If it’s a cattle fencer your referring to it’s not going to put out enough amps to cause serious harm.
 

ARW

Member
Location
Yorkshire
I was hedgecutting behind a single strand of electric, I started having electric problems with the hedger controls stopping and starting, I kept messing around with the wiring loom at the back of the machine, unbeknown to me the arm slowly sank down on to the fence and then while working with the wires they started to shock me!
I was extremely confused why my wiring would give me an electric shock! After a while the penny dropped and i found the battery terminal had come loose
 

Wellytrack

Member
In excess of 150A for a split second off a big mains one.

Got a sprayer boom well hooked under the nozzle body on permanent electric galvanised wire off the mains. That was a challenge to get released. Had to trail half a tree up the field and stand on it to stop myself getting earthed. 🙈
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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