Hedgecutters and electric fences.

[oakleaf]

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]

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.

 

[TripleSix]

I think you'd have to be very unlucky to cause an issue on a machine with an electric fence.

I remember the boss backing the sheep trailer up to the electric fence and it ended up touching it, didn't bother the TD5 discovery but he got hell of a shock when he got out and closed the door!

 

[e3120]

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!

 

[serf]

I had an old radio go pop in a mf690 when the overhead fence touched the metal aerial.

 

[oakleaf]

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]

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.

 

[e3120]

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.

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

 

[Still Farming]

On rubber tyres ant you ?

 

[ARW]

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]

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.