Electric Fencing Newbie - advice please

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Hi, I need to purchase some electric kit for strip grazing a Section D Welsh Cob - she respects electric fencing and is no trouble at all :) I would guess that she is likely to use it daily for a few months and then less regularly afterwards , though likely to still use it for years to come. The budget is low at the moment so I would definitely consider doing something cheap that could be improved on later on if it is not too cost inefficient to do it that way.

However, I do not really know what I require. I have looked at the kits and tried to research but still not too sure.

I think I need:
50 posts
Tape
Gate Handle
Energiser
Battery

I have seen the kits and you start to believe they are good value...however, is it more thrifty and sensible to purchase everything individually? Posts are £1 each in a few places and tape is cheap on Ebay.

A kit tends to give you a budget energiser..but is this wise? Would it be better to find a good deal on a decent brand or are the energisers in the starter kits ok?

I did see that some kits come with a battery that does not recharge whilst others come with 'D' type batteries...

I could nip down the local scrapyard (2mins away) and hopefully pick up a very cheap car battery. Is this a good idea ? (If so, is it a case of the bigger the better?). Will energisers cope with any car battery?

Sorry, hope these questions make sense. Any advice on whether to get a kit or buy seperately appreciated (and which energiser if the latter). :)
 
Your list is almost spot on. Don't forget you probably need to put two strands of tape on the posts, obviously one lower down and one higher up, so work out how much tape for 1 circuit then double it. Posts come in 2 sizes, I buy the shorter ones for my shetlands - you'll need the taller ones or your Section D might be tempted to have a go at jumping the fence! The cheap energisers are fine but I got a leisure battery from Halfords, I think about £70, and they're great. You're also going to need a battery charger and you might find you actually need TWO batteries, one on the field ond one charging. Not sure car batteries are ideal as they aren't meant for the slow trickle work that leisure batteries do. Also, remember that you'll need to ensure nothing touches the wire once you're all set up and ready to switch on, eg long grass, brambles etc. I go round with either the scissors if not much to cut back, or the shears otherwise. Be careful if you intend cheerfully hacking off long undergrowth with shears- I cut straight through the tape at the first snip! Despite what sellers may tell you (so you buy more tape) you can tie loads of knots in electric tape and it still works fine.

And finally, if you need to move the fence once set up, do remember the tape is live! Turn it off at the energiser before you reposition it or attempt to climb over it! And then remember to turn it back on! Because of this, it makes sense to set up your fence so that the battery and energiser are closest for walking to. Good luck.
 
Just a few tips:

Avoid "cheap" posts, most cheap ones are made from recycled plastic, which does not have the same level of UV stabilisation as the ones made from virgin plastic (basically means they get brittle in the sun and snap easier)

2 strands is ideal around your paddock, 20mm tape is the most economical mid range tape, but look for the number of metal strands in the tape, again cheaper tape will be the same size...IE 20mm but may only contain 6 x 0.2mm wires rather than 8 x 0.3 + 2 x 0.2. The more metal wires interwoven in the tape, the greater the conductivity, the better the shock.

In windy areas, space your posts closer to avoid the tape whipping and keep it well tensioned. Avoid knots where possible, a bag of prover tape joiners is not a lot, but you will keep more current flowing.

Leisure batteries are best, but ALL lead acid type batteries should never be let run flat. Your batteries will last longest if you know how long they will run your energiser and you work out a charging routine. IE if your battery can run the fencer for two weeks recharge it weekly, so it never gets to low. Sometimes it is worth buying one leisure battery and using an old car battery just whilst re charging your leisure battery.

MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL......your earth post.....this is the most overlooked part in any system and a good earth is imperative. Especially if your paddock is dry well drained soil. For any fencer to work well, the shock needs to travel down the fence, through Neddy and back through the soil to the earth post. Voila! Circuit complete = shock. So a couple of I metre earth posts is my minimum recommendation. For stubborn horses or in dry areas, you can also run a strand of poly wire or tape on your posts, spaced between your live wires, but NOT touching them. Connect this to your earth post and you will boost the shock value of your fence. It just means when Neddy leans against the fence, he touches a live and an earth together and the pulse travels to complete the circuit quicker and with more Ooomph!

Energiser. This is always the difficult one. Look on the energiser for the JOULES, ( no not the purveyors of bright clothing for horsey lovelies), but the power output of your unit. Volts are misleading, it is joules that are the true sign of a fencers power, as a high joule unit will deliver more power. The easiest anology to explain, is to compare your fencer to a water pipe, a low joule fencer, is like a 1 inch pipe from a 100 gallon drum. 50 feet down the pipe, the water will pour out, but take a while to fill your bucket. A high joule unit is like replacing the pipe with four inch pipe! The water will rush down the pipe and fill the bucket in seconds.

However, the trade of on power out, is always power in....so a high joule unit will flatten batteries quicker.

If you have a smaller set up, I would recommend a lower joule fencer maybe 0.2 to 0.4 ideal for strip grazing. But with two strands of tape around a paddock, some vegetation and maybe a hairy horse, go for slightly higher. IE 0.6 to 1 joule.

Buy an energiser from a reputable manufacturer, Hotline, Rutland, Gallagher, Horizont etc and you will be fine.


Happy fencing.

NB advice is always free, but of course is only my opinion, based on 16 years in the trade.
 
TheEngineer said:
Just a few tips:

Avoid "cheap" posts, most cheap ones are made from recycled plastic, which does not have the same level of UV stabilisation as the ones made from virgin plastic (basically means they get brittle in the sun and snap easier)

2 strands is ideal around your paddock, 20mm tape is the most economical mid range tape, but look for the number of metal strands in the tape, again cheaper tape will be the same size...IE 20mm but may only contain 6 x 0.2mm wires rather than 8 x 0.3 + 2 x 0.2. The more metal wires interwoven in the tape, the greater the conductivity, the better the shock.

In windy areas, space your posts closer to avoid the tape whipping and keep it well tensioned. Avoid knots where possible, a bag of prover tape joiners is not a lot, but you will keep more current flowing.

Leisure batteries are best, but ALL lead acid type batteries should never be let run flat. Your batteries will last longest if you know how long they will run your energiser and you work out a charging routine. IE if your battery can run the fencer for two weeks recharge it weekly, so it never gets to low. Sometimes it is worth buying one leisure battery and using an old car battery just whilst re charging your leisure battery.

MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL......your earth post.....this is the most overlooked part in any system and a good earth is imperative. Especially if your paddock is dry well drained soil. For any fencer to work well, the shock needs to travel down the fence, through Neddy and back through the soil to the earth post. Voila! Circuit complete = shock. So a couple of I metre earth posts is my minimum recommendation. For stubborn horses or in dry areas, you can also run a strand of poly wire or tape on your posts, spaced between your live wires, but NOT touching them. Connect this to your earth post and you will boost the shock value of your fence. It just means when Neddy leans against the fence, he touches a live and an earth together and the pulse travels to complete the circuit quicker and with more Ooomph!

Energiser. This is always the difficult one. Look on the energiser for the JOULES, ( no not the purveyors of bright clothing for horsey lovelies), but the power output of your unit. Volts are misleading, it is joules that are the true sign of a fencers power, as a high joule unit will deliver more power. The easiest anology to explain, is to compare your fencer to a water pipe, a low joule fencer, is like a 1 inch pipe from a 100 gallon drum. 50 feet down the pipe, the water will pour out, but take a while to fill your bucket. A high joule unit is like replacing the pipe with four inch pipe! The water will rush down the pipe and fill the bucket in seconds.

However, the trade of on power out, is always power in....so a high joule unit will flatten batteries quicker.

If you have a smaller set up, I would recommend a lower joule fencer maybe 0.2 to 0.4 ideal for strip grazing. But with two strands of tape around a paddock, some vegetation and maybe a hairy horse, go for slightly higher. IE 0.6 to 1 joule.

Buy an energiser from a reputable manufacturer, Hotline, Rutland, Gallagher, Horizont etc and you will be fine.


Happy fencing

NB advice is always free, but of course is only my opinion, based on 16 years in the trade.
Click to expand...

fantastic post with everything you need to know
 
Wow... Thank you all for very comprehensive advice, better than I anticipated.
I am now googling and trying to select my components. I will go for the longer poles as better than buying twice. I have found some decent tape on ebay etc..
The biggest issue is the energiser. Luckily there are plenty of threads about them on here. I spotted the hotline hlb100 strike. 0.4 joules via 2 x D cell batteries that last 8 weeks. Has anybody got experience of these? It seems to good to be true to have an energiser that can run off basic batteries . I could buy some rechargeable D batteries and job done... But will the energiser do the job? The blurb suggests that they are designed for strip grazing but I am always weary of buying compromised products.. But the budget is tight and, in theory, this sounds ideal.

I am guessing you guys will suggest a proper energiser and separate battery but thought I would check..
Thanks again :-)
 
We buy our bits for the electric fence from out local farm suppliers, or off e bay - don't buy anything with a horsey label, it will cost more!

We use old tractor/lorry batteries to run ours. They last months and months without running down, so you don't have to charge them very often (we have a garage, so hubby brings them home). I started out with the lower posts, but much prefer the taller ones, you can put three strands of wire on to keep in big and little ones..

Hide your energiser and battery well. We had one lot stolen (even with a huge heavy tractor battery that was in the middle of a 5 acre field and that I can hardly pick up!) and the farm shop said most of his customers buying them are replacing stolen ones.

Nowadays we use rope rather than tape, which doesn't blow down so much (we are in a windswept valley at the foot of the pennines - may be a different story in a leafy field in Surrey..). A lot of people say they don't like them for horses, but ours are not the types to run through fences anyway. The ropes and green posts are not so much of an eyesore either!
 
Another good reason for hiding battery/energiser - curious calves have killed two energisers and cables by pushing them over or biting them! Thankfully pony doesn't really need the ropes to be live!
 
There's a lot of energisers on the market: if you're buying then I personally can recommend "Hotline" (no, I don't get comission!!!).

My uncle who was a farmer always bought Hotline for the cattle; and these little energisers just go on and on and on. We've got an old one on the farm here that is so old it must be steam-driven, yet still does the job OK.

Plus excellent after-sales service too.
 
Wow loads of useful advice! I need to do strip grazing too as the TB realised that the dead tape I'm holding him in with actually bears no threat haha. It doesn't matter too much as he is fenced in at the sides but I would just like to save that bit of the field for winter and he is getting fat. I didn't realise you could get them to run on small batteries like that. Maybe a cheap one with low power would be ok for my purposes... Also one of the ponies on the other side is threatening to rub the fence down with his big itchy bum! Tempted to zap him!
 
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