What's needed to set up electric fencing?

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aradiagreen

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Hi,

I'm moving to a new field. Its about 9 acres of very lush grass and we have 4 greedy ponies so we're going to have to at least halve it! I haven't measured the distances yet but what bits do we require to set up some electric fencing. The field has great wooden fencing around the perimeter by the way I've looked at starter kits but wondered if it'd be cheaper individually.

I know I'll need posts, tape, (& insulators if I fix any to the fencing?), energiser, earth, gate handle thingy(!).... would I use a car battery or the torch batteries one kit spoke of? I really have no idea. Our tallest pony is 14.2 heavyweight cob.

Thanks, sorry to sound like an idiot!
 
You can use a car battery (or even better, leisure battery if you can find one that isn't too expensive, the charge lasts longer), solar panels or dry batteries. My contractor reckons he has one with a non rechargeable dry battery that lasts around a year. They aren't interchangeable though so you need to get the energiser that uses the power source which is best for you - ask one of the big suppliers such as Rutland, they will give you advice, albeit based on their products but you can extract the info you need.
 
The first thing you need to do is check the distance you need to cover, it would want at least two strands of fence, possibly 3 so if you are fencing a line of say 500m then you will need an energiser that covers at least 1500m

Once you know the distance you can start planning how much fencing you will need, how many posts etc.

I personally prefer wooden posts with insulators rather than the plastic posts but it will depend on how permanent it will be as to which you choose. If you are in a windy location you should use a few wooden posts at least to make sure it doesn't all blow over and it's best to use wooden posts at each end of the gate.

The length of your fence dictates the energiser you will need that in turn will dictate the size of battery. You will need two batteries so you can recharge one while the other powers the fence.

I would buy an energiser bigger than you think you might need in case you want to add to the fence later.
 
I would use wood posts at least on the corners and gateways, a leisure battery would be your best bet, with a spare so you can change them over to charge up. You will need two strands at least and buy the tall posts at least. A solar charger is good if no mains elec, but it won't pack much punch. Most farm supply stores will advise you and may well have a leaflet to show you how to do it. I only use the energiser with batteries for when we are at polox tournaments and camp on a field and need to make two pens for the horses, they don't have enough punch in them otherwise.
 
Thank you all SO much. Well the starter kits are no good then-the one I looked at ran on 4 torch batteries! We'd budgeted £140 but it seems we'll need a lot more. Do I need some kind of charger then too? I've used electric fencing but never set it up! & one of our ponies likes to walk through it so we will need a decent charge. I'll call Grundys or something. Thanks,I could've wasted a lot of money buying the wrong thing. Is it 12v then? Does it work in volts? Oh dear,wish I'd paid more attention at school! Sorry for my stupidity! A leisure battery alone sounds expensive!

Thank you!!!
 
def use wooden posts on that amount of distance otherwise youll never keep them in , also a v good energiser and heavy duty car battery
 
The leisure batteries are expensive but they hold their charge for ages. You could get an
old car battery with a solar charger maybe for now an upgrade later?
My energisers were secondhand on ebay, electric fence stuff comes up all the time on there and if you search for items nearest your location chances are that you will get the whole lot secondhand which would be good as the number of posts required can get hugely expensive

My general advice woyld be dont scrimp on posts and use wooden one in corners and gateways (i cable tie a plastic post to sturdy tree stakes for corners)

Dont electrify things you dont need to, my two paddocks have separate two strand tape circuits (so the common boundary has four strands only two of which are electric) and the live clip gets moved to the applicable one when they move paddocks, this means the earth stake etc doesnt have to be moved too

Cover the energiser with something so it doesnt attract attention. My battery and energiser sit in a beer crate with the earth and energiser stands hammered through to the ground, this keeps it all off the ground and there is an upside down storage box on top to cover the red light and keep everything dry

I hate the gate handles so use sheep hurdles as gates
 
Your status says you are in Lincoln if you are close enough the cheapest place for electric fencing I have found is EQUIP at Market Rasen
I have a houdini so have four strands of rope and 5ft plastic posts Ours is mains but have effectively used car batteries for the other chargers we have where there wasn't electricity. As a movable strip fence the plastic posts are better if the fence is permanent then wooden posts with insulators.
 
Thanks again & yes I can get to market rasen. Never heard of equip so thanks! I'll get over to the field & measure & get looking. The beer crates a good idea too-I know people who've had their stuff stolen from the field. Ours is on a busy farm yard but still its a good idea.
 
Hi,
If you want to keep costs down and reduce hassle look at 9v energisers , they are often sold with a battery included that will run the energiser for a number of months. As much as 9 months typically. The batteries can't be recharged but they make life easy as you don't have to remember to recharge regularly. The Liveryman B430 is a good unit and can be found on ebay.

yours

Nick
 
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