How dumb I feel

[George]

My fence has been shorted for a couple of weeks ( still had 3,000 volts ) and I got around to fixing it this morning.

I used the tester and kept opening runs till I found the bad one ( about 1/2 mile ) and drove it on the golf cart three times and still could not find the problem.

I had one spot I had to get off and walk a short distance - - -the third time I finally eleminated all but the top wire and finally found the problem.

Up close

The second wire was not shorted but replaced both insulators anyway!

I normally find the problems first time down a fence - - - I guess old age is slowing me down!

 

[Hayguy]

been there, done that, you did good though, it usually takes me 5 or 6 kicks at the cat to Git-R-Done :lol:

 

[cowsense]

A handy method of finding fence shorts is to take a radio (have used a truck lots but may have to pack a transistor on a quad or golf cart :lol: ) dial it right down to the bottom so all you have is static & drive the fence. You'll hear a fence short pulsating on the radio when you get close. Sometimes it is faster than using a fault finder!

 

[Aaron]

If your running electric on t-posts, those are terrible insulators to use. High failure rate over time. I started using that type years ago and always have to replace a few when I check fence.

I have been switching them with these:

http://www.kencove.com/fence/T+Post+Insulators_detail_ITDB.php

Much better product and very durable.

 

[George]

Most of my fence repairs are traced back to deer running thru the fence. I have some of the Ken insulators and I don't feel they hold up much better to the deer.

I bought this place in 1973 and some of the insulators are now white and brittle but still in place.

I have a 1 mile run that I will probably replace most of the insulators on this year ( when it is warmer out ) as most of them are white now. I will just move each wire up one notch and leave the old insulators on the post to help with visibility.

One of the things I love about a big charger is this has been shorted for several weeks and the cattle still had not tried it! My charger states it will charge 150 miles of " moderatly weedy " fence. I only have 5 miles and try to keep it clean with a combination of mowing and spraying so with 3 complete shorts it still had 3.2 KV on the tester. Now back to 7.8 KV which is what it puts out with no fence attached.

I have a smaller charger for the garden that will max the tester at 10 KV but it will only have about 3 KV on the back road with good fence and does not have near the joules as the big boy! When I used it for cattle if a fence was shorted the cattle would be out in about a day. They fear this one to much to try it!

 

[littlejoe]

If your running electric on t-posts, those are terrible insulators to use. High failure rate over time. I started using that type years ago and always have to replace a few when I check fence.

I have been switching them with these:

http://www.kencove.com/fence/T+Post+Insulators_detail_ITDB.php

Much better product and very durable.

I like that type, use the black gallaghers---don't seem to get brittle, it's neat that you can pull a few pins and cross over. Put in a bunch for fish and game on winter elk range, they'd rotation graze cattle with it, then drop the whole thing in the fall.....the gallaghers kinda snap on from the front, yours might be harder to knock loose.

 

[Justin]

well that makes two of us, George. had the same problem a couple days ago. i drove up and down the fence line about 3 times, then found the problem about 100 feet from where i started. :roll:

 

[George]

A while back someone ask how to hold a fence down when crossing washes.

This is how I do it if it is just a small wash. The concrete block has held this fence over 10 years!

At another location I found an old propane tank that had washed down and was full of sand. It has held for several years.

You would be amased at the "City Folks" who feel I'm so lucky as I have big rocks in the creeks where I cross on a daily basis - - - they are equally amased that my pipe gates have rocks supporting them both when closed and when open! Some of them look dumfounded when I tell them I moved the rocks to where I needed them.

Crossing the creek the Hi tensil wire stays at the height of the rest of the fence and then I hang 14 gague wire down - - - if a large tree floats down it tears the small wire off but leaves the rest of the fence alone.