T&L Publications

Installation of electric fencing

Thought y'all should read this in case you're
thinking of installing an electric fence!

We have the standard 6ft. fence in the backyard, and a few
months ago, I heard about burglaries increasing dramatically
in the entire city.

To make sure this never happened to me, I got an electric
fence and ran a single wire along the top of the fence.

Actually, I got the biggest cattle charger Tractor Supply
had, made for 26 miles of fence.

I then used an 8 ft. long ground rod, drove 7.5 feet into
the ground. The ground rod is the key, with the more you
have in the ground, the better the fence works.

One day I'm mowing the back yard with my cheapo
Wal-Mart 6hp big wheel push mower. The hot wire is broken
and laying out in the yard. I knew for a fact that I
unplugged the charger. I pushed the mower around the wire
and reached down to grab it, to throw it out of the way. It
seems as though I hadn't remembered to unplug it after
all.

Now I'm standing there, I've got the running
lawnmower in my right hand and the 1.7 giga volt fence wire
in the other hand. Keep in mind the charger is about the
size of a marine battery and has a picture of an upside down
cow on fire on the cover. Time stood still. The first thing
I notice is my balls trying to climb up the front side of my
body. My ears curled downwards and I could feel the
lawnmower ignition firing in the backside of my brain. Every
time that Briggs & Stratton rolled over, I could feel
the spark in my head. I was literally at one with the
engine. It seems as though the fence charger and the POS
lawnmower were fighting over who would control my electrical
impulses.

Science says you cannot crap, pee, and nut at the same
time. I beg to differ. Not only did I do all three at once,
but my bowels emptied 3 different times in less than half of
a second. It was a Matrix kind of bowel movement, where time
is creeping along and you're all leaned back and BAM BAM
BAM you just crap your pants 3 times. It seemed like there
were minutes in between but in reality it was so close
together it was like exhaust pulses from a big block Chevy
turning 8 grand.

At this point I'm about 30 minutes (maybe 2 seconds)
into holding onto the fence wire. My hand is wrapped around
the wire palm down so I can't let go. I grew up on a
farm so I know all about electric fences... but Dad always
had those POS chargers made by International or whoever that
were like 9 volts and just kinda tickled. This I could not
let go of. The 8 foot long ground rod is now accepting
signals from me through the permadamp Ark-La-Tex river
bottom soil.

At this point I'm thinking I'm going to have to
just man up and take it, until the lawnmower runs out of
gas. 'Damn!,' I think, as I remember I just filled
the tank! Now the lawnmower is starting to run rough. It has
settled into a loping run pattern as if it had some kind of
big lawnmower race cam in it. Covered in poop, pee, jizz,
and with my balls on my chest I think 'Oh God, please
die... pleeeeze die'. But nooooo, it settles into the
rough lumpy cam idle nicely and remains there, like a big
bore roller cam EFI motor waiting for the go command from
its owner's right foot.

So, here I am in the middle of July, 104 degrees, 80%
humidity, standing in my own backyard, begging God to kill
me. God did not take me that day, he left me there covered
in my own fluids to writhe in the misery my own stupidity
had created.

I honestly don't know how I got loose from the wire....
I woke up laying on the ground hours later. The lawnmower
was beside me, out of gas. It was later on in the day and I
was sunburned. There were two large dead grass spots where I had been standing, and then another long skinny dead spot
were the wire had laid while I was on the ground still
holding on to it. I assume I finally had a seizure and in
the resulting thrashing had somehow let go of the wire. Upon
waking from my electrically induced sleep I realized a few
things.

1- Three of my teeth seem to have melted.

2- I now have cramps in the bottoms of my feet and my right
butt cheek (not the left, just the right).

3- Poop, pee, and semen when all mixed together, do not
smell as bad as you might think.

4- My left eye will not open.

5- My right eye will not close.

6- The lawnmower runs like a sumnabitch now. Seriously! I
think our little session cleared out some carbon fouling or
something, because it was better than new after that.

7- My balls are still smaller than average yet they are
almost a foot long.

8- I can turn on the TV in the game room by farting while
thinking of the number 4 (still don't understand this?)

That day changed my life. I now have a newfound respect for
things. I appreciate the little things more, and now I
always double check to make sure the fence is unplugged
before I mow.

The good news, is that if a burglar does try to come over
the fence, I can clearly visualize what my security system
will do to him, and THAT gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling
all over, which also reminds me to triple check before I
mow.

Be safe and have a wonderful Christmas.

youd be very suprised how little there is in them fence chargers..
usually a high voltage , low current transformer..
i know a friend who made one out of a small neon transformer.
5,000v 20Ma it was excellent,, it kept the weeds trimmed off,so they would not short out the fence. just sizzeled the tips off when ever they came in contact with the wire.
i have seen a few old fashion fence chargers that were battery powered, the sounded like a big clock, clunk clunk clunk.. the insides had a see saw like set up..the heavy side rested on a set of points. and the other side had a coil that pulled the heavy side up..it was almost balanced, but not quite, it would run forever on a 6 volt battery.
the coil was part of the HV also. so when the points broke, the HV pulse was sent out to the fence wire. and it had a mean kick to it too..

We have electric fencing here and one day I was out in the back pasture looking for a problem. Since it was clearly not delivering the fully charge I figured a clip broke and the rope was touching a metal post somewhere.

I didn't unplug the charger before riding the fence line looking for the problem because I can usually fix a broken clip with the power on. Mistake #1! I found the broken rope lying on the ground in a marshy area. It had separated at a splice, so I picked it up (mistake #2) and opened the splice to reconnect the other end. Then I picked up the other end in my other hand (mistake #3) and discovered that I had found the ground fault. Full voltage right across my chest! Our charger isn't as powerful as yours, so I was able to drop it right away, but it sure woke me up.

Let's just say I don't fix anything without religiously making sure the charger is unplugged

lol.. reminds me of a constant current ( not intermittent pulse ) fence charger. old neighbor hood friend and the rest of the onterage` were out roaming the neighborhood, back woods etc. well theres this horse pasture there, and we were all goofing off, then one of my buddys decided he had to take a leak,, well him not thinking. he went on the fence, which he did not know was electric.. mind you, we were all barefooted too. well as soon as he connected with the wire, he was hopping around, and went all over himself as well flopping on the ground as well..of course all us kids just died laughing like hell, cause he got zapped, and totally soaked himself,, it was as if he couldn't stop going once he started.. it was too funny..i guarantee ya, he never did it again..

Jwax, thanks for the prolonged laugh.

When I was little and spent summers at my grandparent's farm, a buddy and I thought it would be fun to let a cow suck on one hand while we touched the other to Grandpa's electric fence. Fortunately, my buddy didn't get to experience the 3 (supposed to be mutually exclusive) bodily functions/sensations you did as part of the experience. The cow, you see, tore off and ran after one pulse.

Even though I had committed to do it if he did, I was let out of the deal. My friend was a bit older and took pity on me (perhaps he didn't want to see me cry).

Several weeks ago I was down by the creek on our place when I heard a loud popping sound. I walked toward the source and spotted a neighbor's electric fence.

Soon I found the source of the popping, for a anoloe lizard was suspended between a barbed wire fence line and the electric one. Each second a purple arc covered its body accompanied by a loud pop.

I'm may place a short video of this on YouTube but don't want to offend anyone.

Forrest M. Mims III
www.forrestmims.org
www.twitter.com/fmims

That's interesting Forrest. I had not thought about how an electric fence may or may not affect different species like a lizard. For example, would a lobster feel anything, being exoskeletal? How about a thick skinned alligator, or rhino? Any biologists here?
John

Well Jwax, thank you for that interesting albeit very personal experience with electricity.

Not to sound like a lawyer but you should be aware that if a burgler did in fact experience the same thing you did and was injured even in a small way would be well within his rights to sue you in civil court and could in fact come away with more than he would have if he actually robbed your house (unless you keep large sums of cash out in the open). Believe it, bad guys know the law quite well if they have been busted a few times.

I recall a story about a man who put a trip wire around the perimeter of his apartment roof to keep kids from jumping between roofs (stop tresspassing) it resulted in a death and he lost everything. When you use a device not for its intended purpose and in turn select a device that is way overpowered for the size of your property, you open the door to severe liability concerns. I sure hope you have a decent insurance unberella policy. Funny story though, and I suspect its not all true (at least the end).

Back in the day all of us kids got togerther to play ball in a neighbors pasture. he had an electric fence around it. We would hear sporatic voices and music while we played ball. We finally figured out that the sounds were coming from the electric fence. There was an AM station about 20 miles away and the fence was demodulating the signal. I understand now, but at the time it was mystical. The sound was never loud obviuosly, but more like a ghost whisper. Always thought that the electric fence picking up a radio station was cool.

Oh, the Field of Dreams. They made a movie about that one


That must have been way back in the day before FCC regulated radiated power. There were a few stations with outrageous power levels as compared to today. I don't think the fence would have needed to be electric to observe that effect just long and not grounded.

I theorize that the wire would have accumulated a varying electric field that may have caused nearby non conductive objects to vibrate along with the AM modulation thus producing sound. Otherwise something needs to rectify the signal along the way. Alternatively, the induced electric field may have been converted to a current in the long wire thus creating a magnetic field capable of moving nearby iron objects similar to the way hum is induced in a transformer core.

Welcome wirewiggler! Funny, but I still hear voices in the wind.
Anyway, I'd guess there's enough minerals in the ground that could act as a rectifier of sorts to demodulate the AM station.

haklesup, sorry if I sounded "first-person" at the beginning of this thread. I was just repeating (poorly portrayed) a funny story I read. I apologize for sounding as if it were really me that that happened to.

I recall some of those "attractive nuisance" lawsuits, as well as the "intent to do bodily harm" traps which are illegal.
John

jwax wrote:Welcome wirewiggler!

Yes indeed. Welcome and remember, in less than 2 days you'll be a veteran member here since last year, 2008!

jwax wrote:haklesup, sorry if I sounded "first-person" at the beginning of this thread. I was just repeating (poorly portrayed) a funny story I read.

Ooooh. I thought that your story was likely "embellished for improved enjoyment". A long time ago I had just completed working on a RCA TV with a 40KV second anode voltage. Testing it with AC power on, I was puzzled why there was no raster. Then I saw the second anode plug was dangling, not clipped to the tube. Hey, I'll just put this back o......ZAP!!

I didn't lose any body fluids. It just felt like I had been hit by a truck and had my brains scrambled. I guess this is why the premiums on life insurance are larger for electronics technicians than they are for a salesman in the same building.

haklesup, sorry if I sounded "first-person" at the beginning of this thread. I was just repeating (poorly portrayed) a funny story I read. I apologize for sounding as if it were really me that that happened to.

Well, I was "On the Fence" about believing it. Not really, It definitely was a little more personal than I thought you would ever be. I also doubt that a shock victim would sense anything from the spark plug firing and a few other things but lets not spoil the fun by dissecting it.

Happy New Year soon,

What, booby traps are illegal! I better seal up that trap door in front of my desk I use to dispose of troublesome employees. (and sell the Alligators in the pit too)

Oops.

In my high school days my friend and I thought gaining access to another friends car and wiring up and an electric fence transformer would be a fun surprise..... It was definitely a "shocking" experience. From this thread are we to assume we should adopt something from the carpentry trade just slightly modified? Instead of measure twice cut once it would be unplug twice and touch once.