electric fence is low on juice

[bj taylor]

i saw a young coyote at the edge of my chicken run today. we put up an electric fence this evening. it's a pretty long run & is powered by an extra long extension cord. as a consequence it doesn't have enough bite. i'm hoping it has enough to discourage this guy until i can get to home depot & get a stronger one.

 

[fried green eggs]

Did you put in a 8' ground rod to ground the charger? The extention cord probably isn't the problem. Make sure no wire or steel is touching and shorting out your fence and check that all your insulators are good and not letting the electric wire touch anything. Weeds, brush & dirt can also drain power. Any of these things will make your charger weak. Hope the coyotes not hungry tonight.

 

[harveyhorses]

Also make sure all your connections are really snug and tight. What kind of fence are you using? Wire, tape, or rope? The tape and the rope can both break down where the wires are woven through them, giving less of a bite.
Is Home Depot your only choice? You would probably get better advice from a feed store Southern States or Tractor supply.

 

[featherz]

I have a charger running on an extension cord and it has PLENTY of bite. When I wasn't getting enough voltage (Assuming you have enough grounding as mentioned above) something was shorting out my lines - tree branches, other fencing, grass, whatever..

Also, how did you test it? did you use a fence tester or did you just grab the wire? grabbing the wire isn't a good test especially if one is wearing rubber soled shoes. =)

 

[fried green eggs]

I test electric fences for "bite" with a long blade of green grass. I do it by holding the blade of grass at the end and the other end is touching the fence. I gradually move the contact point closer to my fingers. It works much better than most of the fence testers I have tried.