Possible can of worms alert

Wesley Stephens · Feb 25, 2014

I am getting ready to build a small auxiliary hog pen to isolate a sow and litters of pigs. It will probably be no more than 50 yards square and I will have 3 strands of 17ga. wire. I am looking at solar fencers since there is no electricity where it is going, and though I know that you often get what you pay for, I am wondering how strong the ones from Harbor Freight are. I don't know how they would compare to a conventional fencer. I am used to low impedance ones rated in joules. I know they are not a Zareba or Dare, but I'm tempted to try one since the pen is small and they claim they are good for 3 to 5 miles of wire. Has anyone ever used one?

farmerwithmutt · Feb 25, 2014

I have speed rite what i did was build a solid
pen with hot wire across a corner when pigs
got hit and learned hot wire then started
moving wire out did rotational grazing moved
poly wire daily no problem

T in NE · Feb 25, 2014

I don't think I'd go to harbor freight for something like a charger. Would stick with Parmak or Stafix.
But that's just me.

notjustair · Feb 25, 2014

It doesn't take lots of juice to keep them in unless you have a boar. I have all of my pens wired up. One 6 inches up and one 24 inches up. I have a plug in charger that runs all of them - miles of wire. I like plug in as they are more forgiving if there are small ground outs. Is there an option of running a cord and using a big charger for a couple of days? You would only need the solar then.

paul · Feb 25, 2014

I picked up one of the cheap grey solar fencers from them a
number of years ago.

Mine was junk, I could hold the wire with it on.

Paul

Wesley Stephens · Feb 25, 2014

That's what I was afraid of. I wouldn't worry about the sow I'm planning to put in there or her pigs because they would be used to it from birth, but a boar would be with her from time to time and might need a strong jolt to get his attention.

Dieselrider · Feb 26, 2014

If they are on dirt they will root and eventually cover part of the wire with dirt. You will need to keep an eye on that. However, you want a "Low Impedance" fence charger. It will still pack a wallop when the dirt or weeds get on parts of it.

Small pet fencers are not good at keeping pigs in, ask me how I know.

farmerwithmutt · Feb 26, 2014

On boars i bought one and dufus had never
seen a hot wire .turned him in with sows
dufus had to check out the hot wire had a
loud crack dufus headed to other side found
the other wire next big crack dufus went to
the middle between the sows and i seen
something i never saw before i guess you
could say he got turned on by the electricity
but it was funny i cant say what actually
happened but you can guess

in-too-deep · Feb 26, 2014

Don't bother with 17 ga. wire. Spend another $.12 and get 14 ga.

Part Time Pete · Feb 26, 2014

They never cover as much distance as advertised, especially if you have grass of dirt on your wire. I have approximately 4 miles of fence with two strands barbed and two hot, and tried the cheap fencer route. Once I got sick of chasing calves, I got a 16 joule Zareba, which works pretty well.

waltdavies · Feb 26, 2014

I have two parmak chargers they work great when working but you need to have a real good wet ground to keep them from burning out.
Walt

kyhayman · Feb 26, 2014

The real question is, what will it cost when it
doesn't work?

The only other comment I have directly is don't
forget that wire size has a lot to do with both
the volume of current and the stored reserve of
current. If it was mine, and it was important
enough to do, its important enough to do right.
Cheap simply means you get to do it, undo it, and
do it again right. So it costs 3 times as much....

Anonymous-0 · Feb 26, 2014

I have used HF fencers to keep deer out of the garden, the battery is
real small. I know pigs, and I would want a bigger battery, to keep
my sow, moochelle, in.

Possible can of worms alert

Wesley Stephens

Member

farmerwithmutt

Well-known Member

T in NE

Well-known Member

notjustair

Well-known Member

paul

Well-known Member

Wesley Stephens

Member

Dieselrider

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farmerwithmutt

Well-known Member

in-too-deep

Well-known Member

Part Time Pete

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waltdavies

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kyhayman

Well-known Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

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