New fence charger question

Just got the new charger installed (cyclops Master 20 joule) and cautiously went to check the output. Nice damp soil and what I think is good hot lead contact with the fence wires. While wearing my muck boots I can feel a tingle through a blade of grass. Seemed much weaker than I anticipated, tried the back of my hand against it and it was stronger but still not what I expected. Will the rubber muck boots make that good an insulator to keep you from getting rocked by the fence? I wasn't brave enough to ground myself and give it a try. There is quite a spark off the unit when bench tested.

Check for a good spark from the fence wire to a good ground and you will know if it is working.

Do you really want to stick your tounge on
it ala 9 volt battery or take a wizz on it?
Good old fashiin test was to push a stem of
orchard grass near the wire and if burned
through in a minute that was really hot. Do
you have one of those testers Agway had with
the neon bulbs in it?

(quoted from post at 17:51:22 11/26/16) Do you really want to stick your tounge on
it ala 9 volt battery or take a wizz on it?
Good old fashiin test was to push a stem of
orchard grass near the wire and if burned
through in a minute that was really hot. Do
you have one of those testers Agway had with
the neon bulbs in it?

Click to expand...

No teater yet, I just finished the install and was going to make a run to the store tomorrow afternoon. I think the boots were insulating me from a good connection. I was hoping our group would have an idea if the boots were the cause.

I use all metal rod posts,and where ever I have a 'gate' handle I tie my poly wire to the end insulator with the 18 gauge steel electric fence wire.I leave about 6 extra inches of the steel wire sticking up from the insulator so that I can momentarily bend it over to the metal post,and check for spark.I use my ball cap beak to contact the wire to the post,or use a stick.I can gauge the spark and see if I have any problems.The other way I use,is to loosen the insulator from the post and use it to make the poly wire touch the post.Mark

Crazy thought- why not spring a couple bucks for a fence tester? All this stuff about muck boots, grass stems and tingling is just a fun exercise in speculation, without any science to slow things up. Or man up and stand barefoot in the mud and relieve yourself on the fence. Might not be pleasant, but would give you the definitive answer.

(quoted from post at 19:41:00 11/26/16) Crazy thought- why not spring a couple bucks for a fence tester? All this stuff about muck boots, grass stems and tingling is just a fun exercise in speculation, without any science to slow things up. Or man up and stand barefoot in the mud and relieve yourself on the fence. Might not be pleasant, but would give you the definitive answer.

Click to expand...

As i mentioned, will make the drive into town tomorrow for a tester, was just wondering if anyone had some feedback about the new equipment.

Pee on it and report back, if you can lol

Just push an electric fence post into the ground near the wire and lean it over until your close enough to get a spark.
You can do this bare handed and won't feel a thing as the current will take least resistance and go to ground through the rod.
This way you can see and hear how good a spark you have. A long spark and loud snap is preferable.
A weak spark with hardly no gap and you got problems. An insulator off somewhere or wet weeds on the wire etc.
I usually check my wire at the end of the run to be sure of no breaks in the middle somewhere.

Just a cheap tester with multiple lights
is best. If you get 5,000 volts all is ok.

Yes - the muck boots will partially insulate you. Put your knee on the wet ground and touch it, ha. Like others said - short it to a metal post - you should get a nice sharp snap and a spark that will startle you.

It was funny today - I was enlarging my hay storage area - the cattle were eating about 20 feet away, and I shorted the fence to a post with a screwdriver. Several of the cows jumped and looked over to see who had gotten bit. They know what that sound is, ha.

I usually use a screw driver and ground the wire to a steel post. See how far away you can get, grounding it out and how loud the snap is. Did you ground your fencer the way the instructions say.Fencer needs a great ground to work correctly.

The instructions stated use five 8' rods. I have 6 spread 10' apart across the fall liner of the roof of the barn. The soil here is black and blue clay with high moisture. Much of the surrounding property is low and wet. The system should function well if all the connections are solid and the weeds are kept down

Electric Fences --

If you have ever used an electric fence or know someone who has one , you
should read this.. The language used is a bit salty, but 'he tells it like it
is' without cursing. If you don't laugh at this,....CHECK YOUR
PULSE...this is FUNNY ....and true.

This was sent by a retired dentist.

We have the standard 6 ft. 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, and drove it 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 6 hp 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 pecker 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 piece of crap lawnmower were
fighting over who would control my electrical impulses.

Science says you cannot crap, pee, and vomit 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 piece of crap chargers made by International or whoever that were
like 9 volts and just kinda tickled.

This one 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, and with my vomit on my chest I think 'Oh God please die ....
Pleeeeaze die'. But nooooo, it settles into the rough lumpy cam idle nicely
and remains there, like a big bore roller cam EFI engine 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 where 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 the fillings in my teeth 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 vomit 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 sumbitch now. Seriously! I think our
little session cleared out some carbon fouling or something, because it was
better than new after that.

7 - My nuts 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 triple 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.

Very funny

Very funny

I use a pitch fork to cross the wire to
post or push it into the ground. Except
that one time I came home from work early
in the morning and grabbed the fork out of
the back of the truck. Now a long wooden
handle your safe right well usually the
one exception is if it rains and the
handle is wet that fencer was working real
good that day.

Oh man! Thank you so much Old. I know I have read something like this before a few years ago but it was for something else. I had to stop reading yours at least ten times to catch my breath and wipe the tears from my eyes. If I remember what the other was I will get back to you. Thanks for a great laugh!

About an hour latter I remembered. It was about a guy sitting in his living room lounge chair with his cat sitting in his lap. He had bought his wife one of those self defence 60K zappers. His thought was "how can three AA Batterys hurt you"??. He stuck himself in the leg. Pretty much the same resukts except the cat was hanging onto the fireplace mantle 15 feet away for dear life. Love that story, thanks again.

We have a tester at work that tells you how
hot the fence is and which way to a short.


It works. How, I don't know, but it works.

You have a really good fencer there. With an investment like that you need to make sure you have it very well grounded (I see you do) using a real ground cable. After that it's all in the fence connections. Go through and check to be sure there's no corroded connections and no bad insulators. With a large unit like that you should be able to hear any sparks jumping but a dead short won't always make a sound. A neon tester is fine, a digital model is better. 20 joules won't give you a "tingle". 20 joules will knock you on your can with no load on it.

Congratulations on your purchase. I wish I could afford a Cyclops.

(quoted from post at 21:57:51 11/26/16)
Very funny

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Yepper very funny! :lol:

yea, the boots will insulate you,....just ask my brother

(quoted from post at 16:45:43 11/27/16) yea, the boots will insulate you,....just ask my brother

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Jim, It took me a moment to realize what or more like how you said that. I had the best laugh with my wife. That so sounds like something I would have done if I could have gotten away with it. "Sure the charger is off... see", as my brother touches in and gets poked.

Well the local TSC didn't have a fence tester on the shelf and my multi meter isn't rated for this charger. I unplugged (tripple checked) and walked the fences. I found a dozen or so locations that the staples have been knocked off the posts and a few spots that hot fence leads were crossed onto the ground fence wires. My wife is going to pick up more staples tomorrow so I can correct that issue. The largest problem I located was one of the underground lines around a walk gate is broken off. I will have to dig that line up and replace it. I'll make these fixes and maybe the store will have restocked by that point.

Run those underground lines through a piece of plastic pipe or conduit. Saves all sorts of headaches and protects it.

It never ceases to amaze me that a nice tight fence can be fine one day and the next have 3 or 4 spots where the wire touches ground. Must be gremlins doing the work at night!