Gallagher S16, super weak zap

[ottawarob]

Hey there. I bought a Gallagher S16 solar energizer to protect a 28' x 35' bee yard. The charger's been charging up outside for a few weeks now. We wired up a strand today (turbo wire), hammered a grounding rod into the ground. I connected up the ground and wire with the clips they provide. I figured I'd try it out, it seems to have a really weak zap, sort of like a nerve jolt. I was expecting more. Ground is really wet here. I'm going to try a few things, like use a 12g wire to the ground, but are these things just really weak? I can imagine this deterring anything.

 

[RNeumann]

If the ground is good it might be the perimeter wire. Undo the wire and “touch test” (your idea, not mine....haha) the contact without the wire. If that wire is touching anything- grass, twig etc it will be bleeding voltage to ground.
I don’t know about that model and how it stores energy (battery, cap etc). Obviously test the battery if it has one and verify the solar is clean and pointed in the right direction.

Beyond that it would be model specific and I ain’t that guy.

 

[EddieWalker]

Most issues with electric fence are with the ground rod. Was it a full 8 ft long ground rod? Did you use the proper attachment for connecting the wire to the ground rod? Is it a solid connection? Moisture in the soil should improve your performance, but some soils are just not as good as other soils, so they say to put in another ground rod at least ten feet away from the first one. Once you are 100% sure that your ground is solid, go over every point that your wire is connected to whatever you have holding it in place and make sure that there isn't any place that the wire is touching metal, or something wet that leads to the ground. I've had grasshoppers short mine out by dying between the wire and my metal T posts. The popping sound is actually pretty loud!!!

If nothing solves your problems, it might be worthwhile buying a voltage tester. You stick the wire end of it into the dirt, and touch your fence wire with the metal sticking out of the tester, and it will give you the voltage. I had to add two ground rods to my hot fence to get it to work properly when the tester showed very little voltage.

 

[ottawarob]

Thanks guys, this is super helpful! So I replaced the ground clip with a 12g piece of wire. Slightly better zap. Then I thought, hey, the grass is really low, and the soles of my feet might be insulating me. Put a socked foot on the ground. ZAP. It's good. (Yeah, I should start using a volt meter.)

Anyway, here's a photo of it so far. Have to zip tie off the ground to neaten it up, and use some 12g wire to make a lead to the fence. That mess of wire is going to be a gate line.

 

[EddieWalker]

Sounds like you are getting more out of it. That's good!!!

Is that a proper 8 foot long ground rod? All the ones I've ever seen and used are copper coated and look like copper.

For a stronger zap, the bare wire is the best. The rope doesn't carry electricity as well. Maybe a combination of both if you are wanting it to be visible. I went with the 2 inch tape for my horses so they could see it really good. They still zap themselves and it's something to see, but usually when they do it, I see their hoof marks and the fence is damaged.

 

[ottawarob]

Yeah, I'm really happy!

It's a 6 foot long galvanized grounding rod, what the guy at the farm store sold me. I have a gas powered post driver (present to myself), so I may buy a rod like you mention and drive that in too.

I thought about putting a line of bare wire on the top, it would resist breaking a bit more than the rope too. Tbh, at this point more zap is always good but I don't think I'll test it with my hand. Did it once again after changing the hot wire to energizer connection. I'm good now, holy cow.

 

[Tractorable]

I assume you're in bear country? Bears killed our bee hives so I've been working on ideas for a combination of high voltage and physical protection against bears. Once they find your hives they keep coming back for more.

 

[ottawarob]

Yeah, there's a black bear around. No hives yet, but I'm planning to some some tuna lids on the wire soon, train the bear that there's nothing fun in there.

 

[zing]

Yeah, I'm really happy!

It's a 6 foot long galvanized grounding rod, what the guy at the farm store sold me. I have a gas powered post driver (present to myself), so I may buy a rod like you mention and drive that in too.

I thought about putting a line of bare wire on the top, it would resist breaking a bit more than the rope too. Tbh, at this point more zap is always good but I don't think I'll test it with my hand. Did it once again after changing the hot wire to energizer connection. I'm good now, holy cow.

The more ground poles you have the better, so don't be afraid to put that second one in. Over time they will corrode and if one gets bad you will have the other for backup. I have three ground rods on the setup for my horse paddocks. The setup was about 15 years old 2 years ago when I re-did the connections at the top of all three ground rods. My meter used to read about 8000 in the spring when the ground is wet and 6500-7000 in the summer when dry, but it had dropped significantly over the last couple years. I trenched the line between the three posts to make sure there were no breaks/shorts/corroded spots and cleaned up the connections, and it was back to the way it had been a decade ago. If it is for bears you will want it to have a significant jolt. I spotted a mother bear that was too lazy to go around, as she sauntered across my paddock. Her two cubs were at the far end crying but she just ignored them and kept on walking. After a bit they just pushed between the wires and dashed after her. When she got to the other end of the paddock she just put her front legs over one after the other and then sort of hopped her back end over and kept on trucking. I am sure she must have gotten a zap or two on the belly as she went over, but she didn't seem to care. The cubs followed her through the fence pretty quickly. Meanwhile my horse was in the far corner with her eyes wide as saucers, but the sassy pony barely bothered to raise her head from the grass she was eating.

Make sure you keep the grass down below the lowest line of electrified wire or that will draw down the current too. I have found the best way to do that is i just drive my lawn tractor along the fence with the deck under the bottom wire by a couple of inches, then go around the inside in the other direction. Then take the gas weed wacker and trim around the fence poles. Have to do it once a month or so before the grass gets too big for the lawn tractor. Your area is small enough that you can probably maintain it with a hand push mower. I don't have a great picture to show what I mean, but from this pictures below you can see that if you don't maintain the grass height, it would really quickly overrun the lower line on your fence and once that happens your current will draw down to useless levels. If your current is good, when you grab the line it should catch your breath and buckle your knees. If it doesn't you aren't going to deter a bear.

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[ottawarob]

Thanks Zing, I've been keeping the grass short so far, definitely need to keep on it this time of year, it's growing quickly.