Which Electric Fencing Wire

[bottleworks]

I am building a permanent electric fence over the next year. I am planing on using 12.5 Ga wire, however, I am not sure if I should use Galvanized steel or aluminum wire. Which is better?

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I have never used aluminum but know steel should be stronger. Here deer is a problem so steel is used and cost may be a factor too.

Rust at some point is an issue but that should be many years if you will buy quality fire upfront.

What do you mean by permanent?

 

[bottleworks]

What do you mean by permanent?

I don't intend to remove the fence for the remainder of my life.

I was planning on going with aluminum because of potential rusting over time, however, steel may be better. I will be buying about 33,000 feet of wire, so I want to buy the best.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Then you can afford to do it right. TSC type stores may offer some good advice for your area.

It is the manhours required to keep an electric fence operational after the installation it was the killer in my experience.

I could not count the delayed/cancelled trips due to the fence being "down".

To this day I do not know how I did it (well it was 45 years ago) I was "walking" the electric fence "again" when I saw I was going to step on a coiled copperhead snake and my foot was like 12 inches from stepping on .

Somehow I jumped with the leg that was still on the ground so my other foot did not step on the snake.

Have you ever maintained an electric fence?

They do make a very heavy wire that you may want to look at. It just has been a long time since I messed with installing or using one.

 

[Ken45101]

Aluminum is soft and will get stretched if deer hit it. Cheap galvanized wire will rust within a half dozen years. Your 12.5 ga sounds good as long as it has a good solid (not cheap) galvanized coating.

Something you might check into is the high tensile wire. You don't have to string it with high tension, but it seems to be decent quality wire.

FWIW, we are pulling down our electric wire. It's the thin gauge stuff and the deer have been wrecking it. Last year the deer pulled it into the pasture and one of our horses got tangled with it and had a pretty severe cut on his leg.

Good luck with your endeavor, that sound like a lot of effort!

Ken

 

[magicheater]

I too have a permanent electric deer fence. I used old power poles spaced 30-40 feet and 5 rows of 14 gage galvanized wire. It has been up 5+ years and so far no rust and once the deer know it is there they stay away. Put some gates in for tractor access. I have not had a problem with the wire coming down, used sturdy ceramic insulators that the wire goes through, not just clipped on.

 

[Ken45101]

Don't forget, deer do NOT get a shock from electric fence if they jump it but don't cleanly clear it. They have to have feet on the ground to get a shock.

There is plastic coated (electric conducting) high tensile wire. That should last a long, long time, but of course is expensive.

Ken

 

[bottleworks]

Don't forget, deer do NOT get a shock from electric fence if they jump it but don't cleanly clear it. They have to have feet on the ground to get a shock.

The upper wires will alternate between ground and power to ensure a shock.

 

[bottleworks]

Steel it is. That will save a lot of money as I had budgeted $130 per 4K ft Al, vs $86 per 4K for steel.

 

[magicheater]

The upper wires will alternate between ground and power to ensure a shock.

That is a great idea!, never thought of doing that. Thanx!

 

[Ken45101]

The upper wires will alternate between ground and power to ensure a shock.

If a deer is going through a fence, it will have feet on the ground and will get shocked if it touches a hot wire. However, if it is jumping the fence and doesn't totally clear the top wire, it will not get shocked where or not you alternate wires.

I have never had a deer tear down anything other than the top electric wire. The rest of our wires are double strand wire, like barbed wire without the barbs.

Ken

 

[magicheater]

If a deer is going through a fence, it will have feet on the ground and will get shocked if it touches a hot wire. Ken

I have witnessed a deer leaving all fours to hurl itself between the wires in a fence, on a dead run at that. I have had luck with a 6' high fence with all hot wires but really liked the idea of alternating the hot and ground. Mentioned it to a friend of mine who visited today and he relayed the story of what they called a "dog fence". It consisted of a ground wire just above the first hot, maybe 3"-4". Very effective he said. Once they get a shot on the nose they learn real fast. I have also heard of putting peanut butter on the wire when it is off and then turning the fence on in a few days. I have not resorted to that and do not intend to. Happy fencing!

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I hope to have real fences IF we ever have livestock again with the pain level just reading this thread brings up in my memory.

 

[whistlepig]

We have Ramm electrical fencing. Stainless steel wire braided in nylon. We have been using electric fence for 35 years. Every flavor imaginable. When we moved here 3 years ago we went to an all Ramm electric fence setup. It's expensive, very user friendly to install, and a true pleasure to maintain. At first I protested the cost. But after three years of using Ramm it's worth every penny. After three years it is as good as new.

 

[ayelvington]

Glad you went with the high-tensile steel. Now I recommend that you alternate the hot and ground wires to make sure anything trying to sneak through feels the love! This helps a lot if the ground gets too dry, or the critter is too far from a ground post...

 

[whistlepig]

We don't do bare wire or high tensile. For whatever reason our horses seem to get in to this type fence and it slices them like a razor. Hundreds of dollars and hundreds of stitches. And bare wire is very difficult to see when it is down. If it is down the horses can't see it they can get the bare wire rapped around a pastern and cut the tendon. This cripples the horse forever. This has happened to us more than once. Electric has to be something that is easily seen. That's why we went with the white nylon tape from Ramm. When I go by a pasture that has high tensile or bare electric wire for horses it scares me. Good horses are very hard to find. I'm sure not going to cripple up any more with my fence.

 

[QRTRHRS]

We don't do bare wire or high tensile. For whatever reason our horses seem to get in to this type fence and it slices them like a razor. Hundreds of dollars and hundreds of stitches. And bare wire is very difficult to see when it is down. If it is down the horses can't see it they can get the bare wire rapped around a pastern and cut the tendon. This cripples the horse forever. This has happened to us more than once. Electric has to be something that is easily seen. That's why we went with the white nylon tape from Ramm. When I go by a pasture that has high tensile or bare electric wire for horses it scares me. Good horses are very hard to find. I'm sure not going to cripple up any more with my fence.

I went with coated tensile for my present property. It is tensile with a 3/8 plastic coating. There are four black lines on it that conduct electricity to the surface fron the wire. The horses can see the wire and you only have to get close to get zapped! Horses being horses, if one does hit the wire, they are not likely to get garotted like on plain tensile.

As for the grounds. I have five and six wire runs. Five for the mares and geldings, six for my two stallions. My fourth wire up is a ground. That way, if a horse touches the top two, they hit ground and hot simutaneously. It they hit top or the lower three, then the ground is conventional back to the charger. As I said,I have six rows for my stallions. The top two are hot and the fourth ground. That way, my system is symetrical.

With one wire as ground, I have several ground rods all around my perimeter in addition to the grouns system at the charger.

I do use the 2" tape for interior fencing. I have since gone to electric rope for such purposes. Maybe I am buying from the wrong manufacturer but the tape has gotten very flimsy as has the hardware. At least from the source I had been getting.

 

[jimmyj]

What sort of animals are you trying to keep in or out?

 

[Ken45101]

What sort of animals are you trying to keep in or out?

Good question! LOL.

A few comments:

If a deer is hurling itself at the fence, the shock will come a little late to stop it:confused2:

Horses can be more prone to injury from fences.

We like the electrified rope, it is indeed easy to install, but the grass and weeds do need to be trimmed underneath it. I'm tending back toward wire.

We did have one disaster with the electrified rope. Our best ever colt (on the day he was weaned) apparently ran against it and sprung the insulated hook handle. It wrapped around his foot and I found him laying in the pasture with his foot only attached by a small strip of skin. I will not use those insulated hooks ever again.

As I mentioned earlier, we did have deer tear down the light galvanized top electric wire. One of our horses did get it caught in his leg at the elbow and had a deep cut. It has healed. I am in the process of removing that light gauge wire. Two strands of wire seems to be enough to keep our herd safe. (Note, we are not near a road, so there is no high risk with a horse getting out.)

I've heard horror stories of the high tensile wire cutting horses that run into it. I'd be afraid it with horses. We have used the two twisted strands of bare galvanized wire (like barbed wire but without the barbs), successfully.

I don't understand the people needing five and six strands of wire. I'm not saying you are wrong, just we haven't needed it. Properly spaced, two strands of bare wire plus a top electrified wire (at 4') high, have been adequate for our herd (23 at one point), including our stallion. Where we have used the electrified rope, we have only done two strands. Never had a problem in the five years it's been up.

Ken

 

[firefighter9208]

I think the charger is more important that the wire. Try one of these. Made in Ashville, Alabama. Taylor Fence Inc. 4097 Co. Rd. 22 Ashville, AL 35953 . I don't think you would be disappointed.

Chris

BTW: I don't work for and am not related to the person building these chargers, but have only heard good things from others that have used them.