# Is my fence charger TOO powerful?



## Boonehillbilly (Aug 31, 2009)

I have the "Zareba BullDozer Model A100LI". This will be on a 16x32 pen. Does this pose harm to me or the pigs?

â¢ 100 mile range

â¢ Heavy, wet weed conditions

â¢ 115 volt, 60 cycle; pulsed output (1-second intervals)

â¢ 10.9 stored joules of power; 6 joule output at 75 ohms

â¢ Storm Guard lightning protection

â¢ Digital timing

â¢ Fuseless design

â¢ Output voltage no load is 12,400 volts

Just seems like I may have over done it...lol.. It will eventually power a 300x300' 6 wire field.


----------



## ONG2 (Sep 22, 2010)

The longer your fence is the more powerful the shock delivered to the animal. Not sure how that works but I had one fencer that would throw a 1" spark to a ground. 

Remember animals are a lot more sensitive to shock than humans are. 7 times more for cows I am not sure about hogs. I do know that the dog collar that makes our Dobie yelp on the few times we have had to use it only causes a strong tickle on my hand.

If in doubt or you want to test your fencer place one hand on the ground and grab the fence with your other hand multiply what you feel by 7 and you have your answer.

We had a very nice lamb get tangled up in a wove wire electric fence and it killed her. 

Good luck OBTW if you do decide to personally test out the fencer please at the least get pictures, a movie would be far better.


----------



## olivehill (Aug 17, 2009)

Definitely movie. I've not tested mine on purpose but on a particularly bad day of moving pigs last week I accidentally shocked myself a couple of times. Once I swear to you the whole danged fence emptied its charge through me into the ground. Hurt every part of my body. And yours is bigger than mine so... I wanna watch. LOL!


----------



## cooper101 (Sep 13, 2010)

My charger is 2.5 joules and neither I nor the pigs like it at all. 6 joules is probably not dangerous, but probably overkill. I use a little .25 joule D-cell charger on a pen bigger than yours and it keeps them in just fine. It doesn't take much.


----------



## Boonehillbilly (Aug 31, 2009)

Overkill yes I do beleive so. I kept reading that 6j was the way to go, so its the way I went..lol. I think Ill buy a tester and film that for you guys...lol I dont wanna spill the beans so to speak on camera...hahahaha


----------



## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

You have a fine setup and it can be expanded to cover more field.

I touched my fencer, while it wasn't loaded to the fence, and burned a millimeter or so sized hole through my thumb. An interesting experience. One you would think best not to repeat. Why I did it again years later is anyone's guess.


----------



## Boonehillbilly (Aug 31, 2009)

Well got the pigs today and it was dusk when I put them in the pen.. Lets just say there were fireworks. And the weeds had grown up a lil bit, those were burnt pretty much instantly... I do beleive I love my charger...lol


----------



## FarmerRob (May 25, 2009)

Out of all that description the part that matters is the "6 joule output." That is more than enough to do the job in a pen that size. It will leave a firm impression on any livestock that thinks about testing it. Just be sure that you place the hot wires at the right heights. Your pigs probably won't need to test it out too many times. Although as Highlands has said in other posts, you should train them to it in a small pen that is reinforced with strong fencing or pallets or hog/cattle panels. That is in case they hit the hot wire and lunge forward rather than jumping back. If the wires are at the wrong height and they stick their head through and then contact the wire on the back of their head or ears they could be off to the races if the wire is the only thing to hold them in. Once they are trained to it they will normally respect the wire and keep their distance.

It is also enough of a charger to keep any potential predators moving on. If you need to protect other pasture or a chicken coop and run, etc. this one can handle that as well.


----------



## HeritagePigs (Aug 11, 2009)

OK, let me see if I can make this clear. Just so ya'll know, I had algebra in junior high.

BTW, you said your charger is 10.9 joules. Rounding that up is 11, but since 11 might be seen as a mistake, just a double tap on the "1" key, I'm rounding it up to 12.

According to Wikipedia:

"One joule...is equal to the energy expended (or work done) in applying a force of one newton through a distance of one meter"

So, if Isaac Newton were kicked and landed a meter away, the force of your kick would be one joule. If you kicked Isaac and he landed twelve meters away then you would be using 12 joules.

One average sized sow is about two Newtons. So a 12 joule kick that put Isaac on his butt 12 meters away would only kick the sow about 6 meters. Since a meter is something like three feet (not sure about this; I think all that metric stuff was just the Brits wanting to get revenge on us), you would have to use three feet to kick the sow, and unless your buddy stands on one leg and helps you kick with the other, it is really hard to do since we only have two feet. And, since you can only really use one foot without falling on your butt, the most force you can use is one third joule. (Which makes me wonder how they measured one joule in the first place. Did they kick Isaac three times? Or were the kicks applied in his "special place"?)

So a charger that says it has 12 joules is probably lying since, in order to really measure that, they would need 36 people all kicking with one foot. Obviously impossible to do since the 36 people would essentially have to be standing in a circle to kick one Newton and, by doing so, he would probably not move anywhere. And after being kicked by 36 feet he would never be able to be used for the test again which means the test could never be duplicated which is against the rules of science.

But there might be a better way to see if 12 joules is too much. If when your sow touches it she lands one half meter away (the force of one joule) then a 12 joule charger should send her 6 meters which is probably too far for practical purposes since all you really want her to do is just stay away from the fence.

However, since the true purpose of a charger is to prevent the sow from ever touching the fence again, if it tossed her 6 meters I doubt she would ever come close to the fence again so, yes, 12 joules is probably okay. She also might never have babies again but that's just a side effect.

Make sense?

I could use my math skills to narrow the numbers down to be exact for your 10.9 joule charger but that's more like calculus and, since I played football, I never went that far.


----------



## mitchell3006 (Apr 1, 2010)

Brian, 
Are you by chance related to the Clampet clan. That is some of the finest Jethro math I ever saw.
ROFLMAO:bash:


----------



## HeritagePigs (Aug 11, 2009)

Well, the first thing you know ol' Jed's a millionaire...


----------

