Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Solar fence charger problems.

I have a fence charger that is "dual power". I got tired of paying 42.00 a month for the minimum meter charge so I ordered a solar panel. Still working out the kinks, but it seems to be going dead between day 4-7... It would help if my corner of Missouri would get some sun, but it seems to be monsoon season. Any of you guys that know about this stuff have time to make sure the equipment is adequate?

This is basically what I have now.
https://www.americangrazinglands.co...fix-x6i-unigizer-6-joule-output-w-remote

In conjunction with an Everstart MAXX-29DC, Sticker on top claims 110 amp hour reserve. Largest Deep Cycle Marine Walmart had.

I built the boxes to house them. Based the panel angle of some old factory chargers. Need to check that out tomorrow. Looks like 30* for my latitude.

So damn wet I'm not driving in the fields, and Packing a battery almost 1/4 in and out is getting old fast... but it sounded like the best place when you get that much money tied into something that can easily be walked off with.

LJ, sorry to hear of your troubles. And sorry I'm of no help.


How many miles of fence do you run with that setup?

Brushy, 'dirty' fence?



We have three solar Gallagher chargers running right now. But they are just little guys compared to your system.

Sounds like the panel and regulator are not big enough - you'd probably need 12hrs "good" sunlight every day for that system to work.

My reasoning is that if it is lasting that long the battery capacity is okay but it's just not getting enough of a recharge and is slowly (net) being drained.

Might be time to walk the fence to see if it has some limbs or grass or other making it trip all the time.

Make sure that the panel has a diode that is working.

We found that in times of real cloudy times that the panel we were using was not charging so we added another panel to make up for it with a charger/controller.

get the instructions out and recheck your wiring. Be sure your hot wire really is insulated. Other than that I'd be guessing. Try https://news.energysage.com/whats-the-best-angle-for-my-solar-panels/ for panel angle which is important but not critical.

Sam, I used to run 3 hots around 2 40acre fields with some sub division for sheep. Brush grows up fast here in Missouri, especially at the heights you need for sheep. Thats the original reason for the big charger.

The new charger, is so I have 2 the same size, and the way I do things now I won't be outgrowing them.

Now that I have cows again I don't electrify the perimeter. Permanent Interiors are 30" Single strand hi-tensile and PasturePro Posts, so I don't cut or spray, there are no insulators to deal with. Subdivisions are done with pigtail posts and geared reels of polywire (2000ft). I can hang 13 paddocks in about 3 hours. I typically move them every day.

I still keep the small solar chargers like yours around for training animals to hot wire in the lot, keep them out of the hay pen, rental ground, things like that. Handy as the pocket on a shirt.

I might have a video of the new fence system, if you are curious, I guess I could spend the 30 second to make one if not.

I'm about as dumb as they come on electric. Keep that in mind when I ask, Will the load on the fence drain the battery any faster than a clean fence or just act to lower the voltage when you do touch it downstream? I always assumed the fencer consumed the same amount of power weather it was running clean or grounded out.

The fence is clean, but I have a habit of just laying the reels on the ground, if the grass is tall enough... they will arc, but it's not a dead short, so the cows still get hit... never worried about it when it was run on 110v.

Yep it loads when grounded.

The fencers we have just blink a light to let you know its working right but if a weed gets hung up it will put a drain on the battery.

I know you aren't looking to spend more money, but this unit looks a bit under-powered.

If you want fire-and-forget, go with another 100w panel (Renogy makes a good affordable one, Amazon for ~$100) and add that to your set up. (You'll need a 2-1 cable, maybe $10, assuming that kit uses standard solar panel cables) That alone MAY be enough to get you over the hump.

Also, 2 x 6v batteries in series (such as golf cart batteries) is almost always better than a single 12v. A little spendy but, generally can double the amp hours of the set up.

By way of reference, I run 4x100w Renogy panels with solar controller and 2x6v Duracells in my Class C motorhome.

The entire set up was about $700 and will power my entire motorhome non-stop with zero need to run the 4k genset pretty much indefinitely, unless I want to run A/C while not on shore power.

Good luck!

I believe most controllers will up their energy output if there is brush/weeds on the line (reducing the resistance), so this will use more power.

These are 100 watt Renogy panels. I don't mind adding another battery if that would fix it. It's just a pain in the ass when I don't understand electrics and the panel is rated at 100watts, the battery is rated for CCA or Amp hours, the Charger need 650 mA on full power or 350 on half power... None of the ratings match up for me.

I have 2 chargers, 2 batteries, and 2 panels... Cows in 1 field, SO i can double things and experiment.. Might need a larger regulator if I double the panels, I have a 10 watt, but they are cheap.

10 watt should work.

Maybe I misunderstood your set up.

I thought you had 1 panel, 1 charger, and 1 battery. If you have 2 of the same set up, one option could be 2 panels to one charger, 2x12v batteries in parallel.

Just make sure your controller can handle the power (sounds like maybe not?)

We do not like the stay fix charger we have.

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Maybe I misunderstood your set up.

I thought you had 1 panel, 1 charger, and 1 battery. If you have 2 of the same set up, one option could be 2 panels to one charger, 2x12v batteries in parallel.

Just make sure your controller can handle the power (sounds like maybe not?)
[/quote]

I didn't mention that I had 2 of everything before, Your reading comp is doing fine.



Come on Jim, There are only really 3 companies? Tru-test, Parmak, Cyclops (next one I try, made and serviced in USA)

Tru-test makes the Speedrite, Stafix, Gallagher, Patriot... pretty well everything on the shelves. And I won't be going back to parmak.

Besides, the charger is working great, this is a power supply issue.

I'm thinking you have a short in the line somewhere. If nothing is touching the wire, the battery should last for many weeks without being recharged. The charger pulls almost no power until the fence is discharged. Wet grass can pull a lot juice from a battery.

I have a small fencer that I use with my llamas when hunting. It runs on 4 D cells. I can run it a week and the batteries will still show full power.

The assemble yourself package we got from stayfix has not been reliable.

Sometimes power sometimes not.


The Gerrishes are puzzled and want to send more parts to try.



You are energizing a lot more than we are.


The preassembled Speed-rite has been flawless in the same roles.

I have had excellent results with the parmak magnum 12 solar. Have replaced the batteries once in 5 years on each of them. Each controller is charging less than 10 miles of wire. Good bang for the buck;

Jim

Well. I took my tools over today and going to start by checking the battery and swapping it... Fully charged. Dug deeper and a cow had knocked the wire loose between the charger and the first ground rod. Thats all it was. Guess i've had so many wierd problems i was looking for the worst case. I'll throw 2 fiberglass rods up and 20ft of polywire, shouldnt happen again.

Anyways, super easy fix, and with the other projects I've got rolling, i'm thankful for it. Thanks for the help anyways gentlemen.