how to run your hotwire underground under a gate?

[Catersun]

I know it's been talked about... so to those who have their hotwire underground to cross fences... how did you do it.. is your insulated wire run through conduit? how deep did you go... please fill me in.
TIA

[deltawave]

We put the wire (coated copper) in 3/4" plastic conduit with the ends sealed with watertight connectors and buried it about a foot down under the gate. You can buy all those parts at Lowe's. Silicone spray helps when you are stuffing that wire through the conduit. ;)

[Tom King]

Use the underground wire AND put it in conduit. Conduit is cheap. Put it in deeper than you think you need to.

http://www.kencove.com/fence/detail.php?code=G32

[Bluey]

I don't know about you, but here we add two tall plastic pipes to each side of the gate, wired to the posts there, run the wire up one, across the top to the other and back down to the fence on the other side.
Works even in our very high winds, because the wire over the top doesn't hardly catch the wind.

Now, there was a place or two many years ago, on temporary wheat pasture, where we ran the wire in an old garden hose, laid it on the ground, the ends turned up and taped well and the wire ran thru it.
That worked for a season.

[Catersun]

thanks DW and Tom King. I was thinking of you two as I was trying to describe what I wanted to Mr. C after I ran my electric tape around the top of the paddock.

[Guilherme]

We use insulated wire and run it through a length of old garden hose. Crimp the ends and you're got a nice, watertight, very durable run.

As noted, bury it deeper than you think you have to.

If you can't find insulated wire most places (Co-Op, Tractor Supply, etc.) carries an insulating material that goes nicely with heavy gauge aluminum wire.

G.

[hosspuller]

Tom King posted a link to the proper wire. But it bears repeating, use the high voltage rated wire. Ordinary electrical wire is only rated to 600 volts. A fence charger puts out 10,000 volts or more.

I used 1/2 black poly water pipe under my gates. The poly pipe is run up the posts. The high voltage wire is sealed at the ends of the poly pipe, and a drip loop is formed to reduce the water running down the hi-volt wire.

[deltawave]

Yes, you can use various shapes of conduit pieces to keep water from running in--sort of an upside-down "U" so the end of the conduit is pointing towards the ground. It means a lot of fiddly pieces and extra parts, but hopefully you'll only be doing the job once, you know? :) If I can remember I'll take some pictures of our setup tomorrow.

[BasqueMom]

Yes, by all means, use the cable/wire made
for that purpose. You can get rolls as short
as 50 feet and it's not expensive. Your local
Tractor Supply should carry it or any farm supply store that carries electrical fence supplies.

[Everythingbutwings]

We ran ours through a length of garden hose. Worked a charm and cheap.

[LisaB]

We ran conduit down the post then under the gate and back up the post. We kept the hot tape and didn't use the wire like Tom has. Is that not kosher? Should we switch it out to that wire instead?

[chai]

I am writing an article on fence repair/maintenance and would love to talk to anyone who has tips, suggestions.
Thanks.

[Tom King]

I use conduit now because over the years we've had a couple of "blowouts" on the insulation even when using the heaviest underground fence wire I could find. They were probably from lightning strikes since it's a pretty short jump to ground through the insulation. The conduit makes it easy to change with no digging required. Pull the new wire through with the old wire or use a fish tape. Having to dig the wire up is WAY more problem than the few bucks spent on conduit.

I use 1/2" gray plastic conduit and the large radius 90 degree bends to turn the conduit up the sides of the gate posts. I don't go very high just because of the way it looks, and run the insulated wire up to where it joins the wire (no. 9 aluminum), make the connections with split bolts, and seal the ends of the conduit with polyuurethane caulking (sticks better than silcone). Don't drive staples tight at all on the insulated wire to hold it in place.

Conduit is really cheap at Lowes and Home Depot. Split bolts, also available in the box stores, are not so cheap but I've never had a bad connection or had to redo one.

[deltawave]

Split bolts are the greatest--found a gigantic hoard of them in my brother's tool box (he used to be an electrician) and made off with them with his permission--probably 100 of them. Buggers are indispensable but pricey!