Hello everyone,

I had a Mark 6 charger that worked great for 3 years until lightning hit the wire someplace. Blew the cover across the barn. I finally got a new charger and it worked fine when first put in but was dead in the morning. The fuses were okay.

I exchanged it for a new charger and although the reading comes up as fully charged, the shock factor was good near the charger, but when you go beyond 50 feet, the shock is lessened the greater the distance. This unit is made to shock 30 miles, through wet weeds.

I have no weeds on the fence. We had alot of rain so the ground is fine. Some of the insulators (plastic) have a slightly melted spot where the wire rested but otherwise there is no outside contact. Some rust but nothing bad. Again it worked great until the lightning.

I have tried to contact the company but need help sooner since my goat is eating all my ornamental flowers (nothing poisonous for you goat people) and I want to keep the bear away from my rabbits. Any help would be appreciated.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), July 29, 2000

Answers

I'm only a farmer with limited electrical experience but this might be a problem with the grounding side of the fence. I had that loss of charge per length problem and was forced to add an extra grounding rod. Maybe?

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), July 29, 2000.

Odd situation. Your old charger worked OK until a lightening strike, but a new one won't. Did you upgrade the strength of the charger? If so, as Joel said, you may need to install additional grounding rods. Both of my charges specify three 8' iron poles set in the ground 10' apart connected with the same wire as used to ground your house's electrical system.

-- Ken S. (scharabo@aol.com), July 29, 2000.

P.S. Lightening got one of my charges last week also. I lose about one a year. Came through a lightening gap, lightening choke and still smoked the charger.

-- Ken S. (scharabo@aol.com), July 29, 2000.

you might want to replace your melted insulators as they might be the problem

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), July 29, 2000.

Ken & Joel,

I bought the same unit. I have three 12' copper and steel poles for my ground. My husband said he will update the wire. We have leftover from grounding our new pool. It was required to be a heavy duty ground wire.

kathy,

The insulators are so slightly melted. One little spot where wire touched. No snapping sound near them. I don't think that is the problem but thanks anyway.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), July 29, 2000.

You guys were right. Went to dig up the poles following the wire but the wire had rotted right through. When I changed the new charger, it must have broken what little contact there was.

Thanks!

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), July 30, 2000.