|
Buying Hot Fence Questions
QUESTION:I rented a large Ditch Witch with backhoe and blade last week to put in a water
line, downspout drains and a power cable. It digs a six inch trench up to 5'
deep, and claims to dig 100' per hour (Hah! -- depends on the size of your rocks I put six hours on the clock and put in about 300 feet of 3' deep ditch,
some of which had to be dug with the backhoe because of the rocks. The backhoe
controls are really crude, no finesse allowed, but it got the job done. Rental
rates here ( MO ) were $175 per half day, or $225 per day (YMMV, but that is the
ballpark).
You could not only put power out there, but you would be below the frost line
and you could put a couple of freezeproof hydrants for water along such a
ditch, put a big post out there to mount the outlet, your fencer. to protect
the hydrant, you could put an automatic stock tank there and It'd be a corner
post for your fences (so place it strategically, it should be part of the
forever plan). If you have soft ground and are only burying an underground
burial cable for power, you could rent the walk-behind unit for about half that
and only go deep enough to protect the cable from surface damage.
Putting a ditch in is not as expensive as buying a bunch of batteries. I
bought a 6V battery powered Parmak fencer when I moved here for a paddock that
didn't have power available, for about $50 IIRC. The batteries last about 3
months (continuous use) and cost about $20. About half way thru the life of the
batteries, the zap becomes a tickle and the horses test it ignore it and start
to lean on it. Do the math. It was a bad deal. If you don't put a buried
power cable in, get a solar fencer or a 12V fencer that uses rechargeable
batteries and then toss them and get the biggest momma deep-cycle marine battery
for it you can find, put it in a plastic battery box at the base of the post
your fencer is on. Recharge it as needed at the house.
ANSWER: It must have been the weekend for trenching because my hubby did the
same thing. Although, we opted for the Terramite backhoe (little 'un)
instead of the Ditch Witch. We grow rocks here...
There were no 1/2 day rates available for the backhoe and the full day
rate was $220 so not much diff in $$$. We ended up keeping it 2 days
because it took a lot longer than anticipated. My brother Bill was mad
that we rented because he is in the business and has a lot of heavy
equipment but he's been busy lately and we didn't want to bother him to
deliver one of his real backhoes. Bill's point, and it was a good one,
is that it would take a LOT longer with the itty bitty Terramite than
the 3 or 4 hours with one of his real backhoes. It ended up taking a
day and a half to dig a 400' 4' trench from house to barn, plus a few
branches off that, probably adding up to another 100' or so.
Code here is 42".
His other suggestion was to use 200 psi well pipe for the water since we
often have heavy equipment crossing the trench area. Can't get that
from Lowe's or Home Cheapo -- the best they had was 160 psi. The
plumbing supply store had it and it was cheaper from them than the 160
from the bargain supply stores, plus they had the yard hydrants in
stock.
I think that Eileen's temporary situation is an ideal use for the solar
charger. Digging trenches, even small ones, is a PITA having BTDT a few
times now. It's much easier to just install the solar charger and boom,
you're done.
The other problem with digging trenches, especially of the lengths you
mentioned and our application too is that for weekend warriors, there's
not enough time to finish the entire project in one weekend (even a 3
day one). Now I have to cross the trench in 5 different spots to get to
the barn -- what a MAJOR PITA. The horses are confined to the dry lot
until the project is finished since getting to the spring pasture
requires going across the trenched area too.
Anyway... another .02.
|
|
|
|
