No matter how strong you build a fence, something is going to break, eventually.
Whether your cows broke through, a tree fell on it, or one of your hands crashed through it on a quad, no fence lasts forever.
The good news is that if you started with a timeless fence, or almost any high tensile steel, electric fence repairs are easy. Once you’ve done it a couple times, it will become second nature and you’ll be able to repair most sections of your fence in under five minutes.
For those who’ve never dealt with a Timeless fence, or electric, high tensile fences like it, we’ll go step by step through the process of repairing your fence so you can confidently fix it when the inevitable happens.
What you’ll need
- A Gripple (or two)
- A Gripple tensioner tool
- Extra wiring (if there’s a gap in the fence)
- Wire cutters (if extra wiring is needed)
Step 1
Decouple the energizer.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but for safety’s sake, we’re including this as the first step of repair, as it should be included in any work or maintenance on an electric fence.
So, head over to your energizer and remove the positive wire from the battery and/or the solar panel.
Now that the fence is safe to touch, head back to the break.
Step 2
Now that you can easily manipulate your fence, check the break to see if there’s enough wire left to easily connect both ends, or if you’re lacking length and need an extra length of wire to connect the broken wires.
If you have plenty of wire length, head to Step 3a. If you have a noticeable gap that will make it hard to manually connect them, head to step 3b.
Step 3a
If you have enough wire to easily connect the ends, you should only need a single gripple to make the repair.
Slide your gripple onto one side of the broken wires. Then, slide the other side of the broken wire through the other end of the gripple. Pull on the ends of the wire until tight.
Step 3b
If there’s not enough wire, you’ll need two gripples and an extra length of wire.
First, install one gripple onto one end of the broken wire just like in step 3a. Then, do the same to the other end of the broken wire.
Now you should have two gripples attached to each end of the broken wire. Now, feed the extra wire you brought into one side of the gripple so there’s a little excess poking out the other side (a few inches should do the trick).
Then, measure out how much wire you need to bridge the gap between the two ends of the broken wire. Cut the wire so there’s extra to spare, then feed the end through the second gripple.
Pull on the wire ends sticking out of the gripples until taut.
Step 4
Using your gripple tensioner tool, equally tension each end of the gripple (or both if you’ve used two).
Step 5
Tie down the loose ends of your fencing wire.