Need help with grounding a fence charger in very sandy dry soil please.

I live on top of a sand dune it seems and do have very sandy dry soil. There's about a foot of silty soil, 4-6" of hard pack, then pure sand. I had a pole barn installed about 2-3 years ago and moved my yard hydrant to the new fence line along with an outlet for the fence charger and a plug in water heater for the horse trough (the fence charger and outlet are in a small box on a wooden fence post). This is how it's always been hooked up for 20 years.

Well, the first winter, my hydrant started letting the water run all the time so I had to resort to turning it on and off from the house shut-off for this water line. In the Spring, I dug the hydrant up and found what looked like a lightening spike had fried the pipe itself at the threads at the bottom.

New hydrant, and same thing happened this winter. I'm getting too old to keep digging this hydrant up but will and expect it to be the same issue. I had the electric to the barn and this outlet at the fence line installed by professionals.

I don't think they're sure of how to handle this situation. The one man suggested putting many ground rods in a circle inside the pasture and running the copper wire to them - ugh, would this work?

Any other suggestions? An acquaintance suggested putting ground rods in to 16 foot depth or even further.

I was thinking as it's about 30' from the pole barn, I could move the fencer (not the outlet for the horse water tank heater, leave that be) closer to the barn to about 20 feet (install new electric outlet) and still keep it at the fence. Then, run the ground wire to 3 ground rods located below the roof line of the barn which has a 2' overhang.

Also, doubling up the ground rods so they're 16' deep and not just 8' down.

My horse and donkey were getting shocked while drinking water with the fencer on this past winter and I turned it off. So, it's not just the hydrant being knocked out but there is stray voltage somehow.

I'll have everything electrical done professionally as I can only screw in a light bulb.

Thanks All.

 

My electric fence conditions are just the opposite of yours - my ground is all slate rock. Instead of going thru the trouble of installing ground rods, I just hooked up the charger's ground wire to the bottom strand of barb wire. It's been hooked up this way for about 17 yrs and works fine.

 

Anyone care to comment on this idea? I've never heard of connecting the ground to the bottom strand of wire. I only have two strands, top one and then about 18-24 inches below that is the bottom one. Not barbed wire but 17 gauge wire with 1/2 poly tape.

 

In a normal setup....the top wire would be the charged wire and the ground return would be the actual ground. So the animal would conduct from the actual ground to the top wire.

If you connect the fence charger ground line to the bottom wire on your fence and the charged wire to the top wire on your fence...... the animal would conduct between the two wires.