Door too small for Jersey Giant?

[Eggasperated]

After using my electric fence happily for over two years it has suddenly decided to start being difficult. In the hot sunny weather the reading on the fence is 4200 - 4400v, but every time we get any rain or heavy dew it goes down to 2800v. I have lost count of the hours I've spent trimming away the grass underneath it but it still makes no difference.

This morning I spent from half past six to eight o'clock fiddling about with it trying to improve the voltage; everything as far as the fence seems ok as I get a reading of 4800 on the clip from the energiser but after that the voltage just seems to disappear. I'm running out of ideas . Has anyone got any suggestions before I go and have another go at it?

There's no clicking or anything to indicate where the voltage is going to earth, it's just a complete puzzle.

 

Sorry rant over.

[Redwing]

Its possibly because the weather has been so dry. The earth rod needs to be in damp soil ideally and as the ground gets drier the voltage will drop along the fence

 

It doesnt follow your logic of the current being stringer when its dry but after ruling out shorting potential its the no 1 cause of loss of power

 

A couple of buckets of water poured around the earth rod may improve things dramatically

[Eggasperated]

I think it must have been a combination of things as, after putting some damp proof plastic under the fence where the grass seems to grow fastest, putting in more poles to take out sags and cutting away cow parsley near the fence that dropped onto the fence as it got wet, I finally managed to achieve a better voltage.

However after last nights persistent rain I got up this morning expecting the voltage to have fallen again, but it was fine. So I think dry soil round the earth had also contributed to it, everything has had a real soaking now and it is still raining so hopefully I won't have to spend another day crawling round the fence on my hands and knees.