Electric Bear Fence for Tent

[treillw]

Researched backcountry bear fences a couple years ago. Think I'm going to pull the trigger one one. Might make spring bear camp a little more peaceful at night after seeing 5 bears and a dozen tracks right outside the tent during the day.

I was settled on this one:

EBG Lite Kit

Covers 400 sq. feet Lightweight and portable AA battery powered energizer

eaglesafety.info

Anything else out there worth considering?

Thanks!

 

[treillw]

@AK Troutbum,

You had recommended this to me originally. Still think it's the best?
Solar charger or standard battery?

Thank you sir.

 

[AKBorn]

I have a UDAP that I purchased many years ago, but won't try to sell you on a specific brand. The one thing I would recommend is to add MANY more orange ribbons to the wires than I see many people use. If I understand correctly, if the bear just rubs its fur against the wire, it may not feel the shock...the purpose of the ribbons is to get the bear to sniff the ribbon with its nose, where it promptly gets a strong jolt. Hence I add a lot of ribbons to the wire.

Here's my setup, shown here on a remote AK hunt in 2019. I've been using the UDAP for about a dozen years, never had any bear issues close to camp (albeit that may have nothing to do with the fence). Some years we don't bother setting up the fence, altho I always bring it. If we don't set it up, we still turn on the power unit at night....my suspicion is the "eek" that the unit makes may be as much of a deterrent as the fence itself, in areas where we hunt (where we typically see bears often, but not many near the tents).

 

[AK Troutbum]

Researched backcountry bear fences a couple years ago. Think I'm going to pull the trigger one one. Might make spring bear camp a little more peaceful at night after seeing 5 bears and a dozen tracks right outside the tent during the day.

I was settled on this one:

EBG Lite Kit

Covers 400 sq. feet Lightweight and portable AA battery powered energizer

eaglesafety.info

Anything else out there worth considering?

Thanks!

Yup, that's what I have (two actually). It puts out considerably more juice than the UDAP does, although I can't remember the exact specs. on both of them. I have touched them both and can honestly say that there was a significant difference in what I experienced. I've only used the AA batteries to power mine, so no experience with the solar chargers.

 

[AK Troutbum]

The new energizer box looks different from mine, but for all intensive purposes, it appears to function the same.

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[trapperJ]

I like the idea of AA's over the D's (or c's can't remember)that the UDAP uses. May be time for an upgrade.

 

[darcytribe]

I didn't see the weight on this system, do yo know it?.

 

[Legend]

Anybody know how many joules this unit produces?

 

[Legend]

I think I found the joule output on a different site at 0.16. This is actually pretty darn good and on par with some much heavier D battery units. I might need to do some more research....

 

[AK Troutbum]

I didn't see the weight on this system, do yo know it?.

This is with everything that you see on the website plus 3 sets of AA batteries, guy lines and stakes to guy and stake the 4 poles out.

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[AKDoc]

Looks like we're rolling with the same model AKTB. I've had mine for about seven years now without any malfunctions or problems.

I've been on the receiving end once, and I definitely jumped quickly and high when it zapped me!!

I do sleep better in dense bear country with it up...perhaps with a false sense of security...but my pistol is always close by me in the tent when I sleep!

 

[darcytribe]

Thanks for the weight AK!

 

[AKBorn]

AK Troutbum and AKDoc,

Are you guys rolling with the grounding rod that came with the kit, or are you doing anything different there? The UDAP kit I bought back in 2009/2010 had about a 12 inch thin grounding rod, and in some parts of the AK tundra I have to really work to get a good ground. The other thing I noticed (with a cheap electric fence tester from Tractor Supply) is that the far end of my fence (furthest from the power unit) has a lower charge than the wires closer to the power unit.

 

[AKDoc]

AK Troutbum and AKDoc,

Are you guys rolling with the grounding rod that came with the kit, or are you doing anything different there? The UDAP kit I bought back in 2009/2010 had about a 12 inch thin grounding rod, and in some parts of the AK tundra I have to really work to get a good ground. The other thing I noticed (with a cheap electric fence tester from Tractor Supply) is that the far end of my fence (furthest from the power unit) has a lower charge than the wires closer to the power unit.

I'm using the grounding rod that came with the kit, which has been working for me so far.

I've not done any testing of the out-put continuance/consistency across the set-up. Interesting observation you're sharing.

 

[AK Troutbum]

Looks like we're rolling with the same model AKTB. I've had mine for about seven years now without any malfunctions or problems.
I do sleep better in dense bear country with it up...perhaps with a false sense of security...but my pistol is always close by me in the tent when I sleep!

View attachment 279990

I absolutely think they work. Back in 2006 we had some pretty serious bear problems on Kodiak and one night, two bears destroyed our entire base camp, but they didn’t come into our tent. There were two of us in a Cabela’s six man Alaskan guide dome tent with the extra large vestibule, and the fence was only large enough to go around the tent/vestibule. We had all of our food, along with us, inside the tent/vestibule, and in the five hours that they were in camp, they never came through the fence. They destroyed two other shelters that we had set up with table, chairs, all cooking gear, stove, dry boxes full of gear, etc. There’s no doubt in my mind that the reason they didn’t come into the tent was because of the fence.
I also just use the grounding rod that came with them, but I’ve never use and kind of a tester, other than myself, to check the power.


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[AKDoc]

I absolutely think they work. Back in 2006 we had some pretty serious bear problems on Kodiak and one night, two bears destroyed our entire base camp, but they didn’t come into our tent. There were two of us in a Cabela’s six man Alaskan guide dome tent with the extra large vestibule, and the fence was only large enough to go around the tent/vestibule. We had all of our food, along with us, inside the tent/vestibule, and in the five hours that they were in camp, they never came through the fence. They destroyed two other shelters that we had set up with table, chairs, all cooking gear, stove, dry boxes full of gear, etc. There’s no doubt in my mind that the reason they didn’t come into the tent was because of the fence.


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That's a great affirmation of effectiveness...thanks for sharing that experience, although sorry to hear about your gear destruction.

I've set mine up each time with fingers crossed that it works and believing that it does without any personal proof...your evidence supports that belief...thanks again.

BTW...I ALWAYS use my fence on Kodiak!

Edit: I just remembered once on an alpine spike-camp that I didn't have it around the over-nite shelter...we left the fence set-up around the base-camp tent with gear and food inside which was left alone without bear intrusion...and bears were numerous in the area.

 

[three5x5s]

The ground is critical to getting the most shock out of your electric fence. You can run 2 short ones if in heavy rock, just put them as far apart as possible. They say it makes it a little stronger to make it a loop. None of it on my farm is a loop, but it will blow my elbow off if I accidently touch with my hand. Its a 110 box.

 

[three5x5s]

If you want to test if without blowing your elbow off, take a long piece of grass and lay on the fence while holding it between your thumb and index finger. It will just burn a little when it hits.

 

[treillw]

I absolutely think they work. Back in 2006 we had some pretty serious bear problems on Kodiak and one night, two bears destroyed our entire base camp, but they didn’t come into our tent. There were two of us in a Cabela’s six man Alaskan guide dome tent with the extra large vestibule, and the fence was only large enough to go around the tent/vestibule. We had all of our food, along with us, inside the tent/vestibule, and in the five hours that they were in camp, they never came through the fence. They destroyed two other shelters that we had set up with table, chairs, all cooking gear, stove, dry boxes full of gear, etc. There’s no doubt in my mind that the reason they didn’t come into the tent was because of the fence.
I also just use the grounding rod that came with them, but I’ve never use and kind of a tester, other than myself, to check the power.


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I assume you guys were tying to chase the bears away while they were destroying the stuff and they were undeterred?

Warning shots? What all did you try?

 

[AK Troutbum]

I assume you guys were tying to chase the bears away while they were destroying the stuff and they were undeterred?

Warning shots? What all did you try?

Yeah, tried just about everything we could think of and nothing worked. We ended up killing them two nights later.


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