- 1). Walk the perimeter of your fence, removing boulders, sticks and other obstacles. Mow down a 3- to 4-foot-wide strip of grass along the fence perimeter. Use spray paint to mark the corners of the fence perimeter for corner post placement.
- 2). Install corner posts. Place the bottom of a steel T-post firmly against the first spray-painted corner post location and pound the post approximately 18 inches into the ground with a post driver. Repeat this process for each of the remaining corner posts.
- 3). Wrap one clip-on plastic T-post polytape insulator around each of the corner T-posts approximately 6 to 8 inches from the ground. Thread polytape through these insulators to create the bottom wire in your polytape electric fence. Pull the polytape tight to provide a straight marking line for positioning the line posts.
- 4). Pound steel T-posts into the ground along the outside edge of the pre-strung polytape strand to serve as your line posts. Install these line posts at a depth of 12 to 18 inches and position them approximately 25 feet apart. Put a clip-on plastic T-post polytape insulator on each line post at the same height as the pre-strung polytape strand. Slip the pre-strung polytape strand through the line post insulators and, if necessary, pull the tape taut to ensure that it doesn't sag between posts.
- 5). Clip an additional set of insulators onto the entire set of corner and line posts for each additional wire you want your electric fence to have; two wires may be enough for smaller species, like pigs, but you'll typically want a 3-, 4- or 5-strand fence for larger animals, such as horses and cattle. As a rule, place the top strand of polytape at shoulder height of the largest livestock species you want to contain in your fence; for example, if you plan to contain cows that measure 40 inches at the shoulder, then you'll need the top strand of polytape to be approximately 40 inches from the ground.
- 6). Thread a strand of polytape through each new set of insulators. Cut a strip of insulated cable long enough to reach between the bottom two strands of your polytape. Peel back the last 2 inches of insulation from the two cable ends. Wrap one end of the bare cable securely around the bottom strand of polytape; wrap the second end of the bare cable securely around the second strand of polytape. Repeat this process with each set of polytape wires until each wire is connected to the wire directly above it with the cable.
- 7). Connect your polytape fence to your fence energizer. Cut a strip of insulated cable long enough to reach from the fence energizer to the nearest part of the polytape fence. Peel back approximately 2 inches of insulation from both ends of the length of cable. Wrap one end of the bare cable around the bottom strand of polytape; wrap the second end of the bare cable around the positively charged fence terminal on your fence energizer. (see reference 2)
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