UDAP Ultra Light Electric Fence for Camp, Portable Camping Kit, 27 ft x 27 ft, BEF

I spent two weeks with this product in the backcountry of Yellowstone, NP. I found the product performed as advertised and I slept a lot better at night with it surrounding my tent. It is a supplemental deterrent which is to be used in conjunction with other safe camping practices, e.g., camp 100 yard away from your cook area, sleep in different clothes than those in which you cook. If you're thinking that it is an electrified fence of the potency found in the dangerous beasts section of the zoo, you have some pretty unrealistic expectations and you didn't do your homework about the product. The "pain" or shock caused by contact with this product will vary depending on conditions, parts of the body with which it made contact, and what you're wearing -- but make no mistake, you do feel a shock. Furthermore, animals are more aware of electrical impulses and electrical current conducted by the wire. Finally, a bear's nose is packed with nerve receptors. Try sticking your nose on the fence and feel what happens -- I did. Hint: A painful zap into the roots of your teeth. Doing that made me a believer that this thing might deter a curious bear; and, in the end, that is what I wanted. Great product.

This product is so easy to setup and take down. It is also very light, so doesn’t weigh you down when backpacking. It comes with enough wire so you can set it up for more than one backpacking tent (we fit up to 3 2-person tents) or comfortably fit a 4 person tent. The only suggestion I have is to put spikes on the end of the stakes. We replaced the bottom half with a sharpened aluminum stake. Now it will easily go into any terrain.

Good thing I ordered two by accident. I’ll need the extra parts. One of them arrived with a busted power box that smelled like it had been set on fire.I called their customer service number to get a replacement box and the woman took my address and said they would send another out immediately. They didn’t send anything. I ended up using the other power box on the 2nd fence I ordered accidentally. If I hadn’t had the other, I would have been SOL.Another hiker in our group purchased this same fence and also bought additional stakes. He too said the clips felt like they were going to break upon unboxing. Cheap parts from the start and the metal snaps fully rusted after one rain.When I flipped the on/off switch on the power box while unboxing, The metal piece that touches the batteries will no longer stay in place and it does not turn off… always on, so you have to first completely remove the batteries each time to pack this fence up.Although there are no burn marks, the battery pack has a strong burnt smell. I noticed this smell out of the box.The fence was down on the ground after two days, even with proper tensioning and using alligator clips to keep each rope end in its place.The grounding rod in the box with the busted power pack appeared to be a cheap replacement. Yesterday I opened the second fence to try and sun out parts and saw that this “replacement rod” is in fact not the rod that is marketed to come with the fence.This fence appears to have been slapped back together and repackaged with a broken battery pack and cheap replacement grounding rod.Even if everything worked well on this product, the quality of materials is a disappointment for use as protection while camping in terrain with brown bears, and their customer service follow through is a disappointment as well.

I used this electric fence for 70 days on my "Alone in the Fortress of the Bears" expedition. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017OA0RWE I often left my base camp unattended for hours or even days. With all those brown bears, it would have been extremely risky without this fence.I wasn't there to see if any bears touched this fence, but I do know my camp was never touched by bears, and having grown up on a farm, I know electric fences will scare even a big bull. These were perfect conditions for an electric fence: camps set up for two weeks at a time, and damp, soft ground. I suspect that people who don't think this fence gives enough jolt were wearing shoes that insulated them from the ground or didn't have it set up right. It gives a good shock, which I would fully expect to send a bear running. Few people know more about keeping bears away than beekeepers, and electric fences are standard tools for them.Definitely practice with this fence at home before heading afield, and read the instructions carefully. I'd say it took me about an hour to set up properly each time, and a half hour to take down and roll up carefully to prevent tangling. I was out for 70 days, and I think I was on my third set of 2 "D" batteries at the end.Pros:Fairly light and compactOne of the most effective ways to keep bears out of campEasy on batteries if kept clear of vegetation and snowMuch easier than trying to piece together all the components on my ownCons:Time consuming to set up and take down. Not worth it for me when I move camp every day.Hard to set up in very hard ground.Likely ineffective in very dry groundI agree with this summary:"Tom Smith, a research ecologist with the U.S.G.S., has used bear fences extensively and written about their effectiveness. He recommends electric fences for certain situations – camps where bear numbers are high, where bears have created problems, and hunting camps where meat is stored – but would not suggest they be used by everyone.'The vast majority of campers in Alaska have no serious bear problems nor should they have to suddenly be worrying about carrying and using a fence,” he writes. “I wouldn't think to use a fence in a place like Denali National Park... the bear numbers are too few and generally bear-human incidents rare. On the other hand, if I was going to camp along coastal Katmai I wouldn't be without one.' "