We can custom make a kit for you with any spacer length. Just email us at info@mcreekag.com to get a price quote.

To shorten the spacers in a kit you have already purchased, use heavy shears to cut them to the desired length.

Our kits span 6 feet of water gap width for the simple reason that 6 feet is the smallest width in which a whole number of our water gap components will fit:  seven spacers, seven droppers (droppers are... ...are vertical chains or wires which hang down from the fence and, because they are electrified by the fence, make a barrier to livestock escape.), and seven pairs of cap washers occupy almost exactly 6 feet of width.

So, selling kits in 6-foot increments lets us be more efficient in assembling and shipping them. When ordering our kits, simply order the number of 6-foot kits you need to span the width of your water gap; for example, you would order four kits to span a 24-foot wide water gap.

Our kits average only about 5 ounces of weight per foot of width, so a standard 12.5 gauge high-tensile fence wire can support them easily, even for fairly wide water gaps. However, any amount of weight hanging on a wide enough span of wire will make it sag a bit. If the amount of sag is objectionable, you have several options for dealing with it.

❑Tighten the fence wire. If the wire is looser than it should be, tightening it may reduce sagging by a significant amount.

❑Shorten droppers ...are vertical chains or wires which hang down from the fence and, because they are electrified by the fence, make a barrier to livestock escape. in the middle of the span. If droppers in the middle of the span have sagged too close to the stream surface or ditch bottom, simply shorten them.

❑Add a stringer—a vertical wire or chain connecting the bottom fence wire (the wire where the water gap kit is installed) with the wire(s) above it, letting multiple wires share the weight of the water gap kit.

▪Chain is better than wire as a stringer because it is adjustable:  if you decide the upper wire is not carrying enough of the weight, you can simply shorten the chain by a link or two, as shown at right—easily done if you used spring clips, snap hooks, or quick links for attaching the stringer to the wires.

▪Stringers should not be wrapped tightly around the wires. The best approach is to use spring clips, snap hooks, or quick links to connect the stringer to the fence wires. This lets the wires move independently of each other—as when tightening one of the wires, or when a wire must be disconnected for making repairs somewhere down the line.

▪Chain is better than wire as a stringer because it is adjustable:  if you decide the upper wire is not carrying enough of the weight, you can simply shorten the chain by a link or two, as shown at right—easily done if you used spring clips, snap hooks, or quick links for attaching the stringer to the wires.

❑Add a post or other support in the middle of the span. This can work in a mostly-dry ditch, but the post may catch debris if the stream or ditch has a lot of water flow at times.

❑Install a separate wire or cable across the stream or ditch below the bottom fence wire, and install the water gap kit on it. Stretching this wire or cable more tightly than the main fence wires will reduce sag.

Shortened spacers near a post.

You can shorten spacers wherever necessary—heavy shears will cut them easily. Here a spacer was shortened by a few inches to move a dropper ...are vertical chains or wires which hang down from the fence and, because they are electrified by the fence, make a barrier to livestock escape. closer to a post because the fence wire slanted downhill a bit (it made the bottom end of the dropper hang too far from the post).

Also, you can use trimmed-off pieces of spacer wherever needed—such as putting two or more of them together to create the desired amount of space.

This is rare, but at least it means you are not overtightening the lugs, and that's a good thing! Apparently your end lugs (split bolts) are not gripping the wire very well, but this is a problem you can easily solve:

A.Add a star washer or split lock washer under the nut of the split bolt. The washer will keep a light tension against the fence wire to prevent the nut from loosening.

B.Add a piece of soft metal between the split bolt and the fence wire, such as a short piece of copper or aluminum wire, or even rubber. The soft material will help the split bolt grip the fence wire, without the need to overtighten the split bolt.

Our kits' bright orange spacers are enough to warn most livestock away from the water gap. And most stock have no problem with seeing the droppers ...are vertical chains or wires which hang down from the fence and, because they are electrified by the fence, make a barrier to livestock escape.. But if the fence wire where the spacers are installed is very high (above of the animals' straight-forward field of view), in certain light conditions—and especially if the stock are new to the pasture and not yet familiar with the water gap's location—improving visibility of the droppers may be worthwhile.

Paint the droppers. One of the easiest things you can do is to paint every other dropper in a high-contrast color such as white or light blue. With chain droppers you can simply dip the ends of the chain in a can of paint—you can paint the full height of the dropper this way if you want. Painting wire droppers is more difficult; the easiest way is to wear nitrile gloves and apply paint with a rag or sponge.

What about attaching some kind of "do-dads" to the droppers? If you do, be careful not to use something that will catch debris during high stream flow. With chain droppers you can attach shiny metal or plastic objects (such as livestock ear tags) a few feet above the bottom end of the droppers. With wire droppers, one idea is to buy small, cheap rubber balls, poke a hole through the center of each ball, and slide them onto the dropper wire—like skewering a hot dog on a wiener roasting stick. You may want to add some glue to keep the balls from sliding down the wire.