batch dryers

Hi guys,
I have some questions regarding pto batch dryers. I was only around bin dryers growing up so I know I will ask dumb questions. I have been growing corn and cribing it to dry. I would like to find and older for example toxowik pto batch dryer. How many hp tractor does it take to run these? Do they use propane as the heat source or is it some how electical from the pto power source? What are some thinks to look for when going to look at one? How long does one of these take to dry 18%-22% moisture corn?

Super M will run it just fine. Propane is all I have seen. Drying time i can't help with. Depends on the weather.

Propane. Or natural gas conversion, if you are online....

I hear around 40 hp. Bigger tractor, run on 1000pto, 1/2 throttle, works well from what I hear.

My understanding is the 500 by version works well, the 300 bu version the column of corn is to skinny and it wastes fuel and heat, not efficient.

Paul

We used a Behlen 500 bu batch dryer back in the sixtys and used a 730 Diesel to run it and it worked great. That being said propane was less than 15 cents per gallon then. The newer dryers are much more efficient as they recycle the air used to cool the corn back through the burner. Also the cost of electricity is much cheaper today than running a tractor on the pto. If I remember correctly it would take about two and a half hours of heat and thirty minutes of cooling on 25% corn plus the time it took to unload and reload the dryer. They are much more efficient on warm early fall days than they are on real cold late November days even though might have to take out a few extra points of moisture.You will notice that you will save a lot more corn using a header with stripper plates than the old snapping rolls on a ear corn picker. Hope this helps, It can be done but depending how much you plan on doing something more modern might pay out. If you do use a pto dryer be sure before you start your fall harvest that the tractor has a good fan belt and radiator hoses. It will be running many hours completely unattended.

I still use a 580 GT / toxowik. Takes about 25 hp on a 540 PTO. Most in the US run on propane or NG, although I was supprised to see a video on the GT site of a GT batch dryer in asia, running on Keroscene / fuel oil from a 55 gallon drum.

Would do a 500 bu batch in about an hour and a half. Faster if you dump the grain hot and cool it in your air bins.

GT dryer running on kerosene or diesel fuel in asia.
Fuel burning GT dryer in Asia.

I have ran the Behlen 500 and it was a good dryer. The corn does not move once in the dryer and I am sure some places gets a little dryer and some places might be a little wetter, but it all gets mixed when it comes out and is at a perfect moisture percentage. The fan blades on a Behlen have an adjustable pitch so the dryer can accomodate various hp tractors from an Famall M to a JD 4520. The guy I bought it from ran it with a Deere 4520. I left the blades the same and ran it with a Farmall 706. Since the corn doesn't move it doesn't get ground up much. Not a bad dryer overall. Loading and unloading are a little more complicated than a Tox-o-wik. I now have two Tox-o-wik dryers. The corn is always moving so it drys very uniform. Loading and unloading is simple. Takes less horsepower as the fan isn't as big. Not near as much static pressure in a Tox-o-wik. I think the owners manual might say a good 3 bottom tractor might run one. They are not as noisy either. Most all of the parts are generic - belts, bearings, shafts, augers, electrical. I grew up using batch dryers and my farms don't have the best electrical service so batch drying works OK for me. Also, one of the most important things is I know what is in the grain bin. I do dry in the dryer and cool in the bin. I bring 500 bushel in, fill the dryer, start drying, and go back to the field. The dryer shuts off at a certain grain temperature which corresponds to a certain moisture %. Sometimes the heat is still on and sometimes most of the cooling is done - just depends on the moisture of the corn you are combining. Over the years I have rebuilt about everything on them. Bearings go bad, auger flighting wears out, belts wear out, the bottom metal "boot" or "sump" rusts out, and flame sensors go bad. I don't think it really costs much if any more to dry with a batch dryer than a bin dryer if you take into consideration everything. Stirators aren't the most trouble free device. I do like the Tox-o-wik better than the Behlen.