Drying corn pics

Here we are drying corn this year with Tox-O-Wic grain dryer. Here's the pic of loading the dryer with Feterl auger since original dryer loading auger went to heck.
~brad

We combine as soon as we can.Alot of times we combine corn at 25-30% and dry it.Gets spendy on fuel,but we've done it.By the end of October,it's gettin' pretty cold here.Also,the corn dries down pretty fast on dry,warm days.

They're talkin' about snow flurries by the weekend.Pretty miserable being in the field or drying then.Once the ground freezes,it's hard on equipment.Final drives and axles are breaking.

Thanks ~brad

Thanks for the pics as it sure teachs us youngsters that never been there, done that!

Have you ever considered using solar heat to dry your corn? I don't know what your propane bill runs for such, but a solar dryer would be a easy winter/spring project for under $1000 cost, new materials no labor that would supply 170ºF air maximum. It could also be used to heat your home/shop or ?.

If 170ºF air is not adequate, you could increase the temperature "upto" 2000ºF with some redesign with knowing the dangers of operating/designing low/high pressure steam equipment. The sun has alot of free energy to give for a good price.

The below link is to my thoughts on such.

With alittle more effort/cost, one could also supply chilled water for AC use that could replace electric refrigeration.

T_Bone

• Solar HW

Always looking to save $$,I'll check into the link.Thanks ~brad

Here's the dryer in action. We dry the corn down from 17% (this year) to 14.9% and dump it hot, then auger it into bin and turn on bin fan. Tunrs out perfect every year.

Another view. Takes about 2 hours to dry down a batch.

Dries down 500 bushel at a time. Here the unloading auger is swung to a waitng gravity wagon where it gets augered into bin ready to be cooled.

Fire away with any questions!!

Hope you enjoy the pics!
~brad

Hope to set up a Tox-570 next year. Corn got too dry in the field this year to bother setting it up - not going to complain about that. :)

How fast does corn come out of one of those, what size auger does one need to keep it moving away? Even with a 200 bu gravity box for surge.....

--->Paul