Gravity Box Converted To Low-Cost Dryer

Gravity Box Converted To Low-Cost Dryer Aeration bin flooring can be used to turn a gravity box wagon into a low-cost crop dryer Scott Ravenkamp calls the ones he built “air wagons” and uses them to dry down small batches of seed “I’ve used air wagons to dry down chaffy seed before rethreshing it as well as with small batches of sunflowers and other seed ” says Ravenkamp “It’s easy to turn the seed moving it from one wagon to another If I want the seed to dry faster I hook up a fan to blow air through the floor ” Ravenkamp built his first air wagon when a neighbor needed a way to dry down a few hundred bushels of Jimmy Red field corn Vol 46 No 1 “You can’t put a few hundred bushels of grain on a dryer bin floor and dry it ” says Ravenkamp Instead he used aeration flooring that had been salvaged from a local elevator He cut the legs off the flooring and used self-tapping screws to attach it to the floor of the gravity box Strips of salvaged metal roofing were screwed to the edge of the flooring as flashing “The local grain dealer was planning to scrap the flooring ” recalls Ravenkamp “The flooring from one 48-ft bin can do a bunch of wagons ” The first one worked so well that he has made more At first he worked with 225 or 250-bushel gravity boxes and 12-in fans He has since moved on to 300 to 400-bushel wagons with 18-in fans He notes that they too are too small for use with modern combines “We now cut the legs so the flooring is around 2 in off the wagon floor ” says Ravenkamp “We’ve used them for lots of small seed batches like clover and alfalfa There used to be special wagons for those small seeds but these are better You can turn them from one wagon to another in just a few minutes ” Ravenkamp is the contract production manager for Green Cover Seed The larger air wagons have found a home there “We get lots of small batches of seed that we can’t dry with a bin ” says Ravenkamp “The air wagons allow us to dry it efficiently and move it easily as needed If we want to use them for normal grain they are still completely useful ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Scott Ravenkamp 52570 883 Rd Verdigre Neb  68783 ph 719-740-0705; sravenkamp@icloud com

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