"I installed portable aeration systems in two of my grain trucks," says Roger Gutschmidt of Gackle, N. Dak. "It allows me to start combining before the crop is completely dry. For example, sometimes the outside round is wetter than the rest of the field, maybe because of grass and weeds on the perimeter."

He says the home-built system means he can dry down 17 percent moisture wheat, corn, beans, soybeans, or whatever, in just a couple of hours using a Caldwell 3/4 hp aeration fan.

"These batch aeration systems get a lot of use in my operation. It certainly was well worth the time and expense putting them in my trucks," Gutschmidt says. "My neighbors even borrow my trucks once in a while if they have some 'hot' grain. Nobody wants to mess around putting 800 to 900 bushels of wet grain in a bin and have to babysit it to get the moisture where it's supposed to be. And the local grain elevators don't want wet grain."

Gutschmidt's trucks are 1972 and 1976 Chevy single axles with 16-ft. long boxes. He simply connected 12-in. dia. perforated aeration tubing to the Caldwell drying fan.

A 14-ft. section of tube lays on the truck box floor. It's short enough that it doesn't hinder the grain's exit from the end gate during unloading. The back end of the tube is open -- Gutschmidt says that a cap would only prevent grain that has fallen into the tube through the perforations from getting back out.

Since each truck holds 400 to 450 bu., he installed one "anti-collapse ring" on the floor aeration tube, otherwise the weight of the grain could collapse it.

"The two big 12-in. elbows I needed for this system were hard to find," Gutschmidt points out. "I ordered them from McMaster-Carr Supply Co. in Chicago, Ill. I have one on the front end of the floor tube and one at the top of the truck box."

Since a 3/4 hp fan is normally used on a 2,500-bu. aeration bin, it doesn't take very long to dry the 450 bu. truck box of grain.

"You can't tarp the load when the fan is running because it will blow the tarp right off the truck," he cautions.

The fan plugs into a 110-volt outlet, so Gutschmidt permanently mounted a short, 14-ga. extension cord from the fan to the bottom corner of the truck box so he can easily plug into a longer extension cord from the ground.