Hello, I have just purchased a kenwanee 500 elevator. Not sure how old it is and there is no owner manuals with it. I was just wondering if anyone has used one. I need to know how fast should it run? It looks like it runs on a pto, but there is no pto shaft on it. How fast can you feed the ear corn to it? Also will it work with shell corn? Any info. on it would be very helpful.
My grandpa had one a long time ago and I've got an OMC 205 which is basically the same. It should be pto drive but I've seen a lot of the old elevators with missing pto shafts. I always run it with my Oliver 77 on idle because you don't want to damage the corn on its way up and if its got the long hopper I just keep it so its an even flow on the drag chain but I wouldn't bury it. The neighbor used his for shell corn too after he quit picking and it worked just fine but you might have to bump the throttle up.
We use a 500, pto drive. We run it with an A-C D17 on idle, and can run it pretty full. We don't push it, because we don't need to, but that 62 chain will pull a healthy load. Just make sure your chains are adjusted pretty tight, including the drive chains on the drive sprockets. Our elevator is missing its spout, which slows us down more than anything. That elevator would throw the ear corn 20 feet past the crib if it wasn't throttled down. You should be able to find a replacement pto shaft with little problem at a farm supply store or machine shop in your area. We use augers for shell corn, but we used to use elevators. I don't see why it wouldn't work for you. However, some elevators, like our old John Deere, had slots manufactured in the trough of the elevator that allowed shelled corn, dirt, and other small particles to drop out. I have not seen a Kewanee built like that, but check it.
