Access to Experts Equals Confidence for Tough Jobs

Last year Tommy Bolyard took over the 20-year-old family environmental drilling business following his father’s death.

“I’ve been running the business and my brother is my right-hand man,” Bolyard, operations manager and lead driller, said. “For my part, I focus on running our full-size rig doing air drilling.”

The Environmental Drilling and Probing fleet includes one Canterra and three Geoprobe^® 7822DTs to do all types of drilling mostly around the Carolinas. For the past 15 years Trevin Bolick, who is now service lead for the Geoprobe^® North Carolina Service Center (NCSC), has done all their service work.

“We’d had a lot of mess ups over the years with people not knowing what they’re doing, so we stayed with Trevin when he changed companies,” Bolyard said. “I’d also met Todd Courbot [NCSC manager] during Jubilee the past few years, so it’s a good fit.”

The NCSC works on their Canterra and Geoprobe^® rigs, including:

• Canterra repairs and modifications: “They’ve tightened mast cables, redid the table, and removed rod spinning hydraulic system since we don’t use it. They serviced the planetary and created a custom seal to stop the air flow leaking from the downspout. Basically odds and ends we’ve needed done that I haven’t had a chance to take care of myself.”

• 7822DT returned to action: “One had been in storage for several years, so they performed routine maintenance.”

• 7822DT purchased used: “We bought a used rig that didn’t have the fuel system installed and working properly. They got that straightened out.”

• 7822DT common repairs: “They’ve fixed a leaking hammer, done hydraulic tank flushes, changed filters, and installed a new winch line — stuff caused by hard use.”

He appreciates the timely service he’s received.

“I can take the rig to the Geoprobe^® service center and get it back in a week. Other places put rigs on the back burner and would have it for three months,” Bolyard said. “That can make or break a small company like us."

Service Center Network

Before Geoprobe^® expanded their service center network to Hickory, North Carolina, the closest Geoprobe^® service center was in Florida. Now they’re only an hour and half drive away from a manufacturer’s service location.

“We’re under the gun here working seven days a week, and I don’t have anyone I can spare to drive a rig to Florida,” Bolyard said. “Hickory isn’t a bad drive for us. It’s a pretty good fit for where we’re located and who they have on staff right now.”

Confidence to Tackle Air Rotary Using 7822DTs

The convenient service center location gives them added confidence to take on more challenging projects like doing air rotary with their 7822DTs, which he describes as being hard on the machines.

“On average we’re doing air rotary five days a month. The one this month is on a former landfill in the Triassic basin which is notorious for shallow bedrock. We’re installing monitoring wells 30-50 feet deep,” Bolyard said. “The job we did for this client a month ago went so well, they’ve given us three to four more projects. So we’ll definitely be using the Geoprobe^® North Carolina Service Center more because we’re taking on some tougher jobs.”

And should they experience troubles while in the field, there’s added peace of mind having expert service technicians just a phone call away.

“They even said that if we had a breakdown in the field, they could do a mobile service. That’s a relief,” Bolyard said. “Sometimes you’re back in the woods and just need to get the rig started.”