Geoprobe® Sonic Service Top Selling Point When Considering Fleet Expansion

Investing in a new sonic drilling rig wasn’t on their radar heading into 2024, but landing a big project mid-year prompted AARCO Environmental Services Corporation to expand their sonic rig fleet.

“I considered all other manufacturers, having dealt with them through my previous position since the time sonic was introduced to the industry,” Dennis Mayer, drilling operations manager, said. “We got estimates from several of them but decided to stick with Geoprobe^®.”

Until recently, their sonic fleet consisted of a 2014 8140LC and a 2019 8150LS. They liked the reliability of the 8150LS and staying with Geoprobe^® meant not having to retool. However, the deciding factors directly related to service support and the new GV5 head warranty.

“You don’t have to be a mechanic for the Geoprobe^® service guys to walk you through pretty much anything over the phone and be able to get you back up and running,” Mayer said. “The 3-year, 1,000-hour head warranty is unique to the sonic industry. Other manufacturers require you to purchase a second head or enter a head refurb program when you purchase their sonic rigs.”

According to Mayer the performance of the 8150LS also stands up to the competition, including:

• The coring head: “We’re often drilling through overburden into bedrock, and sonic is not always the preferred method. The coring head on the 8150LS can just slide over to make switching to coring easy with a single piece of equipment.”
• Power of the GV5 head: “It has the necessary power to drill deeper holes or power through shallow borings. It has the power to compete with other manufacturers out there. For what we do and what most people do in our area, it’s sized accordingly and runs smoothly.”

He also appreciates Geoprobe^®  sonic tooling to not only make a sonic drilling project faster, but also make his job easier.

“I’ve used all of the different sonic tooling, and the Geoprobe^® tooling is matched up nicely to transfer energy to the bit so it drills well. The price point is also good,” Mayer said. “Having the same manufacturer means I can get everything – rig, tooling, service parts – from one place, which makes it easy on me.”

Having familiar product operation between drilling rigs also makes it more comfortable for new sonic operators.

“The learning curve is pretty easy to go from a 7822DT to a Geoprobe^® sonic,” Mayer said.

Their two 8150LS rigs just returned from a freeze pipes project in Trenton, New Jersey. They drilled through the overburden and then 3 feet into the bedrock to install a 3-inch steel pipe, pumping liquid nitrogen downhole to freeze the subsurface for excavation. This stops the groundwater from coming in on the holes.

“During the past six months we’ve installed 700 freeze pipes,” Mayer said.

Successfully completing the project eventually required some assistance from the Geoprobe^®  East Coast Service Center (ECSC) in Pennsylvania – an hour away from the job site - and the Geoprobe^® engineering team in Kansas. Near the completion of the project, the two 8150LS sonic drill rigs needed to be moved inside the excavation pit and positioned close to the foundation. This necessitated removing the rod handlers on both machines.

“Dave Harrison [ECSC service lead] came out to the site to investigate the possibilities. Then Geoprobe^® engineered a couple of mounting brackets, and he returned to remove the first rod handler to allow us to get in close to the foundation,” Mayer said. “This also allowed him to show us how to do the rod handler removal for the second machine on our own.”

While the physical service support from the ECSC proved invaluable on this particular project, the selling point in purchasing the second 8150LS this year was the phone support from Troy Bourbon, dedicated sonic rig specialist.

“We’re not all mechanics or engineers, but we can drill a hole in the ground. I know we can give Geoprobe® a call and they’ll walk you through it, and 90 percent of the time when you call, they can get the rig back up and running until you can get it repaired,” Mayer said. “I feel like we talk to Troy two or three times a day even just to order parts. It’s really the most valuable thing for us. It keeps us running and means the guys can be self-sufficient. I don’t have to stop and send someone else to help them.”

Geoprobe^®  8150LS also comes with remote diagnostics which allow engineers and technicians to troubleshoot issues from virtually anywhere. This capability is particularly valuable for operators working in remote locations, where access to on-site support may be limited.

“We understand the ability to remain on site to complete the job is critical to customer success,” Doug Koehler, Geoprobe^® sonic expert, explains. “With redundancies built into the machine, remote diagnostics, and live service support for troubleshooting challenges, our rigs can often remain in the field to complete the job.

If you’re in Las Vegas for NGWA, stop by booth #351 to see the 8150LS Sonic Rig.