New Rig Brings Peace of Mind

Ricky Cosnahan, wife Dinah, and 4-year-old son started their home-based water pump repair business in 1996. A dozen years later when DJ Pump Service in Georgia added a used mud rotary drill, their business flourished, tripling and on track for $1 million in sales. With seven full-time and four part-time employees it was time to upgrade their 1968 DSI rig to a DRILLMAX^® DM250 by Geoprobe^® — for the peace of mind.

“I got tired of my driller coming in every afternoon fussing about having to beat on this or needing to order that. The squeaky bearing gets the grease, so to speak,” Cosnahan said. “Also, the Department of Transportation had gotten particular. So now I have the peace of mind relative to safety, getting to the job, and getting it done."

Now their business is on track for the best year yet. By end of July 2020 they’d already drilled as many wells as they had in all of 2019. In the middle of Georgia with sand near their shop and hard formations further south, the machines's age isn't the only difference.

“In the sand I didn’t have too much doubt. We have some sticky clay, but it’s pretty easy drilling,” Cosnahan said. “But in the southern region, with our old rig we stayed out of there. It would take us a week to drill a well and it just wasn’t worth the extra time if we had sand wells to drill. We went back with our DM250 and drilled 10 wells this year that we wouldn’t have even entertained doing a year ago.”

Driller Chris Adkison attributes their success to the tophead speed for cleaner, straighter well development in significantly less time. With their old drill they turned jobs away because they couldn’t drill and get to the next job fast enough. Now cutting the hole takes hours instead of days.

“Where we drill wells there’s a lot of limestone and blue marl. It would take four days to drill 260 feet and then make a well on the fifth day,” Adkison said. “Now we’re doing it in a day and a half. The blue marl is a dense clay that swells and the DM250 cuts it really well.”

He recognizes the attention to detail put into crafting a rig with such speed of drilling and smooth operation, commenting the rig can go faster than they can most of the time.

“The DM250 is well thought out,” Adkison said. “Sometimes we just stand and admire the engineering and appreciate the thought that went into making our job easy.”

Adkison also praises the mobility of the non-CDL rig, appreciating that anyone can drive it into tight job sites or narrow drives without tearing up customers’ yards.

“The other rig would drill a well, but it wasn’t easy to operate or mobile,” Adkison said. “I can pull up in a McDonald’s parking lot and get a cheeseburger if I want.”

It was the compactness and mobility that initially intrigued Cosnahan and helped cement his decision.

“Our industry has a hang up on bigger is better,” Cosnahan said. “If a 24-inch wrench will break pipe loose, then you get the 36-inch to make sure you have the power. Just because it’s little doesn’t mean it doesn’t have power. For 4 or 6-inch mud rotary application in middle Georgia, it’s perfect.”

Thanks to the extra production and a solid market, DJ Pump Service’s bottom line has increased – 500%. However income isn’t the only benefit.

“It was a big thing for us and our families to spend that kind of money on a new rig,” Adkison said. “It’s made life easier, we have more quality time at home, and make a little more money. It’s a win-win.”

For Cosnahan achieving the biggest growth spurt in the company’s 24-year history isn’t the only thing bringing him peace of mind. 

“It’s making money. We’ve had no trouble with the DOT. And I’m not hearing slack from my driller,” Cosnahan said.