Power of 3135GT: “Bringing a Gun to a Knife Fight”

Founded in the small, south Georgia town of Adel in 1993, Betts Drilling has grown steadily, adding offices in Atlanta and Fort Worth along the way.

“We do sonic, auger, direct push, rock coring, and air rotary drilling on environmental, geotechnical, exploration, and water supply projects,” said Pate Betts, operations manager. “We’ve always been a Geoprobe^® customer running nearly every model, with the majority of our fleet made up of Geoprobe^®.”

As the company expanded, so did the depth and complexity of its projects. The team saw increasing demand for:

• Deeper auger drilling and air hammering, particularly on landfill projects
• Deeper geotechnical borings for data center and infrastructure jobs
• Deeper rock coring — 400 to 500 feet — on quarry exploration projects

To meet those demands, Betts Drilling began looking for a rig with more torque and higher rpm. The solution: the Geoprobe® 3135GT.

More Torque. More RPM. More Capability.

“We’ve done 150-foot rock cores running 1,000 to 1,100 rpm. We saw the spec sheets, but seeing it in person was a whole different story,” Betts said. “I’ve been on site with the drilling, and there’s a bunch of little things that are intuitively engineered by Geoprobe^® to make life running the rig better.”

One of those features is the MD4 display on the control panel.

“With the struggles to staff rigs and train drillers, the MD4 display makes a difference. The information displayed helps drillers understand what’s happening down hole versus deducing rig feedback on their own,” Betts said. 

Power That Wins in Tough Geology

The added power of the Geoprobe^® 3135GT has allowed Betts Drilling to confidently take on deeper, more complex projects.

“The added power of the 3135GT is like bringing a gun to a knife fight. It’s more rig than we need in some cases. Customers like it because we’re able to drill more footage per day. Drillers like it because they have less struggles getting to depth on holes thanks to the additional power to tackle difficult Georgia geology,” Betts said. 

The 3135GT proved its value while setting nested monitoring wells on a landfill project.

“Our ability to get to 105-feet with two, 2-inch wells within the same borehole running larger diameter augers in one day is impressive,” Betts said. “The 3135GT is capable of doing this efficiently which is a huge help to meeting our customer needs.”

The Right Rig for Every Job

For Betts, having the right rig for every situation is essential.

“Projects are either small, shallow or deep, complex, and we try to provide a drill rig for every situation. The 3135GT fills the gap for projects that don’t require sonic but are too much for a 7822DT,” Betts said. “No matter what the project calls for, we have the right rig for the job.”

Built to Run. Backed to Stay Running.

Rig utilization is a key performance metric at Betts Drilling.

“We closely monitor utilization – how much each rig is up and running – which is one of the most insightful data points for how well the profit & loss statement is going to be. Across the board, every Geoprobe^® model has less downtime,” Betts said.

He describes Geoprobe^® rigs as “durable, tough, well-engineered machines which are very user-friendly and efficient,” and credits the service center network for minimizing downtime when issues arise.

“Let’s face it, every drill rig is eventually going to breakdown. Geoprobe^® does really good job of getting us back up and running,” Betts said. “The North Carolina Service Center is near our metro Atlanta office, and the Florida service center is close to our southern Georgia office. So if our mechanics don’t know how to repair a rig, we can get it to a service center.”

For troubleshooting, Betts values the ability to call for diagnostic support, have parts shipped quickly, or be directed to a local shop with needed components.

“It boils down to being up and running everyday, turning steel. Geoprobe^® makes machines that run everyday and provide support to keep us running,” Betts said.