Truck Drilling Rig Drills Down on Versatility

Trever Slack and his wife, Abby, began Petra Tech Environmental 14 years ago in Greenville, South Carolina. The company's original focus was on environmental consultation — primarily underground storage tanks (USTs) and government contracts. As the years went by, Petra Tech expanded to include a subdivision dedicated to environmental drilling.

"Now that department does our own internal drilling work, and we subcontract to other contractors who do the same type of work as we do," Slack said. "Ninety percent of our staff are licensed drillers, so they have all the capability to work behind the rigs, and we have three primary drillers."

Truck Drilling Rig Under CDL Weight, Above Expectations

When Slack sought to add a third rig to his fleet, the Geoprobe^® 3100GT truck drilling rig stood out among its competition.

"The main thing that attracted me to the rig was that it was under CDL weight, but it had a higher auger torque that's significantly more than most environmental rigs," Slack said.

Quick Setup, Quick Turnaround

Since then, Slack has been pleased by the 3100GT's simplicity and the ease it brings to the jobsite.

"The PTO instructions are really clear, and there's an automatic transmission, so any of our drillers can get in and set up the rig over the bore hole. On these sites, we may need to do 15–20 wells a day, so being able to break it down quickly has been beneficial," Slack said. "Another one of the things we've liked is the oscillating head and the centerline head side shift that allows you to go between direct push and augering without moving the rig."

From Monitoring Wells to Air Drilling

Coupled with the rig's versatility, Petra Tech's 3100GT truck drilling rig has proven its value across a variety of projects.

"We currently have the 3100GT doing monitoring wells, well installation for UST sites that are 50 ft or less, direct push, and soil and groundwater sampling," Slack said. "We also have an air drilling project where we're using an auxiliary air compressor with it."

Support Close to Home

If anything goes wrong on a jobsite, Slack is at ease knowing the North Carolina Service Center is nearby.

"We like having the North Carolina Service Center nearby and being able to call them on the phone any time we have an issue in the field or get a code. We get a technician on the phone who walks us through our problem immediately," he said.