Portable water well drilling rig attachment

   / Portable water well drilling rig attachment #1  

captbluewater

Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Messages
48
Location
Pacific Coast Of Costa Rica
Tractor
Kubota L-39
Has anyone had any experience with portable well drilling rig that attaches to 3pt hitch and uses the tractor hydraulics to power the drill. I have an Kabota L-39 and need to drill a well on my property down in Costa Rica. Thanks
 
   / Portable water well drilling rig attachment
  • Thread Starter
#3  
I have talked with this Company and is where I got the idea. Utilizing the rig that attaches to your tractor saves about $4000 over there trailer model due to the fact your using tractor hydraulics and also eliminate the need of the trailer. The company says they have sold some of these rigs to tractor owners and I hope to get some feed back from this forum. This Forum has really help me and given me a lot of help with my tractor.Thanks
 
   / Portable water well drilling rig attachment
  • Thread Starter
#4  
I have talked with this Company and is where I got the idea. Utilizing the rig that attaches to your tractor saves about $4000 over there trailer model due to the fact your using tractor hydraulics and also eliminate the need of the trailer. The company says they have sold some of these rigs to tractor owners and I hope to get some feed back from this forum. This Forum has really help me and given me a lot of help with my tractor.Thanks
 
   / Portable water well drilling rig attachment #5  
Just recently some folks have been looking for solutions to drilling post holes in dry hard soil. This type of equipment may also work as a post hole digger??:D
 
   / Portable water well drilling rig attachment #6  
An expensive one at that:)
 
   / Portable water well drilling rig attachment #7  
I have done some research recently on portable drilling equipment. The sense I get is that there are two "weak links" in the whole process that need to be considered. The first is the swivel, the part that connects the drill stem (i.e., the drill pipe) to the drive unit. The swivel also servies as the input point for pumping in the drilling mud. It doesn't take much imagination to appreciate how heavy the drill stem can get as the bore hole lengthens. Depending on the size of the drill pipe (more on that below), the swivel can easily be required to support a great deal of weight. In other words, make sure the swivel in the unit you buy is properly sized and engineered, and be comfortable that its limits won't prevent you from accomplishing what you want to accomplish.

The other weak link appears to be how well the debris that the drill bit generates is removed from the bore hold. That in turn is a function of how robust the mud pump is and how large the flow capacity is on the swivel and drill pipe. A small swivel and a long length of small diameter drill pipe = very minimal debris removal capacity, no matter how big a mud pump you have (or are willing to buy). I am no physics expert, but I imagine it takes a great deal of energy and flow to get drilling mud to go down and back up a 100'-300' foot long bore hole with enough speed to carry all the debris with it.

Of course, as you increase the size of the drill pipe to allow the necessary mud flow, the weight of the drill stem grows substantially. That brings us full circle to the swivel issue.

BTW, I already have a hydraulic auger drive unit that I use to drill fence posts, so I have been seriously toying with the idea of building a water well drill rig that will allow me to use the auger drive unit and my tractor hydraulics. Until I find a swivel, however, that is strong/big enough to do the job, and that I can afford, the project is dead in the water (no pun intended).
 
   / Portable water well drilling rig attachment #9  
I had a new well drilled at home last year. 500 feet to get clean dependable water. To the tune of about $11,500. I will say that thier equipment was very heavy duty.
 
   / Portable water well drilling rig attachment #10  
Egon, you're right that there are a variety of terms used in drilling that confuse non-experts, like me. When I have come across references to a "kelly" and a "rotary table," it has usually been in in connection with oil drilling rigs, not portable, light duty water well rigs. In the light duty water rigs, the rotary drive isn't incorporated in a table down lower in the rig. It usually consists of hydraulic drive unit (or even a gas post-hole digger engine) mounted high, with the drill stem attached to a swivel, and the swivel attached to the output of the drive unit (or engine). Hence, it's the swivel that has to carry all the weight of the drill stem.

I could be totally wrong about that, but the descriptions and pictures I've seen of portable water well rigs make it sound and look that way.
 
 
 
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