A new one of those with cab is close to 100k after taxes. I bought this one used. The only thing I bought new was my first small 2 ton excavator.
Drill baby drill!
- Thread starter Fixastuff
- Start date
Tinhack
Elite Member
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- Jul 3, 2020
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- Lytle, TX
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- Ford 3910, John Deere 420C, Kubota G32XKS, IH 2606, Bad Boy Maverick-60"
Yeah, but it my money. I don't like others spending it for me. The water company knew there was a main at the front of the property. Their job was to get it to the property line with a meter and valve. They would have had to put the meter at the top of an 8-foot bank of the county road. It made no sense to me.
paulsharvey
Elite Member
Got 16,000 LF of 6" Dr-25 and 8" Dr-18 Forcemain to do. About the same size as the OPs machine. Vast amjority is open trench, but I belive there are 20 HDDs, under side roads, box culverts, ect.
Nice! mixing bentonite in? I've only done 2" conduit for fiber so far.
paulsharvey
Elite Member
Our soils are all a mix of sand, clay, silt, and hard pan. Need something to hold the hole open. I've seen guys on the big bores using polymers too, but not too knowledgeable about that.
paulsharvey
Elite Member
Got sent to go investigate this today. Drill hit the water service, no real damage to anything beyond the Corp stop and the service line to the meter box.
paulsharvey
Elite Member
Someone in Jacksonville FL is selling 15 ft HDD rods, still has thread caps, for $50/rod.
I did my longest drill so far last week. 580ft swamp bore with a S shaped bend to dodge underground power.
Everything went fine till a bearing went out while pulling back with 240ft left to go! It too everything my 6ton excavator had to pull all that drill pipe out so I didn't loose it. The 2" conduit broke with 1ft to go, thankfully it was close enough so I could dig it up and move the 12x12 box over and make it work. For a little while I thought I was going to loose my pipe, drill head, sonde and have to redo the bore! Kinda stressful.
The piped feel so stiff dealing with just one but once you pull out a couple hundred feet its flexy and floppy looking lol.
Fixing the drill now and will go back to beak apart and load pipes. Thankfully I was in a place where I could pull all that pipe out and leave it without it being in the way.
Everything went fine till a bearing went out while pulling back with 240ft left to go! It too everything my 6ton excavator had to pull all that drill pipe out so I didn't loose it. The 2" conduit broke with 1ft to go, thankfully it was close enough so I could dig it up and move the 12x12 box over and make it work. For a little while I thought I was going to loose my pipe, drill head, sonde and have to redo the bore! Kinda stressful.
The piped feel so stiff dealing with just one but once you pull out a couple hundred feet its flexy and floppy looking lol.
Fixing the drill now and will go back to beak apart and load pipes. Thankfully I was in a place where I could pull all that pipe out and leave it without it being in the way.
paulsharvey
Elite Member
We have had contractors lose the head several times. Once, 1st shot, the conduits (3-1.25") ripped loose halfway across; 2nd shot, head and about 4 rods sheared off in the hole, 3rd try was fine. Never knew what was under there, but had to remind them, Palatka was founded in 1848, and that road has been there, more or less, the entire time, no telling what is under it. Another time, a local utility was helping out another local utility with their drill, drilling out was rough, but made it, on pull back, the head go so hot it boiled water whe. you poured it on head, and the sonde was completely cooked.
I've noticed a trend, those 1st few bores after a rail road crossing, be careful. You have to put so much strain on the rods to get down the min 15 ft below the rail, in such a short distance, we tend to see broken rods after that. All recently broke rods on shot out, but luckily they were able to dig up the broken rods outside the road, and chain to a mini hoe and get them back.
I can think of about 1 or 2 per year where we lost the conduits; probably 50% of the time caused by stupidity (3-4" conduits, lot of shell mixed with sand, 8" reamer, and only 2 bags of mud, so last few tanks where pure water; that jammed solid after 10 ft, so they went to pull just 2-4" back; problem is 2-4" is the same OD as 3-4"; just with more annular space for fluids; made it 120 ft of the 160... and broke 12 ft below the road) and another couple where either the swivel siezed up, or where the carrot or finger trap was the wrong size and they used it anyways.
I've noticed a trend, those 1st few bores after a rail road crossing, be careful. You have to put so much strain on the rods to get down the min 15 ft below the rail, in such a short distance, we tend to see broken rods after that. All recently broke rods on shot out, but luckily they were able to dig up the broken rods outside the road, and chain to a mini hoe and get them back.
I can think of about 1 or 2 per year where we lost the conduits; probably 50% of the time caused by stupidity (3-4" conduits, lot of shell mixed with sand, 8" reamer, and only 2 bags of mud, so last few tanks where pure water; that jammed solid after 10 ft, so they went to pull just 2-4" back; problem is 2-4" is the same OD as 3-4"; just with more annular space for fluids; made it 120 ft of the 160... and broke 12 ft below the road) and another couple where either the swivel siezed up, or where the carrot or finger trap was the wrong size and they used it anyways.