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Water well drilling with a skid steer

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gjinc

Member
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Messages
22
Location
Michigan
Occupation
retired Air Force
That is the swivel
I have all the info at the shop, i'll get it tomorrow.
I know a "real" well driller can put 10's of thousands of pounds on the drill but the time I think it would make a
difference is when you hit a rock. The water and drill do most of the work.
at times we were drilling 15 feet a hour, would have been more but we have to keep swapping drill stem.
I considered any progress that I could see was good.
 
T

tmc_31

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2008
Messages
290
Location
Merkel, Tx
Occupation
Sports Lighting Contractor
15'/hr sounds plenty fast. Thanks gjinc. I am sure that one can apply to much pressure to the drill stem and break something really easily. I have not decided what size drill stem to use, some simple calculations say that I should be able to lift a 200' string of 2-3/8 drill stem full of mud and a bit and stay within the capabilities of my skid (2-7/8" drill stem would be to heavy by several hundred lb).

Looking forward to seeing how you built your swivel and seeing what size drill stem you used. I was checking EBay to see what equipment prices were like. Lots of stuff available there.

I have a Bobcat 15C auger drive that I hope to use to drive this drilling system.

Tim
 
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gjinc

Member
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Messages
22
Location
Michigan
Occupation
retired Air Force
Our drill stem was 2 1/4 and weight about 60 pounds per 10 feet lengths.
The swivel is made from 4 inch pipe and a couple of flat plates and 2 pieces of rubber.
We drilled a 1 inch hole and welded a nipple to connect a hose to it to circulate water and Benoite.
The plates we bored 2 3/8-2 1/2 holes and welded 2 of them to the 4 inch pipe
before welding the plates we paired them and drilled 3/8 holes in the corners
Cut one of the drill stem (with the threads) and drilled 3 holes (1/2 inch) 120 degrees apart at different heights. Just to the center, not all the way through
welded a piece of hex that will attach to the post hole digger.
the only thing that holds the swivel in place is 2 pieces of steel connected to the auger frame.
we did break this at least twice, i angled it and it snapped in the swivel, just took it apart and welded it up
2013-06-10_12-07-31_636a.jpg2013-06-10_12-07-43_565a.jpg2013-06-10_12-08-13_721.jpg2013-06-10_12-10-12_417a.jpg
 
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tmc_31

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2008
Messages
290
Location
Merkel, Tx
Occupation
Sports Lighting Contractor
gjinc, thanks for the pictures and description!!

Several years ago I bought a tool called a BorZit. It is for boring under sidewalks, roads and such. It has a swivel much like yours except smaller. I used it several times, once to bore under a 30' track at a high school football field.

Your pictures and descriptions have been very helpful. You have certainly shown that a skid steer can be a viable well drilling tool.

The town of Abilene, near where I live, has several creeks that run through it. A number of people who live along these creeks have drilled wells in their back yards to supply water for watering their grass. Most have hit good water at around 30-40'. By good water, I mean enough water flow to water a lawn with not necessarily good drinking water.

During the drought (which we are still in) these folks are the only ones who have green lawns during water rationing. It would be a lot easier to get a skid steer powered rig in a back yard than a large truck mounted drill rig.

Tim
 
Skid Shear

Skid Shear

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
70
Location
North Central Texas, USA
I have mid sized skid steer and never thought about using it this way...very interesting.

tmc, I bet those creeks aren't running much water these days. I'm ~100 miles Southeast of Abilene and you won't find a live creek around here.

IMHO, Sure hate to hear about folks drilling wells just to keep their lawns green, seem to me that water is too valuable these days for such waste...
 
T

tmc_31

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2008
Messages
290
Location
Merkel, Tx
Occupation
Sports Lighting Contractor
Skid Shear, you are right the creeks have been pretty dry over the last few years. We got about 4-1/2" of rain over the last few weeks which helped but we could sure use some more. I agree that ground water could be used for better uses than lawn watering but some people will do almost anything to keep their yards from dying. If they have that attitude, I would sure like to be able to drill a well for them. There also is a market for wells for geothermal installation like what gjinc was doing. I was going to put in a horizontal loop at my house because I had the room and I have a backhoe. If I can get this drilling thing to work I will probably put in a vertical loop system. Typically, around here the geothermal guys recommend 1-200' well per ton of air conditioning.
 
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bdog1234

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2013
Messages
189
Location
USA
Did you ever figure anything out? I have a drill on my skid steer. It is rated to drill 300'. I have never drilled that deep but I have drilled a ton of shallow holes. I can drill about a foot a minute in solid rock. In easier conditions I drill a lot faster. This is using either an auger in soft rock or dirt and air in hard rock.
 
R

rondig

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Messages
517
Location
fort macleod alberta
Occupation
excavation
Your string weight alone would be problematic for your lift arms. I own skid steers and ironically I build drills for a living. The rotary would not be a problem on a skid steer, but your pull down would not be strong enough. Plus your up and down motion would not be even therefore you would have to advance and back up to match the radius of your loader. We built some seismic drills off a skid steer platform and they only went 60 feet with water for drill circ, and it was very problematic. that was only a 3 inch hole. we were using a 90 xt. You need a mast that is straight up and down or binding occurs when you try to ream the hole. Also tripping out of the hole is near impossible without slips. anyways, there are many other problems if you wish to know more about our experience you can email me at pm me for my number
 
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bdog1234

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Joined
Mar 29, 2013
Messages
189
Location
USA
You don't use the skid steer arms for the up and down or at least I don't. I have a mast with a 12' stroke that is mounted on my skid steer and I use the skid steer to power the hydraulics. String weight is not on the lift arms. I have plenty of thrust and pull back. I have not used mud but can auger 20' and air rotary or DTH a lot deeper than that. I am doing 3.5" holes as well.
 
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bdog1234

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2013
Messages
189
Location
USA
I would be interested to hear about your rigs though and the problems you had.
 
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Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,526
Location
Canada
The guy that dug holes to do percolation tests at my old acreage had a drill rig set up on the back of a 1 ton. Worked pretty slick until he lost a bit in the hole. I dug it out later with the backhoe. I don't think a drill rig on a skid steer would be very productive for deep holes unless you had a straight up and down mast.

Here is a custom built drill rig for pilings from a local contractor around here. I think at least 2 of them were built and I heard the modifications cost of over $100,000 each using Bobcat 975's as the starting point. They used to advertise they could drill anywhere anytime in all conditions. I've seen the unit(s) on the road many times. Looks like it has a telescopic extension in addition to the regular extension.

https://lundenterprises.ca/

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/lundrill/?hl=en

http://cottonwoodpassivehouse.ca/steel-frame-installation/
 
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