From the outside, it looks a little bit like a big, tan metal box.
But on tank tracks.
Oh, and a metal box with an inside compartment that is comfy, cozy, climate controlled and has the latest electronics for drilling in less-than-perfect conditions.
Joe Klumpstra at MATECO gives us a little insight as to how this latest piece of drilling equipment is helping to put our company on the map – and helping us get there in the first place!
The Geoprobe 2060 has two main purposes: performing Cone Penetration Testing (CPT) and utilizing a Membrane Interface Probe (MIP) and/or Hydraulic Profiling Tool (HPT), which are typically used together (MIHPT).
“The feature that stands out to me most is that we are able to have all the equipment needed for either operation readily at our fingertips,” explains Joe. “To put it simply, ‘everything has a home,’ from the gasses and water needed to run the MIHPT to the CPT poly rings and each individual cone. Every piece is attached and secured in a place where it will stay and is easy to get to within the Crawler.”
Joe notes the addition of this new CPT drilling rig has given MATECO a significant step forward in the Direct Image field, an area that is quite new and continues to rapidly develop within the Environmental and Geotechnical drilling arenas.
Since obtaining the Crawler in February of 2019, the MATECO team has discovered how useful it is to have the climate-controlled cabin, allowing us to accommodate client projects from the heat of summer to the frigid Michigan winters. And to be sure they were comfortable operating the new rig, MATECO’s team spent nearly a week training at Geoprobe’s headquarters in Salina, Kansas. This hands-on experience gave our staff a baseline for operation of the rig, press and tooling along with the opportunity to discuss logistics and capabilities.
“Geoprobe worked side-by-side with us and continues to develop some things to help make the Crawler even more of a complete package,” states Dale Elliott, President of MATECO and one of the Crawler’s biggest fans.
“In the Midwest, there are a number of months that are not best for investigative work,” he explains. “We’ve got the best working space available for clients to come and enjoy it while we’re performing their investigation.”
Joe tells us that clients (and most people around the jobsite) want to get inside and see what it looks like as soon as they pull up with it. Such visitors are impressed by the size of the Crawler, but also by the cleanliness and all the instrumentation in it.
“Being enclosed, the Crawler also allows us to work through heavy rain and snow,” notes Joe. “Standard drill crews would have to stand down for safety reasons in such weather.”
On some occasions the sheer size of the Crawler makes it less than ideal for a jobsite. In such cases, MATECO turns to its other Geoprobe drilling equipment to complete a project.
Joe states “There are few drilling companies in the Midwest region with the ability to push MIHPT and CPT drilling. The list of companies that have the MIHPT equipment and training is a fairly short list throughout the United States,” Joe claims. “CPT is a little more common, but still fairly scarce.”
“The clients we have worked with have been very happy with the results and are looking forward to working with the Crawler again,” concludes Joe. “And we are excited to see where this new addition takes us.”
With tank tracks instead of tires, the Crawler can take MATECO pretty much anywhere they want to go.
Click here to watch how MATECO sets up the Crawler!
