You may not like the price, but trucks built generally for highway maintenance, like those from Oshkosh, rather than the big three might be the way to go.

I agree with OG. I'm a ford guy through and through, but the 550/650/etc just aren't durable when adding a bunch of equipment on them. They get traded out extremely often with oilfield workers and electricians and those aren't even hard off road terrain/miles like a drill rig would go to. Same issues with the other two brands.

If you can get by with 4 x 2, the smallest IHC seems pretty durable. Years back International had a good line, but cheaper Fords. etc beat them out. I found them as more durable than the big three when I ran a drilling operation for Wisconsin DOT. Having close by dealer-maintenance facilities is very important.

The F550 is very popular for the smallest drills, even the CME 45 and Mobile B42. From what I've read, there were some issues with Ford diesels, especially the 6.0L that they used from 2003 to 2007. Even the newest diesels can be snake bit. I like the gas V10 even if it is a little gutless and gets less fuel economy. It's cheaper to buy, cheaper/easier to maintain and proven. They use the V10 in class-A RV's, so it can handle an F550 with a small drill mounted on it. You didn't say what kind of issues you had, so this may or may not be applicable to your situation. An F650 would have absolutely no problem at all with a D25 and probably be $$ overkill. You can't get 4x4 in a new F650, though.

On a side note, I have been trying to find information for the D25 as I have never seen one in person and nobody has one (that I know of) in the entire state. A CME 45 is sort of the entry level rig that is deemed suitable by drilling subcontractors for the majority of basic jobs around here with up to 35 ft dry auger depths in stiff to hard clays and soft to moderate rock. I understand the D25 has a smaller engine, but a larger range transmission. Can you say how this drill compares to the CME 45? How does it handle stiff clay and soft to moderate rock (limestone/sandstone) using dry augers? What is the quality, durability and reliability of the D25 like? I should probably stick to a CME 45, but considering the nearly $45K price difference for a new drill, the D25 looks very attractive, especially since it may only see two to three small jobs a week, with tougher jobs being subbed out.

Terratek, we really like our D25. It can handle most of the jobs we have around here. Soils are mostly sandy here SP, SP-SM, SC, SC-SM. We actually have been using a CME 45 while our D25 has been out of commission (due to the truck). Our driller likes the CME 45... more power than the D25 but not quite as much as our Diedrich D50. The tower is a little taller on the CME too.

Our driller does not however, enjoy drilling in south Georgia with the D25. The stiff clays really slow down production. Our D25 has the 3L4 Moyno pump I believe. I will have to check to make sure. When I used to be out with the drill crew everyday with our D25, we drilled 60-100 feet deep borings all the time. We took it to South Carolina on the Marine Corps Air Station and drilled 6 to 7, 100 feet deep borings and it did fine. We may have had a bigger pump at that time. We have replaced the pump since then. Now, when we get down to around 60 feet, we don't get good return of the drill fluid. We have not used it in limestone/sandstone.

Hey jmcc3265: I like your post, However, old guys like me recall the days with "wash and chop" as the routine. Then, using a portable pump, a tripod and a cat head, plus a drill rod fitted with a chisel bit and openings directing water sideways. A 30 foot boring, with SPT every 2.5 to 5 feet was a darn good day's work using casing in 5 foot lengths. No such thing as augers. The spec didn't allow jets going downward and some even wanted the jet going upward to carry out the cuttings. Those were the days when the Gow sampling method was started. Early rock cores then were with a separate machine, some even hand held.

Hey oldestguy, I thoroughly enjoy reading your postsn and others. Most of the time I'm just browsing through here learning what I can from some of the older, experienced guys. I only have 5 years experience, so I have a lot to learn!

I have been out with the tripod, and I can tell you that is no fun! I can't imagine driving casing too. Our drill crew runs the other way when I bring up the word tripod haha.

One experience I cannot erase from my mind. A geologist in charge of the DOT rigs, "invented" a way to do borings some distance from a truck with cat-head powered by the power take off the truck. A pulley was hooked to one leg base and legs were chained together. Worked OK,. with lots of stretching of the rope. That is until another hole was to be done. Driller at the truck was to start raising the weight to drive casing, but lots of slack in the rope. Instead of pulling slack by hand, he put a turn or two on the cat head. Cat head grabbed the rope and his hand on it. Maybe one turn of him being pulled in before he was killed instantly, wrapped up in a lot of rope. That stopped any more "inventions" by the geologist. I can talk about this now some 60 years later since that geologist recently passed on. Even today there is a lot of danger doing this work.