Lone Star Drills upgrades engines for drills to improve responsiveness and power

Lone Star Drills’ new engine allows users to get peak performance from their drill by setting exact performance parameters with the electronic governor

Lone Star Drills, a subsidiary of Little Beaver Inc., upgraded to the Honda iGX800 engine as a standard feature for its HD and HAD model drills to increase responsiveness and power, the company announced.

The engine model has an electronic, self-tuning regulator (STR) governor that optimally adjusts the engine’s throttle to match the drill’s load, and Lone Star said it recommends the upgrade for all high-torque hydraulic drills, including its parent company’s Big Beaver earth drill.

“The new engine allows users to get peak performance from their drill by setting exact performance parameters with the electronic governor,” said Joe Haynes, president of Little Beaver. “You set the engine speed, and the electronic system ensures that speed is maintained even when the drill encounters varying soil types. This gives customers consistent efficiency on those tough jobsites with inconsistent soil.”

The iGX800’s STR governor maximizes performance during varying loads when encountering different soil densities and obstructions, according to Lone Star, and it provides reliability that is critical to achieving peak drilling efficiency.

Other governor systems can be less responsive than electric ones, the company said, which can cause some engines to lag and constantly “hunt” for optimal performance as the engine’s load changes. The new engine’s governor allows for better performance than the previously used engine, despite having similar horsepower.

Lone Star Drills’ line of geotechnical drill rigs comes in various models to address any soil sampling situation a contractor might encounter. The HDA model designates heavy duty, high-performance hydraulic drills with an automatic hammer, and the HD model designation is for those high-performance hydraulic drills without an automatic hammer.

The company, based in Livingston, Tex., offers seven models that provide a variety of applications, including soil sampling, geotechnical testing and auger drilling.