Ditch Witch’s new JT21 drill slashes job times

Journey 2024

Ditch Witch recently unveiled the JT21 directional drill, the successor to its popular JT20.

Equipped with a 74-hp Deutz TD2.9 engine, the new drill delivers impressive increases in horsepower and carriage speed to keep contractors ahead of schedule.

“The JT20 was kind of our bread and butter for the last 20 years,” said Britton Yunker, HDD product manager for Ditch Witch. “It was time for a face lift. So, the JT21 has all of the platform technologies and enhancements that you will see in the majority of our HDD product line.”

Compared to its predecessor, the JT21 delivers up to 40 per cent more downhole horsepower than its predecessor. As well, the JT21 features a 35 per cent faster carriage speed than any drill in its class, allowing crews to work more effectively.

“It’s industry leading carriage speed at 215 feet per minute. It’s a really big deal when cycling pipe,” Yunker said. 

The JT21 features 21,000 pounds of pullback, 20,000 pounds of thrust and 2,250 foot-pounds of torque, allowing crews to complete installations at a faster pace in a variety of soil conditions. Also, a new design and lower centre of gravity increases stability.

“It’s 20 per cent more slope stable than the current JT20,” Yunker said. 

The JT21 is able to boost performance and productivity thanks to improved hydraulic efficiencies and a direct-drive rotation motor delivering more downhole horsepower. The larger displacement pump, generating 132 litres per minute and running at a lower rpm, increases the life of the pump and wearables.

Drill platform commonality

A proven pipe-loading system provides a horizontal-style pipe loading system that helps optimize efficiency and uptime on jobsites. While the JT20 featured a banana style pipe loading system, Ditch Witch’s voice of customer research revealed the need to adopt a common system. 

“It was highly requested that we switched to the pipe loading system that is on our other drills,” Yunker said. “The ability to jump from a 21,000-pound machine all the way to 120,000-pound machine with little to no training is pretty remarkable.” 

As well, an enhanced operator station provides a common display with other HDD platforms and multi-mode joysticks that allow operators choose their preferred control style, including Ditch Witch, American Auger or alternative controls. This helps to minimize training needs across multiple platforms.

“The joysticks are in the same spot. The buttons are the same. So, it reduces a lot of training time,” said Sean Hubbard, Marketing Communications Manager at Ditch Witch. “The learning curve is essentially a learning plateau at this point.”

VAM

The JT21 is equipped with Ditch Witch’s Virtually Assisted Make-up (VAM) technology, which provides software-driven make-up and breakout of pipe to simplify operators’ jobs and help prevent pipe-thread damage to extend pipe longevity.

“This means you don’t have floats and sensors anymore or proximity switches. It’s all done electronically,” Yunker said. “This has been proven to increase the thread life and extend your tooling life in a significant way. This kind of eliminates the human error as well.”

Advanced telematics give operators access to a wide range of drill health and operating parameters, helping them make quick, informed decisions while improving overall jobsite management and reducing maintenance.