If you walk through almost any established HDD yard, you rarely see one brand new rig with one brand new locator. You see layers of history. Older guidance systems that still go out every week, mid range setups that handle most of the work and one or two premium rigs reserved for the hardest jobs.
The challenge is not that you have variety. The challenge is keeping that variety under control so guidance feels predictable instead of chaotic. In practice, that often means getting three pieces of the puzzle to work together, a solid mid range F2 setup, a high capability F5 system and an older Eclipse package that still earns its place as long as the transmitters are healthy.
This guest post is about how to think about that mix on purpose, not by accident, and how to keep each part of the fleet doing the work it is best suited for.
Look at your weekly schedule and you will probably see a pattern. Most of your jobs are not epic crossings. They are short and medium length bores for services, fiber, local utilities and small road crossings. These projects need reliable guidance, fast setup and simple workflows. They do not always need the most advanced locator in the catalog.
That is exactly where an F2 locator fits. It gives you:
When you standardize one or more rigs around F2 for everyday work, you remove a lot of noise from the system. Crews know what to expect, housings and batteries are consistent and your training material stops trying to cover five different locator families at once.
Of course, not every bore is a simple service. Some projects are deeper, longer or carry much higher consequences if something goes wrong. Think highway crossings, river and rail underbores, downtown utility corridors or grade critical sewer lines.
For that type of work, it usually makes sense to bring out a premium guidance package built around DigiTrak F5. With more frequency options, greater range and finer pitch and roll resolution, your flagship rig is better equipped to hold signals where older or simpler systems start to struggle.
The key is to treat this F5 based setup as a dedicated tool, not just another rig in the rotation. It should leave the yard with the best sondes you own, your most experienced locator and a clear plan for how to handle interference and documentation on that job.
Many fleets also have at least one older Eclipse system that refuses to die. It is paid off, crews know it and it still does a solid job on straight forward bores. As long as you can keep good transmitters behind it, there is no reason to retire it just because newer models exist.
The risk is letting that legacy gear slide into “whatever we have left over” territory. That usually shows up as random, half working beacons and lots of guesswork in the field. Instead, you want a small, clearly defined pool of <a href="https://example.com/eclipse-transmitters">eclipse transmitters</a> that are tested, labeled and treated with the same respect as your newer sondes.
If Eclipse rigs are assigned to simpler, lower risk jobs, they can quietly make money for years while F2 and F5 handle the more demanding work.
When you line these three pieces up, you get a clean structure:
The important part is not the exact number of rigs. It is that each one has a role, and that role is matched to the guidance hardware bolted to it. The days of “just grab whatever locator and beacon are available” are over.
Locators are visible and get most of the attention, but the tiny electronics in the drill head are what actually decide whether a job feels controlled or chaotic. That is where a smart transmitter strategy and refurbishment make the biggest difference.
A practical pattern many contractors follow:
Refurbishment is the key that makes this viable. Pressure testing, depth and pitch checks, new seals and proper bench testing turn used hardware into predictable tools instead of lotteries. With that in place you can afford to hold enough transmitters for every rig to have at least one primary and one identical spare, which is the minimum for real resilience.
Even the best plan will fail if crews treat guidance gear like disposable accessories. To keep your mixed fleet stable, you need a few simple habits that apply to every rig and every system:
These habits cost very little time but pay off in fewer failures, longer transmitter life and less drama on site.
You do not have to choose between old and new, budget and premium. A mixed fleet with Eclipse, F2 and F5 can be a strength if you decide deliberately what each rig is for and support it with healthy, well managed transmitters.
Let Eclipse handle the simplest bores, let F2 carry the daily load and let F5 step in when the drawings and risk justify it. Back that structure with a clear transmitter strategy and consistent field habits, and the “signal problem” that used to haunt your jobs becomes a quiet advantage that keeps the whole operation moving.
