10/02/2026
Some excellent insight on Tireboss from the wonderful people at Marshall Well Drilling Corp. in this recent National Ground Water Association article by Mike Price!
https://waterwelljournal.com/drill-rig-mobility/
"Locally known as blow sand, which is loose, wind-blown sand deposits in the region, Marshall Well Drilling Corp. in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, opted to try the Tireboss2 Tire Pressure Control on its 2003 Schramm T450WS drill rig to help with mobility.
Tireboss exceeded its expectations in April 2025 that three months later it purchased the system for its 2003 Freightliner FLD112 2100-gallon 6 × 4 flatbed water truck.
“They’ve completely changed the way that we get around on site,” says Josh Johnson of Marshall Well Drilling. “Our business pretty rarely takes the mats [plastic 4 × 8 and 2 × 8] at this point.
“The only time they take them now is honestly, say we’re getting a ditch that’s fairly deep, we’ll take them to stack them in the ditch to drive on to get rid of the ditch, so the jacks and stuff don’t hit. As far as needing them to get around the jobsite it’s pretty far, few, and between.”
One of the selling features for Marshall Well Drilling was TIREBOSS eliminating weird tire wear on its trucks, especially when loaded and unloaded. With the water truck’s air ride system, TIREBOSS uses an extra sensor that will adjust tire pressure in the rear according to load, deflating according to its program setting and reinflating once the sensor senses an increase in load so tires wear flat instead of unevenly.
TIREBOSS programs it after the setup. On Marshall Well Drilling’s rig, the eight back tires are kept at the same pressure [110 psi for both rig and water truck] all the time.
“It’s always monitoring where they’re at,” Johnson says. “The guys don’t have to do that weekly check of tire inflation other than the front two tires to make sure you’re not excessively wearing tires. It’s a pretty good chunk of money all the time to have to put eight tires in the back of your truck. That’s a really big plus.
“It has that screen to mount right inside the cab that displays existing tire pressure, and when you get to the jobsite, it’ll give you options for how much you want to deflate. It gives you options to say right down to 35 pounds to max deflation for traction, or if you’re not on too bad of a site, to go a little bit less, hit the button, and it starts purging air out of the system. It takes a few minutes to do it.”
TIREBOSS has different deflation setting options, and Marshall Well Drilling typically deflates to its lowest emergency setting of 35 psi to back into the site. It typically starts dumping air while backing in off the road. As the driver walks to check the site, the rig’s tires are deflating, and once back to the rig, the tires are deflated and the rig is ready to be positioned on the site. The reduced tire pressure creates extremely low ground pressure and improves mobility.
“Normally if we deflate, we deflate. We really don’t go in between,” Johnson explains. “We just go for all of it and just back in and go about the day. Primarily that’s what we do. Don’t do 75 [psi] and try. Just 35 [psi] and back in.”
It’s the same order when leaving the jobsite: Pull back out onto the driveway and reinflate the tires while ensuring the load is properly secured, and by the time that’s done, the tires are reinflated and the rig or water truck is ready to return to the shop.
Johnson recalls the first time the system made an impression on him on a jobsite:
—The driveway was fairly short with the house up on a hill.
—There was a 4-foot elevation change in sand. No gravel, just sand, which was primarily backfilled-type sand.
—The rig had to get up on a 4-foot elevation change and drive forward, turn the rig a little bit, and then back up next to the house.
“A little bit of a wide turn on top of this,” Johnson says. “I’m like, ‘Oh man, this is really going to show us what’s going on here,’ and we deflated tires, and I was absolutely shocked. We pulled up in there, drove forward, turned the tires.
“Trying to back up and turn your front-end tires, they become plows and they start plowing dirt or sand or whatever they’re in, and it started doing that, and the rig continued to pull backwards and dragging those front tires through the stuff.
“We got back to where the well location was and it was pulling us through enough, and the driver side of the rig was a little bit downhill grade on that side of the rig was actually starting to fall into the sand because it was fresh backfilled sand, and it just kept pulling us. I was absolutely shocked it got us back to the flags. We set up and drilled. It was very impressive for the first real time that we used it. One hundred percent worth the money.”
Marshall Well Drilling worked with TIREBOSS on where the screen works best in the cab for both the drill rig and water truck, and the air line system install on each vehicle was tidy with nothing hanging, dragging, or rubbing. Johnson has also been satisfied with customer service after the install.
Marshall Well Drilling regularly uses TIREBOSS weekly, and depending on the area it covers, sometimes two or three times a week.
“We’ve even used them in some areas where if the yard is a little bit nicer, we’ve even actually deflated tires to kind of widen the track just to give up not leaving such a rut in the guys’ yard on the in and out type thing,” Johnson says. “It seems to help a little bit with even that.”
TIREBOSS has resulted in time savings, sometimes several hours per job. In addition, it has reduced injuries from the handling of mats, especially in the winter with frozen mud.
“In the past we’ve really fought sites, and man, if we would’ve had this years ago, it would’ve made the labor end easier and wouldn’t wear your guys out,” Johnson says. “When you get to the jobsite and spend a couple hours matting in, that kind of starts your day rough. It’s a huge labor saver.”
