Forty Years on the I-20
One family, one shop, and four decades of keeping Permian Basin units pumping. This is who we are — and the people who do the work.
It Started in 1985
Tim Snelson grew up in this trade. His father worked in the pumping unit business back in the ’50s and ’60s and raised six sons in it — every one of them welding by age ten and working on units alongside him. In 1985, Tim opened his own shop on Interstate 20 in Midland.
The Permian has had its booms and its busts since then, and plenty of shops have come and gone. Snelson’s is still here — same family, same stretch of the I-20, still doing the work that built the name: selling units, repairing them, stocking the parts, and machining what can’t be bought.
A Family Business, Into the Next Generation
Forty years on, Snelson’s is still family-owned and family-run — and family-answered when you call. Tim’s son Dillon is the operations manager now — the day-to-day, the scheduling, the hiring — and he came up the way everybody here does: started young sweeping floors, put a couple of years in the machine shop, and twenty years later he’s running operations alongside Tim. When operators call, they’re not routed through a call center — they reach the family whose name is on the building.
A Hundred Years of Experience, Under One Roof
Ask around the Permian and you’ll hear it: Snelson’s hands stay. Many of our crew have been here ten, twenty, thirty years and more — adding up to well over a hundred years of combined pumping unit experience. That kind of tenure is rare in this business, and it’s why the crew that shows up to your lease has almost certainly seen your problem before.
We don’t churn through people — we grow them. Most of our hands moved up through the shop: a yardman gets his CDL, trains on the crane trucks, and works his way into a crew. We help our people get certified and build a career here, which is exactly why they stay.
That experience runs front-of-house, too. Our sales manager, Kip Stansell, worked at Lufkin Industries and did business with Snelson’s before he ever joined the team — everybody in this industry knows Kip.
A Training Ground for the Basin
Four decades in, Tim’s shop has become something of a training ground for the Permian. Some of the people who learned the trade under Tim have gone on to run yards and shops of their own — and others have simply stayed, for decades. We’re proud of both.
From the Majors to the Family Operators
Our customers run the full range — from Exxon down to small, family-owned operators working a handful of leases. We give them the same straight answers and the same square deal. We’re loyal to the people who’ve been loyal to us, some of them for decades, and a brand-new customer gets treated exactly the same way. That’s been the rule since 1985, and it’s not changing.
What We Stand On
Where We Work
From our shop on the I-20 in Midland, we serve operators and lease owners across the Permian Basin and Southeastern New Mexico. We travel further than most — and when we can’t, we’ll tell you straight.
Wondering if we cover your area? Call (432) 563-2446 and ask.
Forty Years In. Still Answering the Phone.
Whether you’ve worked with Snelson’s for decades or you’re calling for the first time, you’ll get the same straight answer. Give us a call.
Call (432) 563-2446Mon–Thu 8–4, Fri 8–3 · Field crews Mon–Sat.