Rotella Shortage?

[BigJohn]

I have had to make a WalMart run three times in the past month and each time, I have swung by the oil shelves to see if I could find any T5 10w30. Over the month long period of time, not only is there no T5 10w30, but there is no Rotella of any variety. Matter of fact, there hasn't been any real quantity of 1 gallon jugs of any HDEO's on the shelf, except the SuperTech 15w40.

I had to change the oil in my EcoDiesel last week and I had 3 to choose from..... from which there were at least three jugs for the 11 quarts I needed. I purchased the only three jugs of Delo they had.

Chevron Delo 400 XLE Synthetic Blend Diesel Motor Oil CK-4, 15W-40​

Super Tech Heavy Duty SAE 15W-40​

Motorcraft Super Duty 15W-40 Conventional​

PS... Interestingly, Sam's Club has cases and cases of T6 5w40. I've just decided to stick with 10k OCI's and don't like how quickly 5w40 shears down.

PSS... The recent UOA's and VOA's of Rotella T5 10W30 has me very, very intrigued. ....I just can't find it anywhere for a reasonable price. I saw it in a auto parts shop for $28 a gallon and I ain't paying that. I paid $14.97 a gallon for the Delo.

 

[WylieCoyote]

Walmart has either pared down how much they keep on the shelves, or they're having distributor issues across the board. The Walmart in Murphy, TX often looks like there's been a severe weather event and everyone just bought everything they could get their hands on. I suppose more people who are feeling the economic pinch are resorting to changing their own oil now, so that may be a contributor. But gone are the days where the shelves were brimming with 5-quart jugs. There's a lot of air where the jugs used to sit.

 

[Merek]

I've pretty much switched our farm tractors over to the Delo xle 15w40 which is a bargain at that price if you can still find it. I was using the Rotella T5 but that became scarce around here and they were shifting over to the T6 and brought out their 15w40. I really liked the T5 but they stopped stocking the 15w40 so you could only find it in the 10w30 and then Chevron brought out the xle in that grade. I have used the xle 10w30 a lot in the past as a substitute for 5w30 which worked great. We've found that even using the blended oils that it made a huge improvement in cold starting conditions.

There is a Super Walmart about 45 min. from here that does a lot better job of having oil shelves stocked up. You'll have to either have it shipped to you or use their website to check to see if any of their other stores in your area will have it.

 

[BigJohn]

Took the day off, as I have an inspector coming to the house today.... So this morning, I made a Sam's club run for some groceries. Yep, plenty of T4 15w40 and T6 5w40. Matter of fact the T6 5w40 was on sale, a three gallon case for $57 a case, or $19 a gallon.

I did drop by another WalMart and they only had three gallons of T4 15w40.


.........

 

[Merek]

We still use the regular Rotella 15w40 in the Massey 1100 which holds roughly 4 gallons of oil, it doesn't get used much and mostly only to move round bales and feed in the winter but the block heater gets plugged in. I haven't checked our stash but I still probably have enough for at least another change if not a second one. With the synthetics or blends I've mostly used what I've had on hand and sometimes had to mix them accordingly, 10w30 with 5w40 etc... all of our tractors are old and pretty robust to what you can run in them, a lot of the old tractors actually called for straight 30w or 20w depending on operation temperature but most people today use 15w40 because it's the best of both worlds.

I have used 5w40 but does seem to shear a lot more and then both Chevron & Shell came out with the blend and synthetic versions in 15w40 which are a lot more stable and really helps with those cold starts in the winter. The Shell T6 may look better on paper being a full synthetic but the Chevron synthetic blend is an excellent oil too in its own right and is a lot cheaper.

 

[Merek]

I was just in another WalMart fairly close by and they had both the T5 10w30, 15w40, T6 15w40 and the Delo xle 15w40 and their conventional one too.

 

[BigJohn]

Was surfing on the web last night and found that Advanced Auto had Rotella on sale. T4 was $19.99 to $16.99 and T5 was $24.99 too $19.99. I went by three stores to see what they had. The first store had three gallons of T5 and one gallon of T4, and I bought it. The second store had zero Rotella of any variety. The third store had one gallon of T4 and I bought it. Purchased 5 gallons today.

I am going to use the T4 10w30 in my FJ.

I am going to use the T5 10w30 in my two Honda Motorcycles.

.........

When the time comes, I am thinking of using T5 10w30 in the BlueTec and the EcoDiesel. That recent VOA of it is super impressive.

 

[53' Stude]

Was surfing on the web last night and found that Advanced Auto had Rotella on sale. T4 was $19.99 to $16.99 and T5 was $24.99 too $19.99. I went by three stores to see what they had. The first store had three gallons of T5 and one gallon of T4, and I bought it. The second store had zero Rotella of any variety. The third store had one gallon of T4 and I bought it. Purchased 5 gallons today.

I am going to use the T4 10w30 in my FJ.

I am going to use the T5 10w30 in my two Honda Motorcycles.

.........

When the time comes, I am thinking of using T5 10w30 in the BlueTec and the EcoDiesel. That recent VOA of it is super impressive.

I can get rotella white jug for $12~ galllon at rural king and T5 10w30 for I believe $15-16 gallon. Maybe you don’t have Rural King where you are. If not I apologize

 

[lamoon78]

Go look at Tractor Supply