Originally Posted By: dnewton3
Your example would simply bolster my point.
The oil you like to use is manipulated for higher performance standards over other JD choices. It is made with a specific add-pack that meets a target market group as defined by Deere. Deere does not make the oil; they buy it at wholesale and sell it retail. They set performance critera, and the blender worked with a supplier who designed a lube package (base stock and add pack) that was likely to meet the criteria.
Allow me to quote myself:
"... it's a product that is blended to certain customer spec's (for the retailer)."
and this from me:
"Who blends the components really does not matter at all, as long as they are a quality driven organization."
Deere could go to a large choice of blenders; they typically use Mobil or Chevron. If they went to Castrol or Ashland, and spec'd the same performance and parameters, they get a very similar product with very similar results. The large oil companies like Chevron, XOM, Shell, etc work with drilling and refining while additive companies like Lubrizol design and create the add-pack. They often utilize talented and trained people who meld those two components (base stock blend and add-pack) to come up with a final product to take to market for the retailer.
My comment and your example are proof. It's not an exception; it's meeting the rule to a "T".
Not that I think you and I are that far apart; perhaps just different views from the same side of the aisle.
Would you care if Deere did not make that lube, but someone else did, and you still got the same results?
I stand by what I said; I don't care about who makes the oil. I care about the results. Your results are indicative of this as well. I suspect you'd go to whomever provided the kind of your performance you're accustomed to.
My neighbor has run dino Rotella 10w-30 a few times; here is one of his UOAs I put up for him:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1118516&page=1
He has run out to 7.5k miles and still stayed in grade with that lube. He does not UOA any more because he has made a logical choice; he just OCIs at 7.5k miles with a decent quality oil. He has no interest in extended OCIs. But he surely can get to 7.5k miles with about any decent lube. As you know, the thinner they start, the less they shear. His two UOAs and your UOAs prove this.
You've got great results with the JD Plus 50 lube; we certainly cannot deny that. But there are other success stories from other lubes in other 6.0L PSD rigs.
I was actually trying to help make your point, albeit in a round about fashion. My fault for putting words into your post, nowhere did you mention that a CJ-4 lube is a CJ-4 lube, although you did post "all big names are top notch and theres no real reason to pick one over the other except for cost".
This is where I was relating to your post, Deere is targeting 500hrs. OCI in its own equipment with a bolstered add-pack, whereas, for instance, Shell is targeting a oil for the masses so to speak.
In my own experience the "oil for the masses" did not hold up in my 6.0. I, like your neighbor, am not interested in extended OCI's either, but I do want to be able to go to the factory interval.
I may not be comparing apples to apples here, what I used was the fancy 5w-40, I'm sure if the 10w-30 your neighbor uses in his truck works fine for him it more than likely work just fine for me also. The exception I was pointing out was the 6.0 itself as a "special needs case" where an off the shelf lube contributing to injector issues and many 6.0 owners spending big money on short OCI's and oil additives.
I think you know that I know that Deere doesn't have their own refinery somewhere making their own lube. I use it out of convienence, the local dealer is my "auto parts store", its competitively priced, and it works for my application.
And yes if someone else sold a comparable oil that was easily obtainable for me, competitively priced, and returned consistently good UOA's I wouldn't hesitate using it. For me I may be somewhat of an anomaly, when I find something that works I stay with it.
