Mill's Fleet Farm (Citgo) Heavy Duty Oils

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CMT

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Feb 7, 2005
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Marinette, WI
First time poster, long time reader here. Those of you from Northern WI and MN may be familiar with Mill's Fleet Farm, a regional chain of large Farm & Fleet-type stores (as the name suggests). Those in Southern WI and Illinois may be familiar with Blaine's Farm & Fleet, a chain of almost identical stores (rumor is that the two were connected at one time and the stores were split up between two parties based on region). Anyhow, I believe it has been posted on here that Fleet Farm's Farm Rated (their line of HDEOs and hydraulic fluids) and Resolute (light duty oils and fluids) brand lubricants are Citgo products which are quite highly rated as a "sleeper" brand on these forums. I believe Blaine's sells these under Citgo's own Mystic label as their house brand. I was at Fleet Farm down in Green Bay this morning, and decided to pick up a few gallons of oil, since I want to switch my Fiance's Grand Prix (3800 V6) and maybe a couple other vehicles around here to this oil (my new Ram Hemi gets only Schaffer's 5W-30 or 10W-30, though). One of the reasons I was particularly excited about the Farm-Rated brand, besides being a great oil at an excellent price, was that they offer a 10W-30 HDEO. The Grand Prix and some other spec a 10W-30 oil, and even though I'm well aware that a 15W-40 HDEO would work just as well in warm weather as 10W-30 when warranty isn't a concern, I liked the idea of being able to run a HDEO while staying in the recommended grade. So anyhow, I grabbed (2) 2-gallon jugs each of Resolute 5W-30 and Farm-Rated 10W30 (@8.79 each, I believe). While waiting for the little lady to finish checking out the sales on winter clothing, I started to read the backs of the jugs. I had looked at 15W-40 jugs before, and they met the most recent specs, so I assumed all the oils did. While, I guess I assumed wrong. The Resolute was fine, with an SL spec. The Farm-Rated 10W-30, however, only carried up to CH-4 and SH. I didn't really care for that, so I walked back to the oil section and took a look. Sure enough, all the 10W-30 in 2 gallon containers only carried CH-4/SH. There was some other 10W-30 in 1 gallon jugs that carried up to CI-4/SL, however. Also of note is that this higher-rated 10W-30 in the 1 gallon containers stated on the back of the jug that it was manufactured for Mill's Fleet Farm by Citgo, while the 2-gallon jugs did not, even though I'm sure all the Fleet Farm oil is a Citgo product (none of their house brands used to state the manufacturer until the past few years- I think when they switched from white to black containers). I then looked at the 15W-40, and all containers, regardless of size, carried the CI-4/SL rating, though the 2-gallon jugs again did not state that it was manufactured by Citgo. So to make a long story even longer, I ended up going with the 15W-40 rather than 10W-30, as I'm confident it will perform well in my applications, probably better than 10W-30, and it was a good bit cheaper to buy the same quantity of oil in 2-gallon 15W-40 jugs than in 1-gallon jugs of CH-4/SL 10W-30. I don't know if the 10W-30 HDEO isn't the most popular grade and there is lots of old stock, or if people tend to use that grade in older engines so they never updated it or what, but I just thought this was interesting and worth looking at if one is considering Citgo HDEOs. Maybe it's useless information to anyone outside of Wisconsin, though. Also interesting was that there was some straight 10W(!) Farm-Rated oil on the shelves- I didn't look to see what the rating was on this, though. Perhaps this grade was a popular winter grade back in the early days of diesels before good multiweight oils were available, and some old timers still stick to it?
 
CMT:
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to the board.

Citgo has been making the Mills oil for around 2 years I believe. I think that SH oil you are talking about was made by their previous supplier. Not sure who that was though.
 
Down here in KS we have either Orcheln's, TSC or Atwoods and they sell Mystic, Traveller, and Harvest King brands, respectively.

Most are made by either Conoco or Citgo.

Harvest King's All Fleet motor oil's are pretty good and I would choose them over Mystic's any day.

I never did care for either Harvest King OR Mystic's gear lubes because of their base oils.
 
Good to see locals around here. I just posted a thread in the Promotions forum about a good deal on Citgo SuperGard for dirt cheap at Farm & Fleet.

I hate to stop using Schaeffer 10w30 in my Integra, but with good local deals on oil at F&F, I may go with something cheaper.
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The most credible story I've heard is that Mill and Blain are brothers. Mill didn't like what Blain was doing so he left and started Fleet Farm. Then again, I've never checked any corperate information for either companies.


anyway, I just started using the Mystic 10w-40 HDEO in my civic.
 
The Mystic brand is as far as I know is made by Cato in a plant owned by Citgo, the greases and oils are of very high quality,one of my faves,though they tend to be a bit differnt in aceptenance (cant spell) on this board,but Citgo,Mystic are worth more than//sleeper lubes????BL
 
CMT, I'm also interested in what you find. I like Fleet-farm for it's purolator filters, but I've always found their oil selection a little lacking. How about running a VOA of that 10w30 HDEO?

-T
 
there already is a VOA of that oil if my memory serves me correct. I tried to get a few people to help defer the cost of a VOA with the 10w-40, but the only guy who responded never sent me back a reply.
 
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