Bar Oil Cost ...Geez

Altissimus

Altissimus

TreeHouser
Joined
Jul 1, 2008
Messages
8,007
Location
southern Vermont
Not gonna go into a geopolitical rant about OPEC, but we all know how steadily Bar Oil has gone up. F'n hurts. I buy the case or cases ... inquired about splitting a shipping pallet load with a buddy , No Savings! Wondering if I source 55 Gallons of unrated 10 or 30 weight delivered, decant my own gallons . Could I save money? Has anyone out there done this?
 
For the last two years I've been buying my bar oil at Tractor Supply during their sale in January. Last year was $6 per gallon, the year before was $5 per gallon. I buy about 40 gallons and it lasts me the whole year.
 
I buy mine from Bailey's.
Bout ½ price of getting it here.
 
I couldn't help noticing that as soon as the prefecture mandated that only the vegetative based oil could be used in the tax funded mountain thinning, the price shot way up. It used to be cheap, but at least doubled, like overnight. Exploitative marketing......
 
Most the fallers around here, back in the day, bought bar oil by the drum. I can't remember what they paid for it, but they swore they saved a ton of money.

It was about 3$ a gallon at the saw shop through the 80's. And I used about 3 gallons a week. Figure 32$ a month for 8 months. It was the least cost of doing business, I think.

And buying it by the drum was cheaper yet. I don't know how it figures today. Anybody?
 
I priced through 2 local oil depots by the drum. Both were more expensive than walmart in their clean new jugs. You can't convince me that the premium oil is worth it.
 
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sotc said:
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The junk in the white bottle is CRAP! YUCK! It's the only bar oil I have ever bought and thrown away rather than use it. The Poulan oil is good but it's over $8 per gallon now. Been using oil from TSC for over 2 years now.
 
gf beranek said:
Most the fallers around here, back in the day, bought bar oil by the drum. I can't remember what they paid for it, but they swore they saved a ton of money.

It was about 3$ a gallon at the saw shop through the 80's. And I used about 3 gallons a week. Figure 32$ a month for 8 months. It was the least cost of doing business, I think.

And buying it by the drum was cheaper yet. I don't know how it figures today. Anybody?
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Just asked the other day at the Husky dealer, no savings in buying it by the drum. Myself, I would like to see it in 5 gal pails....

Ed
 
The TSC stuff varies by location .Some places it's 7 a gallon .

As I've said before Tom cut a deal with a Stihl dealer and buys a pallet full at a time for about dealer cost .How he swung that deal I have no idea .

Ha I remember in the 80's TSC oil was about 2 a gallon on sale .Of course back then I was making 10 bucks an hour .
 
GASoline71 said:
I've never used the Bailey's stuff... how do you like it?

Gary
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I really like their Motion lotion ( Funny name, I had a lady from customs call and ask me why a logging company was importing 100 gallons of hand lotion:lol:) When I order stuff from Bailey's, I have them fill the empty space on the pallet with bar oil.
That way I don't pay freight on it, and I resell some to other fallers here, since it is a better quality than what we can get here.
 
Bar oil is essentually machine way oil .Simpley oil with a tacking agent similar to STP .

You could make your own if it came to that from clean used hydraulic oil and a tackifier but I doubt anybody would do it including myself .If a person were in the tree/lumber biz it's just the cost of doing business .People like me it doesn't make that much diff no more than I use just the cost annoys me .Which is not a big deal because a lot of things annoy me .
 
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  • #21
By a lot of things .... increase in costs, customers who lag payments, even jay walking lesbians in Brattleboro can piss me off...
 
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Sure, though I did't answer Carl he is right ... the customer must pay. Just that bidding work during an economic turndown can be like selling work on Walton's Mountain in 1934.... push the price envelope maybe no work for Altissimus Tree. I think Ike Godsey is about to close the general store some weeks.
 
Along the lines of what Al was saying, if someone would call Standard oil and enquire about their oil products that have a tacking agent included, you might come up with something good. When in the states, that is what I used to use and it was a whole lot cheaper than what was sold as bar oil, purchased in what I think was twenty gallon buckets. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the product, it was just a number code on the container. I used to get it from a Standard oil depot that sold their products. i went in there one day on the odd chance, and they fixed me right up. It was all I used after that. It might have even been a wholesale price.
 
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  • #25
... would work for me Jay .... just trying to save a buck , even all those gallon jugs when empty ! 30 for summer 10 for winter
 
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