Bulk Oil

Skymac

Skymac

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Nov 9, 2015
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Justin
Is anyone buying Aeroshell in bulk? A few years ago I bought a pallet worth, I think it had 187 cases or something like that on it, as I go through it running a school.

It was a pain finding a distribution center that would make it work on pricing. I’ve thought about reaching out to spruce and see if they have better bulk discounts but wasn’t sure if they did that or not.
 
The CAF wing in the hangar next to us buys 55 gallon drums and refills 1 quart bottles from it as needed. They also pump it directly to the radials, too.

I think by the drum nets ~20% savings over equivalent case prices.
 
I don't buy them by the pallets, but I often buy from here when I need a couple cases of Phillips XC.

aviationoiloutlet.com

AeroShell Oil W100 Plus

Aeroshell Oil W100 Plus is a single grade ashless dispersant (AD) oil that brings together the best qualities of two of the country's best selling four-cycle aviation oils. It is especially effective in protecting critical cam and lifters in all engines.
aviationoiloutlet.com aviationoiloutlet.com
 
When Sams club used to stock aeroshell, we cleaned out like 8 local warehouses for our flight school. That lasted us about a year and a half. After that we moved to buying drums from a local jobber. Honestly the pallet, storage, and bottles were a nuisance vs drums. Particularly if your local gooberment starts asking about spill control.

I've never found spruce competitive on bulk oils, and there is always "some local oil supply" shop that "can get" aeroshell and philips. I'd just call around, eventually someone is going to NOT charge the aviation tax and you'll be pleased. :)

I don't know why the term of art is "jobber", but that was what we used.
 
I use/buy bulk oil at work for a 200 gallon tank. It's for diesel trucks. Uses a air powered pump and a metered dispenser so I can track how many gallons I am putting in.
I used to buy cases of aeroshell from a local jobber but then they stopped carrying Aeroshell.
I have bought at Fun n Sun and Oshkosh and brought it home in our RV. But that is a pain as I have handle it from the RV to the hangar.
Lately I have been buying it from Spruce to get my orders over 350 for free shipping.

Recently I was asked advise by a long time customer on how to remove 9 bulk motor oil tanks from a closed oil change business since I am in the tank and fuel business. IMG_5941.jpeg
This used be the kitchen area of a old Bojangles chicken restaurant. And that is the drive thru window to the right and how they got the hose into the room to refill the oil tanks.
IMG_5940.jpeg
 
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Gary Ward said:
I use bulk oil at work out of a 200 gallon tank. It's for diesel trucks. Uses a metered dispenser so I can track how many gallons I am putting in.
I used to buy cases of aeroshell from a local jobber but then they stopped carrying Aeroshell.
I have bought at Fun n Sun and Oshkosh and brought it home in our RV. But that is a pain as I have handle it from the RV to the hangar.
Lately I have been buying it from Spruce to get my orders over 350 for free shipping.

Recently I was asked to remove 9 bulk motor oil tanks from a closed oil change business since I am in the tank and fuel business.View attachment 148789View attachment 148790
Click to expand...

So you can legitimately and confidently say you get tanked every day!
 
All the shops in my area buy their oil from two of the local bulk oil distributors. Both carry all the commonly requested oils, and pricing is slightly less than what you can typically find online, but there is no huge price break at the quantities the shops are typically buying at.
 
Maybe I’ll look into the drum. I always thought it would be more hassle.
 
Skymac said:
Maybe I’ll look into the drum. I always thought it would be more hassle.
Click to expand...
IMO, Drums are not optimal. Because the pump on top makes it top heavy when the drum gets low. And a hand pump is almost not useable when the drum is low because it is wobbling around trying to crank a hand pump when you need max suction when the drum is low.

A drum cradle is what we use to dispense into a smaller container so you can add it to the engine. Full drums are heavy, need at minimal a drum cradle on wheels to handle a full drum...heavy.
Don't let it leak in the cradle, messy and costly.
 
Skymac said:
Is anyone buying Aeroshell in bulk? A few years ago I bought a pallet worth, I think it had 187 cases or something like that on it, as I go through it running a school.

It was a pain finding a distribution center that would make it work on pricing. I’ve thought about reaching out to spruce and see if they have better bulk discounts but wasn’t sure if they did that or not.
Click to expand...
There's very little money to be made by selling lubricates.
Food grade lubricates aside.
 
I bought Aeroshell 15W50 in the drums for the flight school. We'd refill the quart containers for top-ups, and I had an old but excellent oil pump in the drum that dispensed one quart per cycle. One cycle was about one and a half turns of the crank, then rotate backwards to the starting position. Never saw another one like it. For oil changes it enabled us to rapidly refill the Lycomings, and I had a fitting I had turned on the lathe for the end of the hose. It had a nipple that fit into the filler neck, and an O-ring on its OD prevented spillage when the oil was forced into the engine. The drum sat upright on a four-wheeled cart and never was unsteady.

Pump looked like this:

1767757597151.png
 
Dan Thomas said:
I bought Aeroshell 15W50 in the drums for the flight school. We'd refill the quart containers for top-ups, and I had an old but excellent oil pump in the drum that dispensed one quart per cycle. One cycle was about one and a half turns of the crank, then rotate backwards to the starting position. Never saw another one like it. For oil changes it enabled us to rapidly refill the Lycomings, and I had a fitting I had turned on the lathe for the end of the hose. It had a nipple that fit into the filler neck, and an O-ring on its OD prevented spillage when the oil was forced into the engine. The drum sat upright on a four-wheeled cart and never was unsteady.

Pump looked like this:

View attachment 148801
Click to expand...
We had and may still have a hand pump like that. It was before we bought a bulk tank and pump,hose reel setup at a trade show back in the 80s.
Like you said one turn or so was about a quart. It had a spring loaded drain tube that caught the drips and would drain back into the drum.
I will look for it tomorrow.
 
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Dan Thomas said:
I bought Aeroshell 15W50 in the drums for the flight school. We'd refill the quart containers for top-ups, and I had an old but excellent oil pump in the drum that dispensed one quart per cycle. One cycle was about one and a half turns of the crank, then rotate backwards to the starting position. Never saw another one like it. For oil changes it enabled us to rapidly refill the Lycomings, and I had a fitting I had turned on the lathe for the end of the hose. It had a nipple that fit into the filler neck, and an O-ring on its OD prevented spillage when the oil was forced into the engine. The drum sat upright on a four-wheeled cart and never was unsteady.

Pump looked like this:

View attachment 148801
Click to expand...
I have one like that. Dad bought it back n the 40’s. It quit working a few years back and I switches to a barrel roll down type dispencer cradle .
 
I bought a drum of Rotella 15w40 for a shop once. We bought a hand crank pump and refilled plastic bottles. What a mess and waste of time. Never again.
 
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