If you live in a city or a reasonably-sized suburb, you’re probably sleeping on Tractor Supply Company. The retailer may be known for its gardening supplies, equine feed, and other more agricultural items, but the stores also feature a well-stocked automotive section with some hard-to-beat prices. A place where you can get Purina Goat Chow feed and cheap motor oil? Where do I sign?
This came up this week because my daughter has decided that, given her allergies to anything with fur, she wants a tortoise. Specifically, she wants a Russian tortoise. It’s a fairly cute animal that likes a drier environment of the kind I think we can provide, but it also requires a huge amount of space (approximately 6-8 square feet to walk around). My idea, informed by various forum posts, was to get a metal or Rubbermaid stock tank, fill it with a layer of sand and peat moss topped by animal-friendly mulch, and make that my tortoise enclosure.
If you’re not aware, a stock tank is a big tank used primarily to provide water for livestock, though they have a nice secondary use as a home for baby chicks or turtles:
Because I live within a short jog from the border of New York City, there are no Tractor Supply Co.’s nearby, which meant that I needed to schlep about an hour upstate. I mentioned to David I was going to be taking a couple of hours to complete this task and he pointed out that Tractor Supply had cheap oil and other affordable automotive stuff.
It’s been a while since I’ve gone into one of the company’s stores, so I figured I’d check out the automotive section in between trying to figure out what kind of stock tanks might fit into my apartment/my Subaru.
Tractor Supply knows its customers, so it is definitely a little more truck-centric than your average auto supply store. Do you need a trailer coupler? You’ll definitely be able to find whatever you need here for towing, including an assortment of actual trailers. Do you have an ATV or a riding lawnmower you want to put in the bed of your Ram? You’ll also be well served here.
Tractor Supply Co’s in-house brand for automotive stuff is Traveller and there are some fairly decent-looking winches:
Those are specifically for ATV/UTV applications, but there are also ones for trucks, as well as other off-road support gear like tow/recovery straps and LED light bars:
And, of course, if you’re a big truck owner you might have a diesel, in which case you probably need a lot of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF):
That’s a really good price. Two-and-a-half gallons of NAPA-branded DEF is $16.99 online! This is nearly half the price. In my experience, most DEF in stores is between $11-13 if you’re a shopper who pays attention, so this is a great price. There are a bunch of other truck accessories like toolboxes and tie-downs.
But what if you don’t have a truck? Most of us will need a battery for our car at some point:
The prices were decent and the warranties seemed on par with everyone else. I didn’t notice every single size available in the story, so if you have a specific vehicle they may not have exactly what you need, but what was there seemed to cover the most popular sizes.
The Really Good Stuff
Awww yeah. With my E39 over 236,000 miles when I checked this morning, I need to top him off with a little oil from time to time. And by “from time to time” I mean every other time I get a full tank of fuel. Clive takes premium so I’m already spending a decent amount of money keeping him going, so I’m always looking for ways to save money.
Tractor Supply has, in stock, exactly the oil I use in my BMW (Mobile 1 High Mileage 5W-30) in both 1- and 5-quart sizes. The single quart (what I usually get for ease of keeping track how much I’m putting in) was only $8.99, which is a couple of bucks cheaper than what I usually see at AutoZone or other parts starts. That’s real money.
If you’re more adventurous, there’s also Traveller-brand motor oil and the venerable Bob Is The Oil Guy forum seems to think the stuff is fine for your average store-brand oil. If they’re cool with it then I’m cool with it.
At the end of the day, I was able to grab some cheap oil, a giant livestock tank, some play sand, some peat moss, and a few random containers all for a low cost. The stock tank even fit in the back of the Subaru Forester.
Of course, after all of that work, it turns out my wife extremely dislikes the setup (seen here in progress). So back to TSC I’ll go this weekend to return the tank and get the metal one she said would work better.
More cheap oil!
I once saw a presentation from someone from an animal rescue. He said if you get your child a turtle “when they graduate high school, there’ll be a turtle. When they graduate college, there’ll be a turtle. When they get a job, there’ll be a turtle. When they get married, there’ll be a turtle. When they have children, there’ll be a turtle.”
When they die of old age, there may still be a turtle.
One of my favorite gadgets is a keychain-sized butane torch (not Jason). TSC has the butane refills readily available, which is nice.
Fun fact: those little torches can light the candles on a birthday cake and then brulee the icing.
Jason is keychain-sized.
And Sally thinks he’s hot stuff.
Our local equivalent is Wilco, and I have learned there are Wilcos and there are Wilcos, find one that’s also a True Value so you get all the hardware. I still occasionally have to go downtown to Ace for some hardware. There’s also a Coastal up the road where I can get a shotgun and a camp stove along with hydraulic fluid and a squeeze pen. Grain Growers also sells almost everything including actual tractors, The one in Enterprise Oregon includes a John Deere dealership. Of course I live in “the big city” so we have plenty of actual auto parts stores too
Maybe your Tractor Supply. Our local TS is terrible. They don’t keep up with the hardware inventory, and recently started including items that can be ordered online as being in inventory. I long ago gave up on them, as I can’t remember the last time I went in and they had something I actually needed on hand.
Same in my part of the world. Rural King is across the parking lot from our TSC and it is WAY better.
This is a true story.
In 2nd grade I had a friend whose father lived in Egypt, where she also kept a pet turtle. Probably easy to care for when she wasnt around. She lived 3-4 months a year there. She did the school year with us but all breaks and summer she would go there.
She came home one break and told us that her grandmother had cooked her turtle and made it a soup when she was last gone. Gma grew up and ate turtles as food. Gdaughter learned to not keep pets at her dads house.
Oh no, poor kid & poor turtle. And you told this as a funny story? Geez.
Actually all he said was that it was a true story…but yeah, it was sad since turtles are so cool
Also, don’t tell this to the TMNT
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!”
“Turtle in a half shell!”
“Let’s get a pizza!”
ha! I’ll be honest, when she told us, we laughed our little ass’ off. Kids are mean.
As an adult I would be horrified if my mom ate my daughters pet!
When I was about 4, I decided I would keep a woodlouse as a pet, so I put one in an old margarine tub. The next day, while I was at school, my little brother (who would have been about 2) ate it.
So, don’t get pets smaller than your baby brother’s mouth.
ha! f’ing babies will eat anything. Spent half the other day trying to keep my 2 year old from eating literal horse shit we were using as a fertilizer base in our garden.
Guess who got a case of the shits for a day after?
Being 40 miles from the nearest interstate our prairie is infested with these “farm” stores. As you’ll notice, the FFs and a bunch of others carry pretty much the same inventory because they buy through the same co-op. Fleet Farm was my go to until they got ruined by the founder’s brats and now private capital, brother separated after birth Farm&Fleet is OK. Menards is cheapest and you get your money’s worth and no more. TSC is OK but limited selection. Bomgaars is good for feed and wood heating pellets. Mac’s sell metric fasteners by the pound, decent quality and half the price of Menards.
But best bet when you’re in a pinch is a real hardware store, if you can find one.
Real hardware store up the road from me carries a solid stock of metric and SAE fasteners. SS, Grade 8, Grade 5, Grade 3 in vendor stocked, well labelled drawers. I will go there any day of the week and twice on Sundays. I’m certain they would order for me if I needed more than a few.
Yep, pre-order pellets from Bomgaars, get a good deal. Otherwise, Ace is the place.
I have only been to TSC once (for fasteners) since I stopped owing chickens, but they have a nice hand tool selection that I always stop to check out.
For the record Matt, this article reinforces my opinion that you should buy the Maverick. Just imagine how it would look in the parking lot!
I had the exact same thought!
Small and shiny compared to all the other vehicles in the lot?
LOL! thumbsup
Buy the cheapest oil you can find that matches your manufacturer’s requirements. Also, the author should try Cracker Barrel; it’s delicious and you can buy harmonicas and giant KitKats in the waiting area.
Full upfist on this. I buy the cheapest synthetic I can that meets or exceeds my OEM spec and is the proper viscocity. The spec’s on oil are enforced and store brand oil came from a major refinery regardless.
As a Canadian I’ve only been to cracker barrel once. It being a border away is good for my waistline. Pure comfort food.
I buy Rotella T6 and then use it in everything I own. It is nice that my vw and motorbikes can use the same oil. Also available at Rural King, most of the time.
I towed my GT6 on a dolly to an out-of-state Solo event last year. It was so bumpy and rattley that the bolts holding one of the bonnet latches shook loose and fell out. All three of them. If I hadn’t stopped when I did, I would have lost the whole latch.
I stopped at a TSC right on my route, and lo and behold, they had a 3 pack of the exact flat head bolts and nuts that I needed to replace them. They saved the day, and I bought two!
Those cars love to shake parts loose as you drive them too. Converting mine to electric got rid of most of the vibrations.
“The parts falling off this vehicle are of the finest British workmanship”
Once I get mine finished, I plan to use it as a daily. Getting rid of the gasoline ICE eliminates most(but not nearly all) of the car’s problems.
I live between two ponds and we have painted and snapping turtles all around, laying eggs, babies emerging, and everything. Last spring I found out that turtles kiss. Going down my driveway over a bridge spanning the culvert that connects the two ponds, I saw the female snapper laying eggs in the soil next to the walls of the bridge as she does every year and there was another snapping turtle with her and they looked like they were kissing. I looked it up later to confirm. It was like an old Disney cartoon—I actually stopped because I saw something crossing that was too low to be a squirrel, so I though a weasel or stoat, but it was too small. Anyway, I realized it was a painted turtle, then I saw the snappers, got out to get a pic and scared off a rabbit on the other side at the edge of the woods. Anyway, turtles are pretty cool, though I wish the snappers would take out more of the Canada geese.
Do they still sell toys/models there? Last time I stepped foot into a TSC was when I lived in Texas in the 1990s and I recall back then they had an interesting selection of toys, specifically Ertl trucks and equipment.
Is there any way we can get two things?
1) A Thomas Hundal article touring Princess Auto.
2) Princess Auto in the States.
Thank you
Obverse,
Canadian Tire, yes this.
https://www.theautopian.com/coffee-machines-gazebos-and-valve-gover-gaskets-welcome-to-canadian-tire/
And while I would LOVE having Harbor Freight in Canada, Princess Auto may be the happiest place on Earth (love the surplus section). And between them and Crappy Tire, they sell many of the same things with different brands stamped on them.
This article seems half-baked at best, and doesn’t include an in-depth tour of the purportedly pornographically sized Ottawa Canadian Tire.
Nor does it even mention Canadian Tire’s foray into clothing, such as Mark’s work wear house* (for workwear) and Healy Hansen, or all the peripheral stuff like Sport Check (for sports stuff), Party City (for party supplies), and chain of Canadian Tire fuel stations.
*is Mark’s work wear house supposed to be one word, two or three?
I think Thomas is in Toronto, which is a decent distance from the Ottawa stores. But hey, ROAD TRIP! If he did an Autopian meet-up there, I would go.
I live about 15 mins from that giant Canadian Tire and I have never been. I can get almost everything I need from the local one without risking getting lost in housewares.
And it’s Mark’s Work Wearhouse, or at least it was, because now it just seems to be Mark’s.
Road trip sounds very much “Auto”pian related – especially that it terminates at Canadian Tire.
I think all Canadians live about 15m from a Canadian Tire, it’s probably constitutionally mandatory for all Canadian cities of a certain size to be structured as such.
Fun Story.
Years ago, I worked in the US where we designed Retail Stores. Discount Tire was one of our clients. I took my boss across the border and told him that we should concentrate on Canadian Tire.
His eyes opened to the size of pie pans when I pulled up in the lot of the local Canadian Tire store. He couldn’t believe a tire store could be that large. I think we spent an hour wandering through it.
I’m not sure why you would wish for Harbor Freight – certainly there must be homegrown Canadian purveyors of garbage tools made in China, no?
Yep, there are: Canadian Tire and Princess Auto.
And Home Depot. And Rona. And Amazon. And Walmart…
Harbor Freight has plenty of actual useful things as well. It’s not all just garbage tools.
I know, but much of it is a complete waste of money.
Their solid rubber wheel chocks haven’t failed me yet, though. And their jacks are good (unlike their jackstands).
I own a harbor freight jack and it’s been great. But Harbor Freight has also saved my bacon before helping to move someone with cheap blankets, furniture sliders, a (tough) plastic cart, etc. And their bulk gloves are pretty good too.
To say nothing of their “good enough” hand tools for the lay person. Having a cheap, good enough tool is often fine if you won’t be using it a lot, and certainly more acceptable than not having it at all.
For a deep socket to throw on my breaker bar and leave in the car… works fine.
If you’re a professional wrencher, you probably won’t love HF, but for the rest of us…. their stuff is fine and a bunch of the Icon line is arguably excellent.
My main argument would be that plenty of people buy tools that are a COMPLETE waste of money because the tools rarely (or never) get used. At least with HF, it’s a complete waste of less money.
I knew a guy with a pet tortoise and the little guy was cool as hell. He gave it free reign to wander around the apartment with a kid fence to block off the stairway and he had a dog carrier or something set up with a heat pad when he wanted it. He ate vegetables from a dog bowl and would use a litter box like a cat, but with nowhere near as much volume or smell. Curious and friendly, he’d walk up and greet people, giving a funny kind of side eye as if evaluating you at first. He was a decent size (about the size of a football), but you still had to keep an eye out when walking around. Still I’m sure he was a lot more resilient than the ornamental dogs people have of about the same size, if not as capable of avoiding feet. Of course, the sort-of problem is that, while I think he was about 20 years old, he still had a number of decades left on him, so they’re a long term commitment for sure, even if the maintenance is low.
Turtles rock.
If you think TSC is awesome, please allow me to introduce you to the place where you Save Big Money at… Menards.
One stop for everything! Oil? Yup. Battery? Yup. Shingles? Flooring? Pole barn? Yes, yes, and yes. Don’t forget Christmas decorations, pool accessories, kids toys, chia pet, cookies, frozen pizza, nuts(the kind you eat and the kind you screw) shower stall and the spaghetti to go with it.
Menards is the place to go for a car battery. The exact same acdelco as oreilly’s had was $95 vs $180.
edit – and bottled water, a very important thing to have at a track for a race weekend.
They seem to be spreading East, first Menards I went to was in rural Illinois. Nearest to Pittsburgh is down in Wheeling WV. I think Morgantown WV has one too.
Hopefully they keep heading south from there.
Menards is my favorite place for odd nuts and bolts. They (almost) always seem to have the weird UNF crap I need when no one else does. Ace hardware, too.
I used to shop Menards all the time. Until I learned about John Menard. Fortunately, where I now live, there isn’t a Menards within 2,000 miles of my home.
Being from Wisconsin, it was always a moral dilemma. They just have a wayyy more “hardcore” selection of basically everything when compared to HD or Lowes.
They also have stuff that HD and Lowes simply don’t keep in stock, like well pumps and pressure tanks.
Yeah, I almost wish I hadn’t learned about John Menard.
I used to love those stores. Daisy chaining “free after rebate” offers for literally years was a favorite hobby. I spent that first $100 probably 25, maybe 30 times before I stopped shopping there.
Menards does seem to have things that are hard to find elsewhere, that really shouldn’t be that hard to find, so I still end up there now and then.
That’s my favorite race car store!
It’s the most reliable source for Grade 8 hardware in driving distance of most race tracks that I’ve found. The only downside is that you have to translate over from standard to metric for parsh, but between that and driving way the hell away for a Lowe’s or whatever, I’ll gamble on the conversion. Usually it’s for seats and junk, though. I hate mounting seats so much.
Also, sometimes they have baby chickens. Chickens!!! <3 <3 <3 Team Chicken approves.
I remember moving back home with a U-Haul truck and had my corn snake in the cage resting on the passenger floor. All of a sudden, it started going crazy, wedging its head under the cage lid in effort to pry it open, banging on the glass, trying to loosen the bolts that held th latch shut(it knew how to open the lid), rapidly flicking its tongue. That’s when I saw a sign that said “Baby chicks for sale”, and it was at a Tractor Supply Co.
I picked one up and that was one happy snake.
Why is mounting seats and harnesses so damn hard? Every…single…time there’s an issue requiring me to stick my hands in places they don’t fit.
it is a task not designed for humans or common human tools, and I hate it
My favorite thing they have is nuts and bolts sold by the pound… If only they carried metric 🙁
S E R I O U S L Y
I only have an affiliated dislike for TSC because one of their locations has contributed to the downfall of my grandparent’s feed & hardware store.
…but, I know that’s not a unique story.
Nonetheless I’ve never been in one.
Yeah, I hate this part. While I like TSC for the hardware selection, I’d always rather deal with a local store if I can find a good one. They’re usually way more interesting and helpful with stuff.
Jeeze, that seems like a lot of work – why didn’t you just get her an octopus instead?
As a turtle owner, if you haven’t purchased the tortoise yet, be sure you grasp that time commitment. The age they tell you is an average.
Case in point: Every red ear slider is listed as 20-25 years. I am the third caretaker of mine. I’ve had him ~26 years. The person before me had him for 5. The person before that had him “a couple” after yoinking him out of a pond. Minimum age: 33ish. Actual age:???
This tortoise is a pet you have to put in your will as a beneficiary.
Ironic, its not a great place for us Tractor owners. As for a place called Tractor Supply, they don’t often have supplies I need for said tractor. Plus, The local ACE up river usually has them beat by a couple bucks on most needs. Ever since they changed the Majic implement paint to that new stuff ain’t no reason to go there anymore. Hell, half the store is Carhart factory outlet at this point.
Okay, so I take it you’ve noticed TS kind of thinning out their herd in the past few years? I’m guessing it’s the logical progression of every big store. Could have sworn they had more actual tractor parts in the 20-teens
I’ve noticed at ours at least, as they expanded they’ve catered less to commercial Ag and more to hobbyist as this very exburb lifestyle brand. Which, I guess there are more of, so there’s that. TSC has always oddly not catered to the region there in, so it’s never been great. Like, ours use to sell commercial weight corn seed, and there isn’t a commercial corn operation within a 100 miles of here. They ain’t even doing that anymore.
Note, my wife is the farmer, I just own 50% of the farm and fix shit that breaks, so grain of salt.
Central Tractor Farm & Family Centers used to be a lot better for actual tractor stuff, then they went away. Not sure exactly what happened, think Tractor Supply might have bought them, or at least some of their real estate
Central Tractor was a terribly-run company. They regularly had problems with their vendors because they wouldn’t pay bills in a timely fashion and had a lot of trouble getting product. They actually bought the company I formerly worked for, Quality Farm & Fleet and claimed that QF&F’s management team would remain and would form the management team going forward. Not so much…they fired those who wouldn’t leave of their own accord and ruined QF&F’s good standing with their vendors. The whole organization eventually went bankrupt and shut down, with TSC buying many of the locations. Former CEO of QF&F has another successful farm supply store chain now that he rebuilt from the ground up.
I only know about the vendor relations side of things because my mom worked for a supplier to both QF&F and CT. Apparently the whole affair was a disaster in slow motion. Thankfully I’d moved on to a different company, the one I’ve been with for the past 20+ years.
They changed Majic implement paint?
Oh no!
What’s the go to cheap good paint now?
Changed in 2019 when they switched over to Rustoleum RIP. If you need cheap XORust has been alright for me. Wouldn’t spray it on anything I care to look good, doesn’t last nearly as long. I’ve been mainly sticking with Valspar, but at 17 bucks a can, can’t be liberal.
Hope the tortoise doesn’t run away. Just be prepared for a life time commitment as they list to about 60 years old.
I will need to check out the TSC near me.
My neighborhood is chock full of red ear turtles and ducks. Neither of those have any fur and you’re welcome to as many of them will fit in your Forester.
Lol, thank you!
You know why? Tractor Supply is also sneakily one of the last places that sells a lot of DIY hardware off-the-shelf. The Megacorp Auto Parts places really abandoned that market long ago, and Pep Boys closing down all their performance parts sides of the store was one more nail in the coffin.
Even most hardware stores have just become furniture/home goods stores with an aisle or two of screws. I enjoy going to TS simply because you can still buy enough parts to just assemble your own mower deck on the spot, and their tool aisles make Harbor Freight nervous.
Hell the other day I walked in with a 12″ miter saw blade and asked to try test fitting it on their various mower deck spindle kits. After the looks of “…” wore off of the nice lady she showed me where the mower parts were and I found out that a 1″ arbor saw blade will actually fit on Cub Cadet and Husqvarna spindles which have the funny flower shape hub, just needing a spacer. What I do with this information is between me, God, and my life insurance provider.
I really hope this place doesn’t get Private Equity’d to shit too.
Also, my nearest TS is 10 minutes from my nearest McMaster-Carr warehouse and both are 15 minutes from me. I can build any machine I want with one shopping trip. There is immense power in this state of being.
I can’t imagine living next to a mcmaster-carr warehouse. That would be amazing. And really really expensive for me.
seriously jelly
I call it “Saturday Morning McMaster-Carr-toons” when I place an order Friday night for some random thing I’m working on and merrily drive over in the morning to pick it up. If I’m in the middle of a build season, it’s basically every weekend.
A nontrivial amount of equity in the selection of where I ended up buying a place was proximity to McMaster. My realtor said I was one of the most interesting people to find a house for since I was basically looking for a machine shop with living quarters.
(This ended up being advantageous, because I could leverage desperate sellers with houses that normies would walk from due to things like electrical problems or bad fit & finish renovations. My house has ALL of those, and I used the ~$15000 quote from an electrician to beat them senseless then did all the work myself)
I support this action.
DIY stump grinder?
So imagine a rural person explaining to a city person how they found this cool place called Starbucks where you can get all kinds of coffee and they have WiFi and mugs and stuff for sale. Thats what this sounds like to those of us who live in rural areas.
What I really want in the South is Menards.
If this whole “engineering” thing doesn’t pan out, I may just open a Menards.
Alas, they’re not keen on franchisees. And that’s my go-to hardware store, so not sure how I’d cope living somewhere without it.
Ol’ Johnny Menard is slowly turning into powder so I’m sure I could talk him into it….
Same reason I wanted to open the West Coast’s first Waffle House in Portland when I lived there.
Fair. I sort of expected this response, although TSC has definitely leaned way more towards Millennials who moved out of the city.
TSC’s business exploded with the pandemic and people moving out of cities. Their slogan became “Life Out Here”. Last year I caught an interview with the CEO on CNBC and he wouldn’t stop finding new ways to use “Life Out Here” in his replies to questions from the Squawk Box hosts.
This is why I love living far enough outside of Chicago that I have suburbs on one corner and cornfields on the other. I can scoot down to the local Ace Hardware for some nuts and bolts, Blain’s Farm & Fleet for a generator, Menards to fix my stupid broken dryer again, and to Starbucks for a strawberry acai lemonade all in the same trip. 🙂
HAHAHAHA. This is a perfect description of how I felt reading this article. I enjoy TSC, but CAL ranch fits my needs better sometimes.
Came here for this. My folks got a place in East Idaho a few years ago and I ended up staying there for a few weeks to sort it out. CAL Ranch was a revelation. The landscaping was borked and they had a better selection of sprinkler stuff than HD or Lowe’s. Farm stuff, yard stuff, clothing, sporting goods, those animal figurines my mom buys for my niece (but really for herself)? Check, check, check, check, check. My favorite find was the grizzly-sized cans of bear repellant on sale as a “Back to School Special”. Uphill both ways in the snow, you say? What about BEARS?
Yeah, I’m sitting here wondering where the hell he’s been going all this time to buy his jeans, trailer tires, and ash vacuums? Does Dollar General have that stuff?
IDK, man. The big* cities by Mom’s with the Tractor Supply stores have a Starbucks nowadays.
*at least four digits of population, I’d reckon
“…this cool place called Starbucks…”
Hey, I’ve seen those here in Seattle, too!
Starbuck ain’t the place if you want good coffee or to save money.