Depends on your application profile. Do you life in hot areas? Cold areas? Do you tow heavy loads? Do you tow a lot or a little?
Example - I live in far northern U.S. I tow moderate loads (7,000 pounds) a number of times a year in the summer. Where I live, outside temp goes from -20F to +100F routinely, annually. And I just towed this weekend (snowmobiles) which are only 600 lbs each, but temperature ranges from 0F to +25F.
I run 5W-30 in summer. If I lived in hot area year round, and / or I towed heavy loads, I would run 5W-40. In winter I run 0W-30. Red Line, to date (I have inventory).
One size does not fit all, hence this Forum of knowledgeable industry folk to assist. There are quite a few people here with more experience than the factory people of today.
I do no towing whatsoever. I live in summer year round (snowbird). I change my oil/filter (with my hands) evey 3k miles or 6 months, whichever comes first (never gone more than 3k miles). My strategy is simply to do everything possible (other than not driving the vehicle
), to prevent the dreaded hemi-tick -- incuding no idling, best filter (Fram XG2), best oil, etc. I'm just looking for confirmation that Red Line is still viewed as the best oil for the hemi (I base "best" on an aggregation of the 3,000+ posts that I've read here and other sites), so if there IS suddenly something better - I'm always listening and wanting to know!!
I'm also (unfortunately) a believer that the Chrysler Engineers do NOT by themselves, call the shots with regards to oil recommendations - there are some other forces at work here .... just based on my 30 yrs experience as an Engineer in a LARGE US Healthcare Company -- all decisions are not based on longevity of the product. (I could be wrong, but I think I'm err'ing on the safe side)
I know ... perhaps a bit excessive - some would even say wasteful, but hey there's lots of worse things to burn $$$ on.
I really appreciate conversing with folks on the Ram Forum site!
Thanks!
John