At 2100 miles, I ditched the OEM LT265/70R17 Michelin LTX A/S's in favor of some LT285/70R17 Firestone Destination A/T's. Due to a couple of road trips, I was unable to rotate them until tonight, and the odometer was at 8325 miles (they have about 6200 miles on'em).

The tires were installed at the S&S Tire in Lexington, KY. where I work, and they've been great. I've tweaked the air pressure as needed for a couple of contract hauling jobs (vehicles primarily) and the wear pattern on them is great.

After rounding up my air gun, socket, torque wrench, floor jack, and jack stands, I started by popping off the center caps.

The first one popped off quite easily; never really thought much about it. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th ones came off with an equal amount of ease.

Upon further investigation, I discover the retaining clip mechanisms are now made out of plastic ! My '03 RAM 2500 Quad Cab Sport had the oem alloys w/silver caps---the retaining clips were metal. I later sold them and purchased some polished forged alloys from an '05, and the retaining clips were metal as well.

Anyone know for sure when the bean*counters at DC decided to ditch the metal retaining clip mechanisms (that really grip) and switch over to the plastic retaining clip mechanisms (that will probably crap*out after a few removals and installs) ? I'm certain that DC probably saved $0.15 per cap by going plastic.

Greg

 

Must be an 07.5 and up thing the ones on my 07 are metal...

 

Mine is from 12/06 and has the plastic.

 

Yours was the last batch of 2007 5.9's mine was a June '06 build date. Those 12/06 built 5.9 trucks also got the good g56 trans with the slightly higher sixth gear ratio like in the current 6.7L trucks. If the plastic ones give out on you the good ones with metal rings can be had from ebay for pretty cheap. I lost a hubcap and bought a replacement there for $17.