2007 2500 and 3500 SRW Center Caps.

[gsbrockman]

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

 

[rbattelle]

WOW, that stinks! They are really pinching pennies with these late model trucks.

I had the opportunity to look over an '06 in the spring and I was appalled at how cheap they had become. Examples: the load floor and the tie-down cleats in the bed.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the '06-up trucks are great! But they really went cheap on the bits and pieces.

Remember the disastrous plastic intercooler ends?

Steel is pretty expensive these days, since the communists and the Indians are buying it up like there's no tomorrow! I'm sure the engineers at Dodge are being hounded to reduce metal content.

Personally, I'd rather see them go to plastic body panels rather than the little things. At least then you would know the body wouldn't rust.

Ryan