Replacing the center wheel caps on Roadtrek Sprinter RV

Sometimes, RV troubles can come from those we entrust our vehicles to for repairs.

Such was my experience a couple of weeks ago when I took my Roadtrek Etrek in for new tires.
I went to a large tire retailer and service center near by home, where six Michelin LTX M/S2 tires were installed, replacing the originals which, after 51,000 miles had done a great job.

We had lots of travel on schedule and lots of time away so, while I probably could have gotten a few thousand more miles on the originals, I opted to go new so it was one less thing to think about during the rest of our summer travels.

The problem was when I returned to pick the vehicle up.

The mechanic had ruined the rear center caps that went over the lug nuts.

The service manager said they couldn't figure out how to get them off so they called a Mercedes dealer for advice.

“They told us they had seized on and they we had to pry them off,” the service manager said. He offered to reimburse me for the cost of the covers, which are supplied by Roadtrek.

Pry them off they did! They ripped them off. Fortunately, just the covers themselves were damaged.

How that happened I don't know. I think they must have tried squeezing or twisting or hammering to get them off when all they really should have done is simply pull… straight back.

Fortunately, it happened to be that I was headed to the Roadtrek factory in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada a couple of days later.

So while there, I hooked up with my buddy RT Campskunk and he demonstrated the proper way to attach and remove the center caps.

Why my tire dealer had such an issue is beyond me.

But in the interest of preventing that form happening to you, here's Campskunk showing us the proper technique.

You may have different covers and caps for your wheels, depending on the model. But it might be a good idea to make sure you know how to get yours off so you can avoid the issues I had. This is how the caps work on Roadtreks with the Sprinter chassis.

I plan to show the video below  to my tire dealer.