Auto Locking Hubs and Center Caps

[Snowbound]

I was thumbing through a bunch of pictures and noticed that a lot of F250s have solid center caps on the front wheels of a 4WD truck and some have the open center cap that exposes the hub. So, my question is, do people just leave auto locking hubs alone and put on a solid center cap for the look?

I ask because my current wheels have the open center cap. I just bought a set of used wheels, and all the center caps are solid. On the hub itself, it says lock and auto. So, I assume I have the auto locking hubs. Can I use those solid caps or should I just leave it open with no center cap at all?

[bigd4x4]

Mine are manual hubs and I have them covered. The only time I use 4wd is in the sand and snow and I have plenty of time to prepare for both. My covers are held on with one screw so it only takes an extra 30 seconds to lock them. Doesn't really matter when it takes 10 minutes or more to air down.

[Michelle]

I have solid covers in the Summer for the look. During the winter I put the original wheels back on with the open center caps. I have auto hubs, but in the winter I lock them in when I am plowing.

[Snowbound]

So, I guess all those people with the solid center caps just do it for the look, huh? Well, Winter is right around the corner and I plan to head up to the snow often, so I suppose I will run them open until the season is over. I wonder if the open caps from my old wheels will work on the new wheels. I'll have to try them out.

[99gt]

Not to hi-jack the thread but what are the advantages of actually manually locking the hubs over just leaving them in auto?

[Michelle]

I have found that when you have the hubs in the "Lock" setting on the hub the hubs are functioning like a manual locking hub and you do not have the delay that you would normally get with the hub when it is in the "auto" position. When you are pushing snow and plowing you do not want to have this delay because when the auto hub finally locks in it will bang in real hard and it is just the risk of breaking things. That is my experience with using these hubs and I have not had any problems.