Hi,
Counterfeit high grade nuts, bolts, and other fasteners are a really big
problem. Factories try to cut corners to make more profit or they have a
defective load of fasteners that they try to pass off as quality. There are
so many fastener factories that it's easy to get away with doing this. It's
the fastener distributor's job to ensure that the product they are selling is
quality. They track down defective product and examine it. Then they put out
bulletins describing how to identify the latest bunch of defective fasteners.
However, there are always defective fasteners floating around and most of
them end up in places that have a huge tolerance for the defective product,
like hardware stores.
As far as finding "made in the USA" fasteners, it doesn't matter. The best
quality industrial products come from overseas anyway. Although, you could
also say that the lowest quality also comes from there. Instead, buy your
fasteners from a very reputable distributor, like a dedicted nut& bolt store
that deals in high volume. The only problem is that you often have to buy a
minimum purchase, like $20. This can be hard to do if all you need is 4
1/2-13X4" bolts and nuts for your leaf springs. You can also mail order
fasteners from places like graingers, McMaster-Carr, or ARP and be pretty
confident you're getting quality stuff. However, the best way to go is to get
to know someone in industry that works around nuts and bolts. Around my
house, we throw away anything that isn't grade 8 or stainless. In fact, I can
only remember keeping grade 5 fasteners around once. I kept a handful of
grade 5 5/16-18 bolts around for the shear pin in the rototiller on my
Kubota. Now there's overseas quality- I tried as hard as I could to kill that
tractor and it took everything I threw at it! The most important thing is to
know how to I.D. fastener grades and types. Never go into a nut & bolt store
if you don't know the lingo. You'll just make their job difficult for a sale
that they will probably loose money on. Don't go in and ask for " Those
locknuts with the plastic on one side." Also, always use the same grade
fasteners with each other, nuts, bolts, washers, everything must be the same
grade on an assembly. I know alot about this stuff. Let me know if you have
any more questions.
Dustin
50 & 53 GMC 1/2 tons
Antonio wrote,
On the same token, I have been getting "Grade 8" bolts, nuts and washers at
the
local ACE hardware store. I had one washer fail and went back to the hardware
store and checked the box where the bolts, nuts and washers came in and at the
bottom of the box is the following:
"Packaged in the US with parts made in any of the following countries: Japan,
China, Taiwan and India." Are these bolts really Grade 8?. Are they being
tested
and confirmed to be Grade 8? I have been using these for my truck and I am
starting to ger scare. What happens if the bolts I used for the motor mounts
fail? or any of the other ones I used while rebuilding the truck, engine and
other truck components?
Is there another source to get real Grade 8 made in the old USA bolts and
nuts?
Thanks,
Antonio,
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