Grade 8 Bolts

[tiger422]

Watch out for chinese hardware it is not up to us standards size and strength could be off.
I have found this many times I buy from local bolt supplier and ask for US bolts when its important.

 

[DavidWymore]

We sell bolts at my shop. I don't know where my purchasing guy gets them, but it's from a local distributor for an American CO. There is a FXstXnXl across the street. I have had customers (US Gypsum) tell me their bolts broke and ours didn't under testing after they had some issues with breakage.

 

[m16ty]

Fastenal does have stuff that can't be found locally somewhere else and that's about the only time I deal with them. They have some high quality stuff but it's overpriced compaired to what you can find elsewhere. They also have some not so good stuff (most of the fastenal branded tools).

 

[vinny-socom1]

why aren't we useing duck tape??

or WD40??


Vinny

 

[cranetruck]

Who makes the "Caterpillar" grade 8 bolts?

Got some grade 8s from McMasters and they are marked with the manufacturer's name, "Rockford".....

 

[swbradley1]

I posted this exact same titled thread a few weeks ago. I can appreciate everyone's opinion about the quality of this vendor's bolts versus that vendor's bolts but at the end of the day do any of us have the testing facilities to test them?

Barring repeatable testing in a lab setting what do you have left? Empirical data based on reports and actual usage in the real world which means word of mouth.

I have only seen one "sort of" failure and that was George's Deuce bumper at Haspin this year. I heard that it was a single bolt on the driver's and not all the bolts were installed. If that is the case that bolt held up well considering the Deuce was big time stuck in the mud and Oilcan got a few feet of running start trying to pull him out with his 818 and "bingo" the Deuce's bumper gave way.

I use TSC bolts in everything I have. I never replace one bolt when I rebuild something. I replace them all at the same time. My tractor, backhoe and everything I own get nice and purdy new bolts when I work on them. No failures and have only had one back off the lockwasher once and that is my fault because of improper torque application.

A quick search of the Internet (Google) produced no results for TSC bolts failing.

After reading this:

ROCKCRAWLER.com - Grade 5 vs. Grade 8 Fasteners

(Thanks Gimp)

I feel a lot better about knowing the technical details about bolt performance.

Bottom line, would I trust my life with TSC bolts? Yes, and I do.

If I'm wrong, in lieu of flowers make a donation to the SS website.

sw

 

[Speddmon]

swbradley1, well said. I'm sure most of us work in or are around situations where the quality of the bolts makes a world of difference. I know I am. Most of the things I see are from the engineers who design equipment, and use the smallest bolt with the most strength to keep things light and cheap, or someone would never buy it.

I don't really think that's the case with the trucks we're dealing with. From what I've seen these beasts were OVERBUILT! If a bolt would happen to fail on a deuce or CUCV, I would have to think that there was some other cause behind the failure, IE...loose fasteners, missing other bolts or something of that nature. For my money and property, I use the TSC stuff all the time, and am more than satisfied with the quality. Just my

 

[PorscheTech911]

Im a HUGE fan of Cat bolts, I use them to replace PORSCHE oem bolts! They are that much better and I've not had a failure yet. Cat makes awesome products, its a shame they are stopping over the road diesel engine production. They are great to work on.

 

[Parker2]

I love Tractor Supply. It's a great store and I often use their grade 8 bolts with confidence.

 

[Snarky]

I use Tractor Supply bolts bought in bulk quite often. If I have a weird bolt I need, or need to be absolutely sure it's not going to fail I go to Brazos Fasteners, but you can't beat TSC for the price, and usually the application I put those bolts in make quality a non-issue. Example: Buying 50 bolts to replace the rusted fasteners in my bows 5-6$~. However when it comes to stuff like suspension parts? I use NAPA or Brazos Fasteners.

 

[Nonotagain]

I'm posting this agian as ther was a mis understanding on my text color.

Among the many job assignments that I have, testing of fasteners was one of them.

A local company back in the 1980's was selling the aerospace company that I work for a large portion of the Military specification fasteners we used.

As a part of the process, we required certifications from the manufacturer/supplier, certifying the materials used meets the requirements for composition and strength.

We by specification are/were required to performed tensile testing, and spectroscopy to determine the composition of the fastener, corrosion resistance testing as well as hardness testing.

All of a sudden, two out of three lots of the fasteners received failed tensile testing. Photo spectroscopy analysis did not match the known standard for A286 steel. Salt spray testing for corrosion resistance also failed.

Within a month or so, the FBI and the FAA were involved and raided the supplier. Found during the search was a set of head stamps, falsified invoices for fasteners and a bucket of yellow dye to color their fasteners to appear as if they were cadmium plated.

I can't speak for the quality of fasteners specified by Cat, but a mil-spec grade 8 fastener is the same no matter who the supplier is. Cat probably has their own specification for a mil-spec equivalent fastener however they may require a higher tensile yield.

Just last weekend I visited Home Depot and purchased some 5/16-18 grade 8 fasteners. The packages were marked "Made in the USA", not China.

 

[jasonjc]

Does any one know who the JM head stamp belongs to??

 

[AaronW]

Does any one know who the JM head stamp belongs to??

I'm checking into that marking for you. It may just be a factory code in China.

*confirmed*-Just heard back from my company's research specialist. JM is just a generic bolt factory in China. This could be sold to any number of repackers here or abroad.

 

[jasonjc]

I got to thinking about this the other day when I stocked up on bolts at TSC.
So I went out and looked thought my hoard of hardware to see what it was, too find:

Most of the 1/4" 5/16" had a JH head stamp.

The 3/8" had a mix of TY , a "S' that looked like the superman S

The 1/2" had a soild triangle which in another thread is said to be "Infasco" and some with the above "S" that looks more like two triangles bottom to bottom with a pice of the side missing to look like a "S"

So it's like those packs you get at some places that say that the contents may have come from and list 6-10 countrys.

 

[hndrsonj]

One thing to consider also is that TSC sells only coarse threaded products in Grade 8. Most are fine thread on the deuce.

 

[doghead]

Hmm, which is stronger? a grade 8 coarse thread bolt, or a grade 8 fine thread bolt?

 

[73m819]

fine, the bolt is the same, the connection, using fine threads are stronger

 

[Westech]

fine

 

[doghead]

I knew that, I just wanted to make people think.

 

[wldrbob]

if you want a real good bolt order some L9 they are around 180000 tensile st. expensive but worth it . i use them on the backhoe when a grade 8 breaks i replace it with them ,so far no more breaking with L9s