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