New proper nuts on the left...junk from Britpart on the right...Nothing is more frustrating to me than realizing a product I purchased is of inferior quality. I recently bought new parabolic leaf springs for the land rover (from Britpart), and the nuts they included with the U-bolts were substandard to say the least. They appear unhardened, and two of them stripped when applying a modest amount of torque (yes, yes...I used a torque wrench!). As they came from an overseas supplier (Britpart), who has not responded to my emailed concern, it is not terribly convenient to simply return them. The threading of said nuts and U-bolts is of a strange specification as well, and no north american fastner company seems able to supply nuts only to fit. So I replaced the u-bolts with locally supplied product, which came with proper longer nuts, which engage by a full 10 threads...bring on the torque wrench! The shoddy nuts engaged by a mere four threads, and being unhardened it's a wonder they could take any torque at all! It seems foolish to me to save perhaps $5 on a $650 product by substituting junk fastners, but as a friend pointed out to me, if they (Britpart) sell 1000 sets a year they are saving $5000 annually. Maybe so, but I won't be following this business model anytime soon. Do it once, do it right and move on. Did I mention Britpart was the supplier?
