Fasteners

Fasteners come in all styles. When you are talking about frame mounted components on trucks it is narrowed down to two styles, huck bolts with collars, and threaded bolts using nuts.

Huck bolts are swaged. This takes a tool (a huck gun) to pull the bolt through the collar, resulting in a specific, and measurable, clamp load. This clamp load remains constant. When you need to remove a huck for some sort of item relocation, it must be cut off. Huck makes a tool for cutting the collar, grinding, or torching is no longer required.

Bolts and nuts come in various thread pitches. The finer the tread, the more contact the bolt has with the nut. The nut is turned onto the bolt using a wrench to define to specific torque value. It is important to note two things here, 1) there is no correlation between a torque value and a clamp load, and 2) torque backs off as the nut is loosened by vibration.

Both products work equally well, and both carry unique advantages. While a nut and bolt assembly will loosen, regular maintenance (retightening every year) should be sufficient to maintain correct fastener load. You can avoid the maintenance by utilizing hucks, but if your customer moves a component by cutting off the huck then replaces the fastener with a nut and bolt, then you are introducing unexpected maintenance.

This can be a customer preference, and truck OEs utilize different standard fasteners, though many offer both. Take the time to understand what the customer desires, ask if they have had issues with broken crossmembers or frames, and understand what their maintenance expectations are.