The 1947 - Present Chevrolet & GMC Truck Message Board Network - View Single Post - Qa1 ball joints just came in. Good replacements?

Stepper86 · 02-20-2012, 05:20 PM

Quote: QA1 has developed a line of ball joints to accommodate the most demanding applications. This new patented design addresses impact loading, self-lubrication and severe environmental elements. Alloy steel wear rings are interlaced with an acetal liner to provide an extended wear life over conventional automotive style ball joints. Introduced in 2004, these products are becoming the standard OE parts in the ATV, Snowmobile, Electric Vehicle and Commercial Lawn and Garden industries.

So you should be fine as long as you stay on your lawn

Sorry I could not help it, it was the first thing that came up when I Google´d them.

I think racing parts in general have a shorter life span than street parts because how durable they are is not that important. They have to be light and still as strong as possible, hense they preform well on a race car that gets serviced after every race and have it´s parts swapped as soon as the crew even suspect that they might be worn.
Street parts are made to last long and be able to survive even if the owner of the car takes zero interrest in maintaining his car. So the engineers can use material with higher density and don´t have to care about the weight so much.

I have no proof that this is accualy the case, but it kind of makes sense if you think about it as a manufacturer. Race parts will be expencive because you produce smaller series, but the customer will buy new parts from you even if they are expensive as long as his car preformes good during the laps that he was promised when he bought the part.

If your new daily driver is put together with parts that starts to fail after 1 year, not only will it be costly for the manufacturer to repair your car under warranty/recall , you will most likely tell your friends and neighburs that the car or the parts are crap and that they should take their buisness some were else.
I think it´s hard to combine Race parts with street use if you are not willing to make a compromise on the life span of the parts. they are built for totaly diffrent purposes.

02-20-2012, 05:20 PM	#2
Stepper86 Registered User Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Stockholm Posts: 263	Re: Qa1 ball joints just came in. Good replacements? Quote: QA1 has developed a line of ball joints to accommodate the most demanding applications. This new patented design addresses impact loading, self-lubrication and severe environmental elements. Alloy steel wear rings are interlaced with an acetal liner to provide an extended wear life over conventional automotive style ball joints. Introduced in 2004, these products are becoming the standard OE parts in the ATV, Snowmobile, Electric Vehicle and Commercial Lawn and Garden industries. So you should be fine as long as you stay on your lawn Sorry I could not help it, it was the first thing that came up when I Google´d them. I think racing parts in general have a shorter life span than street parts because how durable they are is not that important. They have to be light and still as strong as possible, hense they preform well on a race car that gets serviced after every race and have it´s parts swapped as soon as the crew even suspect that they might be worn. Street parts are made to last long and be able to survive even if the owner of the car takes zero interrest in maintaining his car. So the engineers can use material with higher density and don´t have to care about the weight so much. I have no proof that this is accualy the case, but it kind of makes sense if you think about it as a manufacturer. Race parts will be expencive because you produce smaller series, but the customer will buy new parts from you even if they are expensive as long as his car preformes good during the laps that he was promised when he bought the part. If your new daily driver is put together with parts that starts to fail after 1 year, not only will it be costly for the manufacturer to repair your car under warranty/recall , you will most likely tell your friends and neighburs that the car or the parts are crap and that they should take their buisness some were else. I think it´s hard to combine Race parts with street use if you are not willing to make a compromise on the life span of the parts. they are built for totaly diffrent purposes. __________________ Tom.______________________________________ The fleet: 2007 BMW 530xi M (daily driver) 1986 C-10 Stepside (project "my time") 1992 Corvette cab (summer time daily driver) 1969 Cadilac DeVille Cab ("it just need some paint")