Day in and day out, commercial vehicles endure more stress than the average Sunday driver. Trucks, SUVs and other off-road vehicles haul harsh and heavy materials, trudge through rocky and uneven construction sites, and barrel up and down unfinished roads and highways en route to the next job. Without a stout chassis, not only is the driver and truck at risk—the job itself is also at the mercy of the road, the elements, and the long-term stress on the vehicle. Ensure uncompromised quality and repeat customers with Duralast Chassis.
The Duralast Chassis line provides OE handling, comfort and performance that helps improve ride quality, no matter where the road takes you.
Duralast Quality Starts with Rigorous Testing
All Duralast Chassis parts undergo extreme terrain and “torture testing” during development to ensure every Duralast part meets or exceeds OEM standards for performance. They are masterfully designed with heavy-gauge steel and resilient components to deliver reduced component wear, loose joints, suspension play, as well as improve ride quality.
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Stud and Housing Tests: The main structural features ensuring a stout chassis undergo a variety of intense torture tests. The manufacturing team coats the studs and housing in a phosphate coating to bolster corrosion resistance and protect the chassis from the elements. Similar strength testing in regards to chassis hardness and fortitude ensure a seamless frame using the latest spectrometer technology to determine the correct metallurgical strength. Last, a high-definition profilometer checks surface roughness on the polished ball studs to the microscopic level, ensuring no surface—no matter how small—is overlooked.
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Joint Durability Tests: Tie rods and follower ball joints undergo a rigorous three-axis gyroscope test, ensuring maximum torque and mobility where the chassis needs it most. Compression and tension-loaded ball joints undergo even more strenuous workouts during five-axis torture testing. Once approved, the entire structure undergoes fatigue testing to ensure maximum performance long after the pieces have been installed, ensuring like-new status on every repair.
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Extreme Temperature Boot Tests: The boot undergoes rigorous and repetitive testing to guarantee maximum long-term durability. Repeated exposure to various ozone conditions verifies proper, like-new resistance to harsh atmospheres. The boot is also media-blasted with a rough salt/slurry mixture, bracing each Duralast Chassis against the harshest conditions imaginable.
Hardened Studs (left): Induction hardening adds 50% more fatigue durability.
Larger Ball (left center): More surface area better distributes the suspension load.
Integrated Bearing (right center): Unique engineering eliminates failure point and holds larger ball.
Zerk Fitting (right): Contains premium grease, serviceability extends life of ball joint.
Duralast Gold: Tougher Through Technology™
From front to back, Duralast Gold Chassis parts are engineered to be Tougher through Technology™ and deliver greater durability and long-lasting quality for the hardest-working trucks, SUVs and fleet vehicles in the market.
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Hardened studs undergo induction processes to add 50 percent more fatigue durability.
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Duralast Gold Chassis also includes larger balls than the competition to more evenly distribute the suspension loads that truck and fleet vehicles come with and are required to withstand. Duralast Gold ball joints are built for the harshest conditions and heaviest loads. A case study featuring 2006–2010 Ford Explorers found that Duralast Gold ball diameters are larger by 12 percent and have 25 percent more surface area.
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Integrated bearings help eliminate failure-point fatigue and friction to hold the larger ball securely and better absorb all impacts, keeping the ride and connection firm and smooth. Competitors’ ball joints use bearing inserts that require smaller balls with less load-bearing surface.
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Greasable high strength integrated bearing design for longer service life and most components are greasable and come with a zerk fitting, containing high-performance grease, significantly extending the life of the ball joint over the competition.
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Superior corrosion-resistant coatings prolong service life. Consistency of corrosion protection varies with some competitors using low corrosion-resistant coatings while others offer no coatings whatsoever. Features like useful grab points, large wrenching flats and knurled housings offer efficient and dependable installation.
From A to Zerk, Duralast and Duralast Gold Chassis provides OE or better quality and performance, restoring vehicles to like-new status. It starts with innovative design and rigorous testing and ends with quality parts at competitive prices.
