Are heavy duty tie rod ends worth it?

Titus1531

Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2019
Messages
29
Location
Birmingham, AL
Hey guys,
I bent my tie rod end not long ago, replace it with the Rough Country tie rod. I didn't, however, switch the ends out because my fuel pump needed switching out and budget wouldn't allow it. It's always bugged me. Should I spring for heavy duty tie rod ends, or just replace with something cheaper. It's my DD unless it's raining, and I wheel it but I am in Alabama and it's mostly just mud and hills. No rock crawling. No lift, it's on 31's. Thanks!
 
MADE IN USA is worth it, some moog is offshored and some is domestic, the domestic is what you want to install.
 
MADE IN USA is worth it, some moog is offshored and some is domestic, the domestic is what you want to install.
And how can you tell which is which on RockAuto.com? Do they list that information on all items? If so I will have to pay more attention.
 
Ok to go against the grain a bit. The country of origin does not matter in terms of the quality of the part. The brand, in this case Moog, decides the standard of quality they want to put their name too. Being made in the USA does not guarantee quality, consider the US auto industry in the 70's and 80's. In general they produced crap. I doubt Moog has two sets of standards they will accept, one for on shore the other for off shore. IMO Moog has a quality rep. trust them and don't worry about the box.
 
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I bought all the stock parts. Moog. When they got here the tie rod had threads sooo light that the ends couldn't thread on. Both sides. The lht end was cross threaded near the end and the rht end had threads damaged half way up that would probably not thread in properly. Don't know for sure because the threading on the tie rod was so poor. Then I changed to the 1 ton set up. Still Moog. Every part was perfect. Threaded up great. The difference was night and day. So it would seem they do have differing quality levels.
 
FWIW, they do have CK (premium) vs R/RK (economy) lines - I haven't seen those options though when scouting tie rods/ends. I'm doing all CK for my control arm swap for not too much more $