Aluminum strut rods on the street?

-
rmchrgr

rmchrgr

Skate And Destroy
Joined
Apr 15, 2008
Messages
3,963
Reaction score
1,113
Location
Stamford, CT
Anyone use aluminum strut rods on the street? Mancini sells 'em, they look good. They are larger diameter than the steel ones but they claim they're lighter and stronger. I don't have a problem with steel ones, I just like the idea of lighter parts.

I am however a little uncertain about using these on a street/strip car, just not sure if they would be adequate for regular NY area driving.

Thanks for any input.
 
The Mancini strut rods were originally sourced from CAP, although they were bought out by QA1 so I assume they're the source now.

Regardless, I have a set I purchased from CAP on my Challenger. They've been on the car for over 3 years now, and closing in on 40k miles of street driving. No issues so far. Probably the only CAP product that wasn't a disaster.

If I were going to buy another set though, I'd get them from Badart. Not because there's anything wrong with the Mancini ones, just because I'd rather give him the business. His are steel, and priced better too. :D

http://www.dillingerchassis.com/product/adjustable-strut-rods/
 
Sorry, no way...

I won't even run those on a drag car. Stick with steel or moly.
 
crackedback said:
Sorry, no way...

I won't even run those on a drag car. Stick with steel or moly.
Click to expand...

Your opinion.

Nothing wrong with the aluminum ones. I drive the crap out of my car, dirt roads, pot holes, rain, shine, snow etc, and have had no issues with these. Which is not something I can say about some of my other suspension components- these strut rods have survived the failure of a weld on one of my CAP lower control arms, as well as outlasted the rod ends on my Hotchkis UCA's (only 7k miles on those, replaced by Hotchkis at no cost to me).

That said, compared to the set of moly adjustable strut rods I bought for my Duster, there isn't a ton of weight savings with the aluminum strut rods. Both the moly and aluminum version are quite a bit lighter than the original strut rods, but by comparison the aluminum ones have a thicker wall than the moly ones do, so there isn't as much weight savings as you might think vs the steel strut rods.

I'd still buy Badart's stuff though vs Mancini's/QA1's, he does great work and I'd rather support another FABO member.

**UPDATE**

rmchrgr said:
Thanks but was only looking for the normal type, not the adjustable style.

So one yay, one nay. Anyone else?
Click to expand...

Sorry, didn't see that. I was referring to the adjustable style, wasn't aware that Mancini had a non-adjustable aluminum style strut rod. No experience with those, but I don't see the point. The tubular adjustable style in aluminum or moly is probably just as light, and the real advantage to the aftermarket strut rods is their adjustability, not their weight anyway. Unlike the original style you can actually use the adjustables with poly or nylon LCA bushings and still maintain the proper adjustment on the strut rods. I wouldn't use the stock strut rods on anything other than perfectly stock LCA's with stock rubber bushings. Even then, I think an argument can be made for the adjustable strut rods because you can adjust them to the proper tension regardless of your suspension set up, factory tolerances (lack thereof) etc.

These are the ones you're talking about right?

chucker54_2239_85288472


From Mancini:

• Aluminum struts are CNC machined to correct length and tolerances using 7075-T651 material and are .875 inch diameter compared to about .700 for the original steel struts

• Weight is 36 percent as much as the equivalent amount of steel

• These struts are stronger and lighter than the original steel components.
 
72bluNblu said:
These are the ones you're talking about right?

chucker54_2239_85288472
Click to expand...

Yep, them's the ones. Basically doing a stock front end rebuild on my Duster in the coming weeks. I have all OE-type (Moog) rubber bushings including new strut rod bushings.

I thought about re using the old ones but they're just old and frankly, the front end on my car has seen better days. I'm sure the strut rods have been bearing the brunt of all sorts of unnatural forces being applied to them due to worn out parts.

Just a better mousetrap I suppose. Again though, I like the weight savings, (however minimal) especially unsprung weight on the front of the car. I have aluminum tie rod adjuster sleeves, they're a pound lighter than the OE steel ones.

I really can't argue for any big gain vs. price on these things or any part that comes out with an 'updated' design. Every little bit counts though and if given the choice to spend a little more coin on a lighter part vs. an OE style deal, I'd probably go with the lighter one. I do try to do that as much as possible in other areas, just seems to make sense to me to lighten the car as much as possible (within reason and safely of course).
 
What's the fatigue rate/life of that aluminum vs. steel? Is the thread hole heli-coiled? What about the threaded end that you can't do anything about other than run a nut on it?

I still think this is a bad place to try and save weight. People run aluminum wheel adapters too... smart? Not to me.

BTW, I believe JD was selling three materials for his adjustable strut rod, now he has two... and aluminum is not one of them any more. I wonder why.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top