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The price difference between the grades used to be significant. I remember paying $10 per bolt for GR 8 to replace my cab hardware ($60 just for the cab bolts). Last year when I replaced it again on the new frame they were only about $2 per bolt (6" x 1/2" x 4 and x 4")...
I had a whole small container full of automotive lock nuts and some lock washers...I think some of them might have been from the bumpers...and now that I think about it...it might have been me that put some on...I used some to install my box after I realized I couldn't get the C-nuts that Ford used on the 88...(until later when I found a better supplier)...
Sounds like you're on your way to success...I would have pulled the box and then put an impact socket on them and a johnson bar...would work that way too...
"Star" lockwashers for low-medium stress usually works. Split ones are likely usesless though. NASA did a study on that... Split washers made loosening worse in high-vibration situations. If I was to guess why, it's because of the spring action such washers use to lock. But, while I have an Engineering Technology degree (and am an engineer in the automotive manufacturing industry), the degree is in electrical, not mechanical so all I know is outside of school.
In my experience they do cost more but IMHO if you're at all concerned, the cost difference is pocket change compared to cheaping out and having them break at the worst possible time.
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