in years [long] past, i beat severely ball & trunion u-joints, with and without good traction, and they held up quite well, as good as the later style 7290 joints.
the only real problem was with the rubber boot cracking or tearing, then spinning out the grease.
they are not the easiest joint to replace, and when one does this, you need to be very precise. the FSM shows how to do it.
then you need to have a good tool to crimp the boot retaining straps on. [think tool used for front drive axle boots]
the 65 and later slip yoke joint solved the issue of difficulty [and time factor involved] in replacing front u-joints.