It took a hell of a lot of force on my car. I had to torch the nut on the passenger side for a while before it would come off. I also ground down a socket to use a big adjustable wrench:
I used the round end of a crescent wrench on the allen as a breaker bar. I think even after all of that, and the torching, I had to remove the strut from the car, then lay the wrench on the nut on the ground and stomp on the allen to break it free.
Used LOTS of anti-seize to re-assemble.
Brendan
Our torque standards at work specify that if using neverseize, we reduce torque by 20 percent. It does function as a lubricant, and any lubricant allows more of the applied torque to tighten the joint as opposed to overcoming friction.
As far as overtorquing the bearings, that would actually increase friction. Timken actually makes a special racing bearing that requires lower torque values specifically to reduce friction. Increased friction would have to reduce the life of a bearing, and the only way I can see anecdotal references to it increasing bearing life would be if the original bearing was actually undertorqued.
Timken bearing tech tips:
http://www.timken.com/en-us/solutions/automotive/aftermarket/lightduty/techtips/Pages/default.aspx