Harbor Freight has recall several models of jack stands for the potential to shift under weight and fail suddenly. Thank you to everyone who has sent this in!
There are 3 affected models:
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- 61197 6-ton heavy duty jack stands (NHTSA recall 20E-016)
- 56371 3-ton heavy duty jack stands (NHTSA recall 20E-027)
- 61196 3-ton heavy duty hack stands (NHTSA recall 20E-027)
If you have any of these jack stands, stop using them and return them to a Harbor Freight store (once COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home orders are lifted) for a gift card valued at the retail price.
These are especially urgent recalls because of the severity of the potential consequences. Users can be seriously injured or even killed if jack stands fail while they’re working under a car. It is unclear as to whether there have been any injuries.
Harbor Freight says that they have been evaluating ALL of their jack stands.
An estimated 454,000 model 61197 Harbor Freight jack stands were recalled in March of this year, with an estimated 5% failure rate, as described in National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recall number 20E-016.
They say:
After ongoing quality testing, inspection and assurance reviews of 6 Ton Heavy Duty Steel Jack Stands manufactured by Jiaxing Golden Roc Tools Co., Ltd (exported by Shanghai Shen Da Import and Export Co Ltd.), it was determined that product quality had become inconsistent due to aging of the tooling.
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Specifically:
For certain units, the ratchet teeth on the jack stand lifting extension post may inconsistently engage the pawl to a sufficient depth.
And this can lead to:
Under load, with a potential shift in weight, on certain units the jack stand pawl may disengage from the extension lifting post, allowing the stand to drop suddenly, with potential to injure people near or under a lifted vehicle.
In other words, affected jack stands can give out during use and fail with potentially harmful or even fatal results.
Production dates are said to be June 13th, 2013 thru November 22nd, 2019.
What’s interesting is how this first recall came about:
Ongoing quality testing on the jack stands as manufactured, as well as analysis of, customer feedback, Quality Assurance review of product returned to Distribution Centers, and review of online social media content raised a potential safety issue on January 21, 2020. HFT initiated an investigation to conduct additional internal quality maintenance testing on each of its SKUs of jack stands.
See – brands and companies do pay attention to what you say online.
If you own these jack stands, you should discontinue use and return them to Harbor Freight for a gift card equal in value to the shelf price.
An estimated 1,254,000 jack stands with model numbers 56371 and 61196 are being recalled as of May 3rd, 2020, under NHTSA recall 20E-027, for similar reasons.
An estimated 5% of jack stands are thought to be affected by the defect, also caused by inconsistent product quality.
After ongoing quality testing, inspection and assurance reviews of 3 Ton Heavy Duty Steel Jack Stands manufactured by Jiaxing Golden Roc Tools Co., Ltd (exported by Shanghai Shen Da Import and Export Co Ltd.), it was determined that product quality was inconsistent due to aging of the tooling and inconsistent location indexing of the pawl armature hole.
There is a staggering number of these jack stands that are in the field and affected by this recall.
All jack stands imported from this manufacturer as part number 61196 and 56371 are included in the recall population. Although we believe this issue arose in more recent production batches, because we are not able confirm that earlier production units do not have this issue, out of an abundance of caution we are recalling all units prior to the recall date.
This makes sense. Newer jack stands are thought to be affected, but just to be safe Harbor Freight is recalling earlier models as well.
Production dates are said to be January 1st thru March 31st, 2020 for model 56371 and December 1st, 2020 thru December 31st, 2019 for model 61196.
The risk of failure is the same as for the 6-ton model recalled earlier. Basically, the jack stands could fail when under load (i.e. holding up a car while you work under it), and with a potential shift in weight.
In all, Harbor Freight is recalling more than 1.7 million 3-ton and 6-ton automotive jack stands.
More Info: Harbor Freight Recall
More Info: 6-Ton Recall Notice
More Info: 3-Ton Recall Notice
You can contact Harbor Freight for more information via [email protected] .
David
Thanks for posting this. I got the recall notice this week – much to my chagrin, two weeks after using the stands I bought just prior to our COVID-19 shutdown for the first time. That means my stands are a relatively recent batch, and I’d presume much more likely to have an issue. I’m glad Harbor Freight is addressing it broadly!
Stuart
The situation sucks, but it’s better to receive an inconvenient recall notice than to be a part of what prompted it.
Josh
Thanks for the notification. I just checked mine, and they’re a different model of 3 ton jacks.
aerodawg
I’ve got a set of the 61196 and can confirm mine have the issue. Noticed they wanted to collapse when applying the weight if there was any movement other than straight up and down. Quit using them quite some time ago because of it.
Champs
HFT’s “ongoing quality testing” recently discovered problems going back to June 2013? It’s enough time to have been very much as alive as Nelson Mandela and followed him to the grave.
There’s a place in life for light duty tools and accessories, just not when it’s on the line. Horror Fraught indeed.
Jim Felt
Nice analogy. But mostly about your concept that this “tool” vendor is not known as a pro level tool maker.
AKA buy the best when your life and future is on the line. Or under it.
I literally trust HF for throwaway tarps and cheap (very light weight) dollies. That’s it.
Stuart
In my opinion, here’s how it seems to have played out:
HF determined a recent batch of jack stands are prone to failure or could fail to meet safety regulations. Instead of a small window of products being recalled, they issued a recall for ALL of them, presumably with the supplier on the hook for the expense.
Should they have only recalled the affected batch and a small window of earlier shipments? What if the problem is evident on earlier production samples that they didn’t catch?
It’s more expensive to recall the entire history of a batch of products than a limited selection. What happens if the scope of a recall is too narrow and injury or death occurs because products were affected but not recalled?
It’s the aged and presumably worn tooling that’s blamed for the failure, right? Let’s say the manufacturer is on its 5th set of tooling. Does that mean there were 5 cycles where defective products shipped before tooling was replaced?
aerodawg
I would suspect that their supplier didn’t have records covering the last tooling refresh so this was as narrow as they could make the recall.
Once you get into recall territory, you have to be able to prove without a doubt which ones are good. Any that can’t be shown good via appropriate documentation are recalled
JR
Thanks for the post. I would never have found out about it as HF did not send an email.
I like that HF is recalling all in an abundance of caution. Mine are likely fine, but in absence of absolute certainty I would rather they recall them all the way back.
Koko the Talking Ape
“Abundance of caution”? For a problem that began appearing years ago, that could have been caught with a purely visual inspection, on life-critical equipment? I would call it an abundance of negligence and greed.
And they were monitoring social media not to learn about the problem, but to find out if OTHER PEOPLE were learning about it. For them, it’s only a problem if too many people hear about it.
I bought a bench brush from HF some years ago. That kind of thing is all I’ll ever buy from HF. I wouldn’t buy an anvil from them.
Koko the Talking Ape
And I’ve just realized anvils are not a good example. Real anvils aren’t just lumps of cast iron. They’re steel, ideally forged, and there’s a big range in quality.
So I wouldn’t buy say, glass marbles from HF.
JR
I only meant that unlike some other recalls of the past, where only certain date ranges were recalled, HF is pulling *all* of them back.
I was not commenting on HF’s lack of QC/QA or lack of enforcement of such. Worn tooling and out of spec parts in life saving equipment is always unacceptable.
Stuart
How do you know that the problem began appearing years ago?
Koko the Talking Ape
Well, the recall spans from 2013 to 2019. Even if only the latter part of that output were faulty, that’s still more than one year.
And I presume factory tooling doesn’t wear out instantly. More likely the issue appeared gradually, and instead of replacing the tooling preemptively, as any responsible manufacturer would have, they let it continue until the product actually became unsafe.
So they had years of warning.
Am I wrong?
Stuart
You could be.
I couldn’t tell if you saw other information I didn’t come across, or if your saying the problem began years ago was an opinion that simply lacked a “I believe that…” or similar add-on for the distinction.
Koko the Talking Ape
Ah, I see. (I can’t reply to you Stuart, for some reason.)
No, I had no other source of information. I just have logic and a little understanding of tooling and quality control.
How could I be wrong? Could tooling suddenly become worse, such that the quality control people are taken unawares, and let through a lot of unsafe jacks?
I’m serious. Am I missing something? If so, what?
Stuart
Sorry, there’s a limit on the “reply” thread count. When the limit is reached, it’s easiest to reply to the last comment that has the option.
What we know: Recent quality checks turned up a problem, with the cause said to be aged tooling.
What we don’t know: How often were quality checks done in the past? Could past quality checks have missed products that were made with similarly worn or aged tooling?
It seems that it could be unknown to Harbor Freight as to how many past instances there were where production fell outside of tolerances or quality due to aged/worn tooling.
What you said is that they had years of warning.
Could the problem have been present years ago? Yes.
Was the problem known to them years ago? Harbor Freight’s statements suggest that the answer is “no.”
My assumption is that the cost responsibility for this recall rests on the supplier/manufacturer, and not Harbor Freight. If this is true, the same would have been the case if any problems were detected earlier. It would have been in HF’s best interest to announce recalls as soon as possible, and so my assumption is that they would have made announcements if this issue were made apparent earlier.
They believe that an estimated 5% of products are affected. I’m not sure, but I would think this means that tooling was kept in service longer than intended, or longer than necessary to have properly spec’ed and performing parts. So perhaps the tooling needed to be replaced after 20 months or say 20,000 units, but was kept in service for 21 months or 21,000 units.
There are just too many unknowns to jump to conclusions.
I would believe that Harbor Freight pushed to include all products in the recall, with the onus being on the supplier to pay for the repercussions in some manner.
It seems that HF knows that current products are affected, but it might be too unclear to know if or how many past products were affected.
What you said, “For a problem that began appearing years ago, that could have been caught with a purely visual inspection” and “So they had years of warning” could be true, but I haven’t seen anything to support this yet, which prompted my initial question.
As for the extent of the recall time frame, there are two options:
1) Recall only the products known to be affected.
2) Recall all of the products which *could* be affected.
Going with option 2 is the best option from customer safety and reduced future liability standpoints. That’s why it’s an abundance of caution. One or two recent batched were shown to have safety issues, but all are being recalled to ensure there are no bad products out there.
We don’t know how thoroughly past shipments were tested.
Opinions are fine, but there are too many unknowns to draw any conclusions or even too many assumptions about past or present awareness of the problem.
Koko the Talking Ape
Ah, I see.
You are right when you say we don’t know when they had actual warning.
So I should have said, they had years where they knew or should have known of the problem. Actual knowledge and the obligation to know can be morally and even legally the same, at least when life-critical such as these jacks are concerned.
I’m no longer a practicing attorney, but we used to say that responsible parties “knew or should have known” a lot. 🙂
You are right that we don’t know much about the situation. But I am certain that HF f-cked up royally here, and they need to pay a price, not the manufacturer. They let an unsafe product, with their name on it, reach customers (and I wasn’t even a plaintiff’s attorney!)
Paul E Hacker
Better late then never if it saves even one person from injury or death
Tom
Why don’t people stop buying junk made in China ? They obviously value profit over quality and care less about the rest of world. Just a greedy communist country.
Paul E Hacker
When was the last time you looked or found a sent of jack stands made in the USA?
Hoser
Hein-Werner. Lots of made in USA equipment.
fred
Glad to hear that. My Hein Werner jack stands, one-end lift and floor jack date from the 1960’s when most everything of that sort sold in the USA was USA-made.
Not that jack stands are in the same category as some mission-critical hardware like ventilators – but the events of the recent weeks should teach us a lesson. That is: if we rely on the global manufacturing market (today much of it in China) to supply all our needs – then we need to stockpile extraordinary (beyond our wildest dreams) amounts of critical items. Since that is probably not practical – then we need to bring back production of critical items like N95 masks and other medical-grade PPE plus medical devices like ventilators. The costs will be higher – but the risks of not doing so will cost us much more. We don’t buy our fighter jets from China – and there are analogies to that reasoning.
mike
Assembled in US Does not equal made in US.
The cast / stamped parts are probably similar factories in china.
Might be paint, and labels are US assembled.
Mike
“HeinWerner HW93503
3 Ton Jack Stands
Assembled in the US with US and Global components”
I think it’s safe to say the expensive part of the jack was done in China or possibly some place cheaper than China.
Mike (the other one)
Sometimes they have to say “with global components” if they are using recycled metal. There’s usually no way to verify where the metal originally came from.
Ron
All it takes is a bit of research, thats why we have Google.
Try US Jack.
JR
Can you tell me where to find US made jack stands? Or should I just use cinder blocks?
I’d rather support the home team as I am unabashedly pro-American, but if there are no known options , what are people supposed to do?
Mark
U.S. Jack Company , says 100% USA made.
Mike X
Dude, just in case you’re not kidding, please do not use cinder blocks.
Ron
http://www.milwaukeejack.com/
US Jacks
Safejacks.com
JR
Yep, just kidding. I’d never use cinder blocks, or wood, or tires.
Jay Dee
http://www.jackpointjackstands.com/
Jim Felt
“Chinese” manufacturers make exactly what their buyer spec’s. Quality v. quantity.
In this case I’m surprised it didn’t occur to HF to occasionally test these particular products. Knowing full well what they spec’d and probably negotiated the price downward as the their original PO continued on for so many years.
Hence the overused PR (aka legal) speak “over abundance of caution” malarkey.
Ron
Please clarify how you know this.
What does “buyer specs” mean?
Chris I
That is a really long macroeconomic…..and socioeconomic…….answer.
Also, China is not “communist”. My goodness, Tom.
JR
The Chinese government still considers themselves to be Communist. Just because they are using pseudo-Capitalism to beat the West to death does not mean they are not Communist at their core.
John
Chris,
You some some education brother. CPC, Communist Party of China is the ruling party founded in 1921 and took power in 1949. China permits capitalism under their uber controlling communist rule.
ca
North Korea calls themself a democratic republic, but we don’t believe that do we?
Ron
They are a centrally controlled economy with vast amounts of the economy owned by the state. There are different versions of communism, my friend.
Neighbor Joe
USJACK.com I bought a set of 6K stands. Awesome. Sure, they cost more than the HF Chinese junk, but you will not risk your life using them. Sturdy and worth the extra money.
Ron
I was going to mention US Jacks. They DO look awesome!
Rmbp
Was about to purchase both the 3-ton and 6-ton ones last month. Purchase did not go through just because they could not be shipped and I did not want to go to the store. I bought the big red stands from amazon instead, because they have the additional safety feature of “double” locking.
Marco Lima
I always use scrap 4x4s or 6x6s and stack them to what height I need. Keep the hydraulic jack to height in the area I am working in as a backup and also Chuck the wheels. Yeah it takes an extra 20 seconds but it is nearly bulletproof.
Chris I
Good to know. I own two sets of these stands, I’ll have to go see what variety though. I can’t imagine I bought 6 ton stands for my Kia ?
Paul E Hacker
Maybe your Kia had large aspirations at one time? … lol
Chris I
Let’s just say she was carrying extra driver weight for an extended period of time.
Stuart –
I have two pairs of the 3ton stands. One pair is part #38846, the other pair is #69597. Am I to assume that neither of my set is recalled?
Chris I
I emailed [email protected] but didn’t hear back from them. I’ll bet I never hear.
Stuart
As far as I am aware, the 3 SKUs are affected, and all others were evaluated or are being rechecked.
JackG
Stuart, I have 2 pairs of the 38846 3 ton stands myself. Although the 2 pairs bear the same part number that are different designs. the ratchet mechanisms are entirely different.
PTBRULES
If they are mentioning the manufacturer, tooling and that its become a issue recently.
The manufacturer probably stopped or hasn’t maintained their tooling changed bits as frequently as necessary, etc.
Now rather than track down when the problem started, they are just recalling everything, the correct move to make.
Hopefully HF becomes better overtime when problems like this hit their bottom line…
Jim Felt
With their 2019 sales of $5+B this will definitively not impact their bottom line.
And as a private company it wouldn’t matter much either way. No Wall Street to drag them down.
JR
I found one US company selling jack stands fully made in the US. US Jack makes some and they are roughly $200 a pair.
The other company Hein-Werner is owned by a Chinese firm and assembles their jacks stands in the US, using foreign made parts & materials. I have no idea what constitutes “assembles”.
JR
Gray Jack stands are also US made and fall in the $350 and up category.
Chris I
$200 & $350 is beyond silly to me if HF can create something identical for $20. I mean, come on. Those two former price points are entirely impractical for home DIY mechanics/tinkerers
Ron
Try https://www.usjack.com/
Or
Safejacks.com
JR
Right? I cannot see how raw materials can be shipped from around the world to Chinese steel plants, made into rolled metal, shipped to Chinese factories, made into stands, shipped to ports, sent around the world, and finally shipped to stores for $20-30. Meanwhile, US made stuff is ten times the price.
Ron
Two reasons at least:
Chinese gov. subsidies said industries.
Low wages.
Addison
Hazard Fraught does it again! I was looking for a tool that was just for shooting myself in the foot. What is the HF # for that?
Chris I
What a zinger.?
Mac
So is this ALL of HF’s jack stands or just a few of the 3 and 6 ton models?
I have a good collection…and no cheap alternative…well other then welding up my own and steel prices are through the roof at my local yard.
Stuart
The model numbers are listed in the post.
Corey Moore
That’s BS. A jackstand aging isn’t going to affect how much engagement a pawl has in the tooth unless you’re losing material somehow. They put out an unsafe product and they’re trying to look like they’re the good guys, listening to their customers attentively. Actual QC would’ve prevented social media being the last resort for the public to inform you that your stands were crapping out and maiming/killing folks.
JR
It is not the stand aging that is issue, but the tooling used to make the stands. Here is the quote: “it was determined that product quality was inconsistent due to aging of the tooling and inconsistent location indexing of the pawl armature hole.”
It is clear that the tooling used to make the parts was no longer producing parts made to specification. That is unacceptable, and hopefully HF will invest more in QC/QA for their customer’s sake.
928er
What about all the other (older) chicom HF jack stands?
I’ve got two sets of the 3 ton yellow one’s with the white inserts – never really trusted them. The “tooling” is (ahem) rather crude.
Bubbaconda
You’ll be fine getting underneath your vehicle with those, no worries whatsoever.
evadman
I have a set of these, but stopped using them last summer when one disengaged. I was on the other side of my truck smacking the frame with a sledge hammer (which would have resulted in a sideload on the jack stand). The side with the jackstand also had the jack under it, so the truck only fell about a half inch when it disengaged.
I thought I just screwed up and didn’t have it set all the way into the pawl, but I stopped using them because I couldn’t figure out what happened. They are on my bench, waiting to be sand blasted because I was going to weld on some positive locks to keep the pawl from moving. Now I know that I wasn’t crazy, which is kinda good I guess.
Now I need a good set of tall 6 ton jack stands. I need to do the brakes on my parent’s car before they start driving back to work every day, and that was going to be next weekend.
Chris I
” I was on the other side of my truck smacking the frame with a sledge hammer (which would have resulted in a sideload on the jack stand)”……..??
Mike (the other one)
Number 1 rule when it comes to HF:
Do not trust anything that could hurt or kill you if it fails.
A W
I stopped using this style of jack stand altogether and shifted to the ESCO stands.
https://esco.net/product-category/support-stands/
The 3 ton stands are about $50 each on Amazon, but if I’m going to crawling under a vehicle, I’d rather invest in a jack and stands that I trust.
Lyle
I don’t own these jack stands from Harbor Freight, but I do own other ones from Sears maybe. What is concerning to me is that probably a lot of jack stands are made in China, and possibly by the same company. I’ll never really know if mine could just be a red painted version of the same ones.
For as much crap as we give Harbor Freight, I want to say that my respect for them as a company has grown recently. First of all, I know, and probably many others know that HF sells bargain basement quality of stuff. They do sell some decent or good stuff too, but usually what I’m getting from there is cheap and I don’t mind it being one time or infrequent use. I respect that they are recalling all of the possible affected jack stands, not just the ones made recently. This is going to cost them a lot of money, and for those that think it won’t have an affect on their bottom line because they have $5B in sales or whatever, you’re probably wrong. They sell cheap stuff and the margins are probably low. The fact that it is privately owned means that a smaller group of people (the private owners) are going to eat this cost rather than thousands or millions of individual share owners. Yeah they’re all probably all richer than any of us and maybe won’t feel the affects as much, but money is money and it is still going to cost them quite a bit.
Also what has made me respect them more is that when this whole pandemic started, they sent out an e-mail and said that they were donating (if I remember correctly) their entire inventory of PPE stuff to hospitals and first responders. I don’t see Amazon or Walmart or other big name companies doing the same (maybe they are), but this has earned them my business for crappy stuff forever.
Ron
People are insane to use Chinese made safety gear, just because it is a few dollars cheaper.
Mike (the other one)
I use ramps and wheel chocks. That’s a safer option in my opinion. The only time I’d use jacks and stands is if removal of a wheel is necessary.
Even then, I’d be more inclined to made stands from good wood blocks.
Ron
I also use ramps. There is also a US mfr called called SafeJacks.com that I use. They have some innovative jack stands like the Rennstand. Not cheap, but neither is replacing my head.
Check them out.
Brendan
I have a pair and a pair of craftsman that look the same I wonder if they will be recalled also
Bob
I agree. Keeping you skull from getting squashed like a grape with Chineasium metal is just asking for trouble.
And I am not bashing it just because its Horror Fright. All this chicom stuff from wherever you buy it has crappy QC for several reasons but usualy it boils down to companies that outsource there typically want the lowest priced product. The Communist Chinease government protects there companies from all sorts of legitimate litigation. If you can’t sue them for poor QC that hurts someone and no one is willing to pay more for better quality what incentive do these Chinese companies have to make better products?
Hopefully current events have awoken us to the fact that not all manufacturing should be outsourced. The problem is when Joe sixpack goes to Walmart and looks at two identical products he actualy spends the ,insert small price premium amount, more on the American made one. Otherwise this isn’t going to work. Ideally if the American made plant was fully automated and the product was built with robots it might even be cheaper. But that’s a whole other can of worms.
Frank D
Will have to check for stickers, I have bought some which functioned ok, but inhereted a couple and that set is a bit iffy, but I don’t believe there’s a sticker with a number left on them …
S***** L*****
Who ever wrote this article needs to get their facts straight…it is not the Red 3 ton Jack stands but the silver 3 ton Jack stands. I work as a supervisor for Harbor Freight and find this Article lacking when it comes to the truth. 3 ton Jack stands with the number 61196 are the correct ones on the recall list.
Stuart
Respectfully, you are incorrect. As a Harbor Freight supervisor, you should definitely verify your information so that you don’t misinform or turn away customers seeking to return recalled merchandise.
Perhaps you should follow your own advice, and “get your facts straight” before making baseless accusations? I fact-checked this post thoroughly, as it would be unwise and unhelpful – at the least – to be even the least-bit inaccurate when it comes to something as serious as a safety recall.
I don’t know why you have not been accurately informed regarding Harbor Freight’s jack stand recalls, or why you mistakenly believe that this article is “lacking in truth” in any way, shape, or form. My sources are all linked-to in the post, and with the above image coming straight from Harbor Freight. The NHTSA recall notices are also linked-to in the article. Both Harbor Freight and the NHTSA reference model number 56371 as being an affected model number, and it’s Harbor Freight that depicts it in imagery.
The 56371 jack stands appear to be recent models, with 2020 production dates, but they are clearly included in the 20E-027 recall notice, along with 61196. Harbor Freight would not have included the imagery of a red jack stand in their own recall notice if it weren’t included.
If you still doubt the veracity of this article, even after checking the source material links for yourself, perhaps you should consult with your superiors at Harbor Freight, to determine why the information given to you conflicts with Harbor Freight’s official statement and NHTSA recall notices.
Please note that I have masked your name from your comment. I don’t think Harbor Freight corporate managers would take too kindly to your tone or that you’re inadvertently spreading misinformation, despite an assumed intent to do good. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to attach your full name to that comment, but can reverse the edit if you request it.
Koko the Talking Ape
Stuart, is it possible this guy is some kind of troll, trying to spread misinformation and create confusion? We’ve seen people doing that with COVID-19 and many other topics.
Stuart
Yes, but some quick Googling verified that the name does belong to a real person that does work for Harbor Freight.
While his approach and attitude could have been friendlier, I can only assume that he truly believed I and this post were inaccurate, and that he was doing the public a favor by making it known. Giving him the benefit of the doubt and considering that he was misinformed but well-intentioned, I masked his name for his protection.
I could imagine they had a “hey, that’s not the model we were told is being recalled” reaction, leading to a sharp reply.
Still, Harbor Freight corporate has visited ToolGuyd posts in the past, and I don’t think they would have considered his post a good reflection on the company. It seemed that masking their name would help avoid any repercussion.
It’s possible but less likely that someone used this person’s real name to besmirch them, but even in that case, masking the name defeats their goal.
It could have also been a troll impersonating a real Harbor Freight supervisor, but I don’t think I’ve ever been aware of this happening. 11-1/2 years and 124K reader comments later, there are still plenty of “firsts,” but this didn’t seem like one.
mmmtacos
As just a general rule I wouldn’t entrust my mortal safety to anything I could buy from Harbor Freight.
But I did buy welding gauntlets from them and they’ve held up fairly well.
Side-note: I no longer trust AC Delco crap either (or anyone that may share the same manufacturer*). Was helping a friend with his truck using a twice-used 3-ton floor jack to lift up the front end of an F-150 when a piece broke off, went flying and dropped the truck like a ton of bricks. And yes, his bone-stock 2009 F-150 RWD extended cab was well below 6,000lbs and we were on flat, level pavement. This was mechanical failure; not user error.
*If anyone is looking to buy replacement jack stands I would be very cautious and compare the designs of this Pittsburgh one to any other you buy. There are a great many items on the lower-end of the price spectrum that are of the same manufacture but with different colors or labels.
Not trying to be too critical, just skeptical. HFT stuff tends to be on the cheap side (if this offends you then I’m sorry for the hard truth). Something as simple as a jack-stand could very well be the death of you if it were to fail. It’s worth spending a little extra money on it so you can be confident you bought a product less likely to fail from a vendor unlike Pittsburgh that has a decent reputation of reliability (yeah, I am guilty of buying their wrenches, guilty of also breaking a couple).
Jacking up a vehicle is something I probably do with more caution than how I handle firearms. I am always reminded, when I jack up a vehicle, of my father who told me about his co-worker who was crushed to death because he didn’t take all the safety precautions.
Mau
Just a side note on all this China bashing I saw in the comments.
Chinese products can be as good as their US counterparts, everything depends on the quality standard set by the customer.
I’ve seen Chinese things extremely well made, obviously with a price tag definitely higher than the crappy things we usually associate with China.
And by the way, the thing you are using to read and comment this article is probably made over there.
Decades ago we did the same with Japanese products, and now we praise them.
Personally I would never buy a stand with a simple pawl and ratchet mechanism, but it’s just me, and my “obsession” with safety.
Ron
Dear Xi,
Yes, we need to protect poor China. So maligned!
Koko the Talking Ape
I think you are pretending to miss the point. Mau isn’t saying China is weak and defenseless. He’s saying that not all Chinese products are poorly made. I think he’s right.
You could have pointed out that there are other reasons people might want to avoid Chinese-made products, or actually any foreign-made product, and I would’ve agreed with you.
Calling him Xi is not quite an insult, but I’d call it scornful and ridiculing. No need for either.
Mike (the other one)
If there is no choice, then I buy Chinese made. If there is, then I don’t. I’m fine with Japanese-made products, and I’m fine with stuff that’s made in Taiwan or Korea. These countries are trade partners and take pride in their work.
The Chinese government makes companies do things like share designs, which they use to make inferior copies, and flood the market with junk. Do you really think they give a sh*t about your safety, when they employ children and slaves to make these things?
Ron
Actually, if one does a bit of Googling, you can often find items not made in China. Its not likely to be at HD, Lowes or Amazon, though.
In fact, I’ll buy from almost any pro western country, whether it be Japan, Europe or Taiwan.
And good luck settling a lawsuit with the communist controlled companies.
Mike (the other one)
Agreed. Often the price isn’t that much different.
fred
Japan Inc. did indeed learn that quality is important. Much of that learning came by way of W. Edwards Deming an American engineer who received the Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Japanese for his contributions to their manufacturing/quality success.
Like most things in life it is not simple. Not everything made in the USA was of the highest quality, nor is everything made in China of the lowest quality. Having been part of a business that embraced the principles of Lean manufacturing and six sigma – achieving ISO certification – I can say that maintaining quality requires efforts that some companies may not want to undertake – especially if their customers seem ambivalent about the associated costs reflected in the price of the goods sold. I’m happy that our small fabrication business was never involved in producing mass market products to be sold in emporia like Wal-mart or HF. It was also nice that our remodeling and cabinet businesses were successful without needing to compete on price at the low-end of the market.
Ron
Actually, Japan always thought quality was important. The just didn’t know how to mass produce it.
They also didn’t STEAL their intellectual property.
Robert
That is the one tool I said I would never buy from Harbor freight, Walmart, etc.
Coach James
I’m curious. Reading all these posts stating “I would never use jack stands from HF.”, what are all these posters using? All you all using $200 jack stands from US Jack? I have 4 sets of jack stands with 3 different brands on them. None are from HF, but all are from China, just like the HF stands. I usually use 6 ton stands and simply don’t raise the ratchet bar.
I’m not trying to start an argument, but it is a serious question. If you don’t use HF stands since they’re Chinese, what are you using?
firefly
I have similar thought. I don’t work on car but the thought of a typical jack stand fail has always been a concern for me, whether it’s Chinese made or not. I heard one of the tip is to throw some tires under your car.
Personally I probably would use wood block or come up with my own metal block. Beside jackstand are universal that are made to be adjustable. It’s a lot easier to come up with a solid way to block up the car for a single car.
High&Mighty
They’re all full of shit saying that they wouldn’t use Chinese made or hf jack stands. They must all use aluminum jack stands. If you Google jack stands and hit shopping, you’ll see how many of the same style of jack stands are widely available. Good luck finding some that are made in the USA. And I know for a fact that this style is the only one available in stores. But it’s only harbor freight’s jack stands that the nhtsa found to be a problem. Yeah right. There’s nothing wrong with the ten dollar jack stands sold by Wal-Mart though. How is it that after seven years of mass producing these things, the nhtsa all of a sudden finds something wrong with them. I’m curious how they came to the conclusion that it’s only harbor freight and not any of the other scores of brands that make the exact same style of jack stands that may potentially fail. But I’m going to take their word for it? Yeah sure. Well I just happen to be one of the 454,000 owners of these potentially consequential jack stands. In fact I bought two sets around seven years ago. Never had a problem with them. Never seen anything that could be a possibility for it to fail. And let’s be honest about this, any jack stand can fail at any given time if placed under a vehicle incorrectly or if the rated amount of weight is exceeded. But even more so if you’re on an inclined plane. Ignorance certainly has potential consequences when reckless thinking is involved. Where it’s made or brand name does not make it stupidity proof. Over the past seven years I’ve had my truck my car and my wife’s suv up on these stands for routine maintenance and the occasional parts replacement as well as major repairs. I had the truck off the ground for almost two weeks when I had to drop the transmission to get it rebuilt. I don’t recall ever experiencing any type of problem or potential consequences. But I’m supposed to stop using them and return them for a gift card because the nhtsa says that they have a 5% possibility of potential failure? No. I don’t think so. What about the jack stands I’m out of after I return them? Am I supposed to buy the same ones from another store? Order the same thing from another company? I tried the Walmart jack stands. They were not safe. The same problem they’re describing is exactly what I did experience with the blackjack stands. This was before I even put a load on them. The pawl didn’t catch the teeth. I said screw that I want something safer. I returned them and went to hf because no one else carries 6 ton jack stands in their stores. They haven’t failed. They’re not going to fail because I had enough sense to drill holes into the ratchet arm spaced accordingly for the pawl to catch the teeth and for a half inch pin just in case it does slip. The pin has yet to bear the weight of any load I’ve placed on these jack stands. So I don’t buy the whole nhtsa story of finding these to be defective. I think this is more of a witch hunt than anything. And why isn’t a safety pin rated for twice as much weight not mandated to be implemented into every single jack stand produced? Have there been any injuries or deaths due to these jack stands malfunctioning? If a car falls onto someone because of incorrect placement of the jack stands or excessive weight beyond the rated capacity then self negligence and self endangerment are to blame. Not the jack stands or the company that makes them or the store that sells them or the engineers who designed them. If you’re on an inclined plane and you decide to get under a vehicle, then you are recklessly putting yourself in a good position to get hurt or worse and obviously have little regard for your own safety.
Stuart
How is this a witch hunt?
If you read the post and desire further explanation, the links to the recall notices are included at the end.
The way I’m interpreting the recall notices, HF detected the potential for failure and proceeded to recall the jack stands via the NHTSA. They were first alerted to defects involving the 6T jack stands, and checking over their entire jack stand offerings, they discovered some 3T units could also be flawed.
The NHTSA is the agency that handles all automotive-related recalls, such as car ramps, jacks, or stands.
The NHTSA says:
There’s nothing to indicate that the NHTSA initiated any investigation to prompt the recall. Reading over the recall notices, there is every indication that HF discovered the issues and potential failures themselves.
What’s odd is that a search for Harbor Freight Tools turns up nothing, and neither does a search for “Pittsburgh.” https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls#equipment They don’t mention the recent manufacturer communications, but they also don’t note any investigations or complaints.
Basically:
HF: Don’t eat this specific model of potato salad, the mayo could be bad.
NHTSA: Hey everyone, HF is recalling their potato salad, the mayo could be bad.
*Several Months Later…*
HF: We also learned that you shouldn’t eat these specific models of cole slaw, the mayo could be bad.
NHTSA: Hey everyone, HF is also recalling 2 kinds of cole slaw, the mayo could be bad.
The NHTSA is not “out to get HF.”
Mike (the other one)
I respect you for taking the time to read and respond to that. (Paragraphs, people, please!)
People don’t get that HF says the jacks are bad, and the NHTSA is doing it’s job. This could be the first of several recalls from various brands.
Some people simply value convenience over their own safety (as we have seen with Covid-19 protests). If they read it, ignore it, and get hurt then it’s on them.
Jay Dee
Pricey because they straddle the line between a jack and a lift:
http://www.jackpointjackstands.com/
michael
Well I’m too lazy to go check the #’s. But regardless if my Pittsburgh Jacks stands are either of these (the grey ones look familiar). I’m TOSSING them, I remember questioning myself when purchasing them like, do I trust HF to hold a ton of steel over my head and chest??. Hell, I’m even questioning my autozone floor jack because it’s next door to HF. I had a Pittsburgh socket adapter that twisted apart like a piece of taffy (I’m not THAT strong)