harbor frieght

[ttocs]

are people really surprised that the cheapest jack stand out there might fail, or that they are recalling them?

https://jalopnik.com/dont-trust-your-life-to-these-jack-stands-1843546730

I would prefer to drink a 30 pack of beer(alone) and then crush the cans and stack them to put the car on before I would get under a car being held up with something pittsburgh. Maybe a nice stack of rotting 2 x 4s?

 

[96blak54]

Glad i bought the pin type. Remove pin, set height, install pin.

 

[Boostr1]

And to think my car has been sitting on the 6 ton jack stands over 2 years, and me rolling under it for the past couple of months

 

[Werecow]

Yeahhhh I saw that... I've not had good luck with Jack stands... I'll use em for a temp till I can get something more secure under it like a ramp or a cradle of crib blocks (treated 4x4's Scott), or if it's something light light exaust or a tailshaft of a tranny to change the mount...

 

[lwarrior1016]

I’ve done a bunch of work with my harbor freight jack and stands. I made a living using those tools for a few years. My jack now lives in the weather and is still used all the time under my f250 and my cars. I don’t understand the hate for these tools. I can almost guarantee that all the names manufacturers have had failures at some point.

 

[ttocs]

I have had too many pitsburgh tools fail almost right out of the box. I would like to think that the heavy duty stuff is made differently but I am not taking that chance. There is a time and a place to save a buck.

 

[white95]

HIGH QUALITY TOOLS

 

[RAU03MACH]

I have 6 tone jack stands
Harbor freight so I am going to take them back
I have had my car on them and others on them and never had a problem
I will have to find some others

 

[RAU03MACH]

I’ve done a bunch of work with my harbor freight jack and stands. I made a living using those tools for a few years. My jack now lives in the weather and is still used all the time under my f250 and my cars. I don’t understand the hate for these tools. I can almost guarantee that all the names manufacturers have had failures at some point.

I don't know but when I see a recall on them
Better safe than sorry
I have to take those back to them

 

[Werecow]

I do understand there's a difference between some tools, there's junk and really high quality stuff out there, but for my budget I can't afford a $250 3/8 torque wrench that I may use 5 or 6 times a year when the $20 ($10 with a coupon) from HF will do my needs just fine and I can use the other $210 bux on something else I may need like parts or other things I may need like the impact gun I got... I don't have a garage and don't use my stuff professionally, if I did it would be a different story. Then I'd be getting tools if a different caliber. When I worked in a garage part time I did buy snap on and Mac tools for my use in the shop, when you're using them for a living you don't want a cheap socket or a bad torque wrench to mess up a job and cost you more parts, time or possibly damage the owners car. Not to say that you wanna buy the cheapest stuff to use at home, I mean use common sense. You also don't wanna be rounding off bolts all the time cause all you get are cheap shit sockets and wrenches, or be unsafe and cut corners by being dumb and using cinder blocks to hold up a car... I guess I'm trying to say there is a medium that as a home mechanic we can all understand you don't have to have all snap on tools or Mac, although if you can afford it good for you. But we can use common sense when getting our tools for home use and don't have to break the bank just to have something to work with...

 

[RAU03MACH]

I do understand there's a difference between some tools, there's junk and really high quality stuff out there, but for my budget I can't afford a $250 3/8 torque wrench that I may use 5 or 6 times a year when the $20 ($10 with a coupon) from HF will do my needs just fine and I can use the other $210 bux on something else I may need like parts or other things I may need like the impact gun I got... I don't have a garage and don't use my stuff professionally, if I did it would be a different story. Then I'd be getting tools if a different caliber. When I worked in a garage part time I did buy snap on and Mac tools for my use in the shop, when you're using them for a living you don't want a cheap socket or a bad torque wrench to mess up a job and cost you more parts, time or possibly damage the owners car. Not to say that you wanna buy the cheapest stuff to use at home, I mean use common sense. You also don't wanna be rounding off bolts all the time cause all you get are cheap shit sockets and wrenches, or be unsafe and cut corners by being dumb and using cinder blocks to hold up a car... I guess I'm trying to say there is a medium that as a home mechanic we can all understand you don't have to have all snap on tools or Mac, although if you can afford it good for you. But we can use common sense when getting our tools for home use and don't have to break the bank just to have something to work with...

The only reason I ended up with these is because a friend owed me some money and ended up giving them to me
He was trying to set me up failure
That blue falcon

 

[ttocs]

I do understand there's a difference between some tools, there's junk and really high quality stuff out there, but for my budget I can't afford a $250 3/8 torque wrench that I may use 5 or 6 times a year when the $20 ($10 with a coupon) from HF will do my needs just fine and I can use the other $210 bux on something else I may need like parts or other things I may need like the impact gun I got... I don't have a garage and don't use my stuff professionally, if I did it would be a different story. Then I'd be getting tools if a different caliber. When I worked in a garage part time I did buy snap on and Mac tools for my use in the shop, when you're using them for a living you don't want a cheap socket or a bad torque wrench to mess up a job and cost you more parts, time or possibly damage the owners car. Not to say that you wanna buy the cheapest stuff to use at home, I mean use common sense. You also don't wanna be rounding off bolts all the time cause all you get are cheap shit sockets and wrenches, or be unsafe and cut corners by being dumb and using cinder blocks to hold up a car... I guess I'm trying to say there is a medium that as a home mechanic we can all understand you don't have to have all snap on tools or Mac, although if you can afford it good for you. But we can use common sense when getting our tools for home use and don't have to break the bank just to have something to work with...

Again sure save some money on the impact I mean iF it fails sure it sucks but its not going to drop a car on you.

 

[Addicted]

Never put your life in the hands of no one but yourself, unless you have absolute trust in them. Never trust any piece of metal.

 

[Addicted]

I love a good split face 12"

 

[Werecow]

Again sure save some money on the impact I mean iF it fails sure it sucks but its not going to drop a car on you.

Oh I agree, safety isn't the place you would want to scrimp. Like I said previously, I've had bad luck with jackstands and don't trust em myself. If it's safety related equipment you definitely wanna be a lil wiser there and spend accordingly and not cheap out... Very true you don't want a pumpkin to crash down on you, especially if you're working alone!!!

 

[lwarrior1016]

Going back and reading that article again, it said the jack stand could fall if the there was a sudden shift in weight. It could make the pawl disengage from the stand and drop it. Well, I don’t know if you guys know how a jack stand works but that can happen on any stand that is built that way. This is not a product failure, but a person failure. You aren’t supposed to set these up on uneven surfaces and you surely aren’t supposed to be shifting weight around on them.


All this being said, I’ve probably got $60k-$70k in snap on tools sitting in my shed right now. I know about quality tools.

I much prefer the lift and pin type of stand, but I would not hesitate to use these.

 

[ttocs]

"Harbor Freight told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) it realized the tooling used to make the stands near Hangzhou, China, had become worn out due to age and was manufacturing inconsistent parts. As a result, the ratchet teeth might not be deep enough to hold the lifting extension in place if a shift in weight occurs, like when you're banging on a rusty brake drum with a mallet, and the stand could collapse without warning. That's bad news if you're under it, working on a 4,700-pound SUV."

Sounds like the victim of cheap manf to me and not a design flaw. I am sure the quality on the 2 ton jacks is much better.

 

[Addicted]

I took 3.5 years of auto tech in high school, and our school was funded by craftsman tools I think, I could be wrong though. Anyways we had tons of craftsman tools from jacks, Jack stands, hand tools ECT... We had a jack stand failure, and Jack stand flaw at the same time. A student had the tip of his index finger chopped off where the jack meets the base. Craftsman actually had their design altered/changed due to this very reason, people's fingers are getting chopped off (our pets heads are falling off!). This design change was mandated in 2002-2004, cant remember the exact year, but our teacher had spoken to us about what Craftsman was doing about the issue, and we were to not use those specific stands anymore. All future Craftsman stands had grooves or cut-outs where the 2 pieces meet, giving room for finger safety if the stand was to fail. Our classmates new nick name was...you guessed it.. Knubbs. Now, Knubbs was a jack-a--, pun intended, but he really was, so I will say that faulty equipment and idiots really don't mix!
I graduated high school in 2004, so the change had to be in 2002-2003. The stands base was black, and the jack was yellow. I practice what I preach on proper saftey, and expect everyone else to do the same, after All, what we do on this site puts individuals life at risk. By someone younger seeing us do something dangerous and get away with, doesn't mean they will. In that rregards...STAY SAFE EVERYONE. NO PANCAKES.

 

[ttocs]

craftsman use to be a pretty descent name but I have more than a few of their tools that I am not happy with either. I HATE having to pay a premium for names like snapon, matco and the like but I only curse at those tools once when I pay for them rather than every other time when I get them out

 

[Werecow]

I've got a gravel driveway that I have to work out of, that's why jackstands are out for me. I'll use em for something light like exaust, or only for a temp till I can get it properly blocked or a ramp under it. And I do know how to block up weight properly with good solid wood and not cinder blocks which is a good way to get killed.And as has been pointed out on here jackstands aren't for use in uneven or loose ground like a gravel driveway... Just throwing this out cause there are prolly some people that may be following this that may be still trying using them on gravel or dirt, and that's not the safe way to do things..