Jack Stand Recall

[glemon]

I have a pair that look similar to the HF stands, but they are much older, and an even older stamped and welded steel set with the pin that goes through the hole. I always thought the older set with the pin was less safe.

I will generally use put an additional brace under the car to be safe, especially if I plan on exerting a lot of force on something while under the car.

 

[Deleted member 8987]

Chinese manufacturing and machine tolerances have been half-baked for a long time, no surprise the jack stands are sub-par. Back in the late '60's my dad needed to replace some milling machines and lathes for the company. He looked at Chinese-made lathes, came back shaking his head. No amount of money "saved" could justify the purchase. Not suggesting they haven't improved in that area, but something like jack stands out of spec should have been caught by quality control... bringing up another whole bag o' worms. And who absorbs the cost of the screw-up? *sheesh*

Having had up-close-and-personal contact with PRC manufacturers and their US importation companies.....there is no QC. They say there is, but nobody cares. PRC is in it to make money, QC costs them money. Not just the folks to do it, the delay in getting stuff past them, and the failed items that now need to be scrapped or reworked.

They.
Don't.
Care.

 

[LarryK]

I just returned four of the 6-ton stands, got my HF card. So, now my Valiant is on four 6 ton stands made by BlackHawk in the 50s. I had already sold all my Crafstman pin type 3ton jacks that I thought weren't as safe. Who knew.

 

[DrEntropy]

Having had up-close-and-personal contact with PRC manufacturers and their US importation companies.....there is no QC. They say there is, but nobody cares. PRC is in it to make money, QC costs them money. Not just the folks to do it, the delay in getting stuff past them, and the failed items that now need to be scrapped or reworked.

They.
Don't.
Care.

Hence my comment: "should have been caught by quality control... bringing up another whole bag o' worms."

 

[LarryK]

What I don't understand is Harbor sends you a series of e-mails of sales and deals each week to members. Why couldn't they have told us about the jack stands in an e-mail instead of having to hear about it elsewhere, now that is bad customer relations. I'll spend my card on gloves and small items for clean up etc., then I'll be done with them. Back to Mac, Matco, Snapon, and Cobalt.

 

[DrEntropy]

Larry, they've got great flux brushes, too. :smirk:

 

[pdplot]

Whenever possible, I leave the jack in place too- "just in case". Some years ago, a then-neighbor was killed working under his DeSoto when it fell on him while he was underneath. I don't know what happened to the DeSoto. BTW, that was a stupid name for a car. Almost as bad as Plymouth.

 

[DrEntropy]

"It's delightful, it's delovely... "

 

[Mickey Richaud]

 

[PAUL161]

One of the smoothest running cars I've ever owned was a 1947 Plymouth Coupe. One owner car I bought in 1952 from a local dealer with a new factory crate engine. Seems the old folks that bought it new never checked the oil in the engine, I guess he wasn't quite with the program. The car looked new when I bought it on the East coast, drove it to Johnstown New York, then off to Olathe Kansas Naval air base where I was stationed before Gitmo. Sold it after a year and bought a Harley motorcycle and the story goes on and on! :highly_amused:

 

[pdplot]

My brother had a 1949 or 1950 Plymouth business coupe. He blew the engine on it. They were indeed smooth running.
Back to the original thread - I examined my jack stands today. The orange ones were Hein-Werner - a respected company as I recall. The blue ones are flimsy looking, no-name and rated at 1500 pounds with a pin to insert. I don't trust them.

 

[Bayless]

I remember Dad got a 1941 DeSoto after WWII. It was a big white fastback and it seemed like every time we ran over something in the road, it knocked the muffler off. Had a couple of Plymouths after that but then he soon switched to GM for the rest of his life.

 

[pdplot]

I had a teenaged friend named Jim Silberman whose family owned a DeSoto. He was a wild driver and mothers wouldn't let their daughters drive with him. As a senior at RPI, he bought a Mercury convertible and while doing 85-90 mph, lost control and wound up in a farmers field after rolling over at least once. He survived without a scratch, having the presence of mind to latch the passenger seat belt which he held onto wile the car was rolling over. What happened to him? He bought a new Alfa Giulietta, traded it for a Veloce model, joined SCCA and raced at Lime Rock. Thompson, Marlboro and Bridgehampton with me as one of his pit crew. He won a couple of races and hillclimbs, with me as one of his pit crew, met his wife at a hillclimb, got married, quit racing and never got involved with cars again. Unfortunately he died in his 50s of a heart attack on a ski trip to Stowe, VT. Picture attached of Jim and Audrey starting their victory lap at Lime Rock in 1958.

 

[George_H]

They just recalled the REPLACEMENT stands!!!! At least I received an email about this one. I usually find out about all of their recalls here!!

 

[Basil]

To the Harbor Freight Community:
I'm writing to apologize. I often reach out to tell you about Harbor Freight's commitment to quality and all the investments we've made to deliver quality tools at the lowest prices. Your trust matters deeply to me and I'm proud of how far we've come. So when we have a product recall, it hurts.
A few months ago, we recalled our Pittsburgh 3 ton and 6 ton steel jack stands (SKUs 56371, 61196 and 61197) due to a manufacturer's defect. We asked customers to return them and receive a gift card that could be used to purchase replacement jack stands. I felt terrible about that recall because you should never have a concern about the safety of any of our products.
Today, I feel even worse. I'm disappointed and embarrassed because we've identified a welding defect in a small number of the Pittsburgh 3 ton steel jack stands (SKU 56373) that replaced the recalled jack stands. We're now adding these jack stands to our recall. Unfortunately, this defect wasn't discovered during the initial recall investigation. If you own these jack stands or any of the jack stands in our original recall, whether or not you have had an issue with them, please stop using them immediately and bring them back to your local Harbor Freight Store for a full cash refund or store credit (see details here).
We have investigated all of our other Pittsburgh 3 ton steel jack stands (SKUs 56371, 56372 and 57308) as well as the Pittsburgh 6 ton steel jack stands (SKUs 56368, 56369 and 56370) and Pittsburgh 12 ton steel jack stands (SKUs 56374 and 56375) and did not find the defect. Although none of these other jack stands are being recalled, if you own any of them and have any concern whatsoever, please bring them back and we'll give you a full cash refund or store credit for those as well.
I want to apologize to all of our customers. While we've dramatically grown our team of engineers and inspectors, and intensified our tests and inspections, I assure you that the lessons learned from this will drive further improvement.
As the owner and founder of Harbor Freight, I want you to know that we stand behind every product we sell and that safety will always be our top priority.
Sincerely,

 

[LarryK]

Got my email too. Not using money on their jackstands. Probably see something card will cover and not be back. Buying Blackhawk jack stands from our local family owned old time auto parts store. More expensive, but they'll be safe and last a long time.

 

[George_H]

I buy harbor freight stuff when it is a "once and done" type of thing. I used the stud welder from them when I did a little bodywork and it was great. Other things broke the first time I tried to use it. I'm glad I have better jack stands!