PSA - Harbor Freight jack stands - check them!
 

Hey Guys,

A public service announcement for everyone:

Harbor Freight recalled a bunch of their 3 and 6 ton jack stands for potential catastrophic failure.

Links to articles: https://www.bing.com/news/search?q=Jack+Stand+Recall&qpvt=jack+stand+recall& FORM=EWRE

Apparently old tooling used in the manufacture process can allow the support pawl to disengage under load.

They are Pittsburg brand, 3 and 6 ton manufactured between 2013 - 2019.

Part numbers are 56371, 61196 or 61197 on the bad stands.

Return these to Harbor Freight for store credit.

Please take this seriously. I brief jack stand and lift safety once a month to my crew on the bombing range as part of our daily safety briefings. I can think of few worse ways to die than having a car come down on you when you're underneath it.

I checked mine here at the house, and sure enough, I have two stands that are bad.

I'm off to Harbor Freight tomorrow after work.

Rick

Just saw this on Jalopnik and DriveTribe, holy crap!

Thanks for the notice. I am planning to X/O my oil tomorrow. Looks like I am going to HF first. I have two 61196 in the garage. Scary doesn't begin to describe the notion of a failure. I usually try and position the wheels partially under the car along with the jack stands while I am under the vehicle just in case.

Checked mine and they aren’t on the list. Still going to upgrade my stands, though. Probably a set from US Jacks.

Thank you! I just moved to my "new to me" garage yesterday and I have 4 pairs of the HF stands! I didn't know about this recall. Not sure if they are the models in question, you bet I'll check!

Thank you thank you thank you!

Edit:
So I was doing some very quick research on this recall and I found this article about the best jack stands:

https://www.thedrive.com/reviews/30274/best-jack-stands

They list the Torin Big Red as "Best Overall" but under 'Cons' it says that they may "break within a short period of time"!!!

How the F would jack stands that can break at ANY point, ever be considered "Best Overall"?? Geesh!

Hazard Fraught!

A friend of mine was killed when the car he was working on fell on him. His daughter found him, which is a pretty awful. It is a serious thing working under a car, please really think about how you have supported the car.

Since I bought my Quick Jack I feel a lot better crawling around underneath my cars.

I'm glad I spent the money on Esco stands, those things are tanks. I normally put a brick or some boards under the center post just in case the pin fails, and I also slide the rim next to the stand so I have at least 8-10" if a stand fails. If I don't have room for the rim I place a backup stand.

Hey, thanks for the notice. Don't have any HF jack stands, but it's still good to know.
A good while back I took the advice once given by a contributor here, in essence: Some decent tools can be had through HF, but he, for one, isn't interested in any that are involved in supporting potentially deadly heavy items for him to work under...a philosophy I've adopted for myself!

Thanks.
2 of the 4 HF stands I have are recalled.
Going to get them swapped out this week

I saw that too
Probably a paid review

2 of my 6 are these HF stands - just went through a brake and suspension refresher, and was still finishing up coolant/transmission/oil changes. Swapped out the stands as the car is still up in the air. Definitely scary to think about, but as others have mentioned, good to have a backup stand or wheel under the car!

So, I bought 4 of the 6 ton HF stands, and this scared me. I have model #62393 (not on the recall) and I cannot see anything wrong with them, deep teeth and they are rock solid. Im still scared. so, spoke too soon, 2 of the stands are the 61197 6 ton, so I have to swap them out. Going ESCO, not playing around with these anymore.

Same with me - I just purchased 2 sets (4 total) of 6 ton (same model # as yours) and 2 additional sets of 3 ton last month (with a newer model number).

This is a recommendation from one of the Porsche 928 guys on Rennlist:

https://www.usjack.com/images/pdfs/Garage_Stands_19_Web.pdf

Talking w/ my shop mechanic this morning making sure we didn't have any of the HF jack stands in the shop, he said everything we have comes from O'Reilly's. He stated they're a much better stand and he'd never have a HF jack stand around.

I'm thinking as much as I hate to toss a couple hundred dollars worth of new jack stands, I'd be wiser to go with something else.

I have a few restoration projects I want to finish before I die; not die while working on them. :eek:

torque wrench
 

lots of H.F. wrench fans on here as well, wait for that recall!

When it comes to laying on your back and having 3,000 lbs. + a few inches from your chest you really should have a plan B for support . Any jack stand can fail it is a man made piece of equipment . Back when I used stands I ALWAYS had a couple of wheel/tire combo's to slide under as insurance . Having a loved one find you squished onto the pavement is not pleasant , for that matter no fun for the person getting flattened ! You have to have multiple types of support . Or as a motorcycle instructor once told me " how much risk are you willing to take " ? I now use my 2 post lift will probably never use stands again . But if I do I will use my old " pin style " in addition to ratchet style . Can't have too much safety .

I've got two of the 6 ton stands that I use as backups that I place near me when the car is up, (on esco stands and now quickjack) I'll use the credit for something else... My HF 3 ton stands that I did all my work on(under) before are not on the r call. Yikes!

I don’t want to sound cowardly, but I have always avoided going under a car that I placed on jack stands. I don’t trust my skill level even though I triple check everything. I use my stands for tasks like brakes or spark plug changes. I suppose I could still be injured if a stand failed, since I am reaching under the wheel well. I put the wheel under the car just in case and I hope that will reduce the extent of any injury from fatal to serious.

I have rhino ramps which provide some access under the car. For anything else I can rent a lift at the auto hobby shop on the Army installation where I work.

Jack Stands.
 

I actually use redundancy - I use extra jack stands, placed in other spots. I will have 6-8 jack stands in use. I keep my floor jack engaged under one side of the car, and if I don’t have to remove the wheels, I will use my rhino ramps in addition to my jack stands.

Here's a comparison:

I assume the one on the left is the good one?