This review is meant for informational purposes only. is not responsible for bodily injury or property damage that results from misuse of automotive tools including jack stands. I basically found myself with a whole flock of jack stands in my garage one day and decided to write a review. I’ve not received any of these stands from manufacturers for the purpose of reviewing them. The review will be skewed to how the stands work with a Mazda Miata, but this should be helpful to just about anyone with a smaller car that has a desire to work on it.īefore I begin, I’d like to state that I’ve not been paid for this.

In the following few thousand words, I’ll attempt to give a detailed and impartial review of several types of jack stands on the market as of 2010. Welcome to the official Jack Stand Review. It feels a lot less like overkill now.Īnd if you're in the market for a new set of jack stands, why not consider one of these? They are all from reputable manufacturers the Hein-Werner stands are of the typical design, the Torin stands add an additional locking feature and the ESCO stands, while of a somewhat different design, lock in lift height via pin, so there's no ratchet teeth or pawl at all.Sharka surrounded by an army of jack stands. The point is to not have your torso or head be the highest point underneath the car should it come off the stands. So in addition to multiple jack stands, I'll often shove a spare wheel and tire under the car for an added safety margin. But given that I'm usually alone in the garage, I'm especially paranoid about the big, lumbering vehicles I own crushing me while I work (and this recall isn't helping). You already know that you should never rely on a hydraulic jack to support your car while you're working on it-that's why these jack stands exist in the first place. This is a good time to recall the basics of jack stand safety. Now Is a Perfect Time to Organize Your Toolbox.Unless stated otherwise on the box or label, there’s a very good chance they, like Harbor Freight’s, came from a supplier in China.

The design of these simple, rugged jack stands is ubiquitous the same basic stand type is produced by a number of manufacturers (in fact, Harbor Freight’s stands come from several sources, not all of which are impacted by the recall) and sold at just about every hardware and auto parts store in America. A pawl assembly built into the metal base engages with the teeth on the post, permitting height adjustability. These stands consist of a stamped metal four-leg base, into which slides a vertical, toothed lift post. Taking all models and part numbers together, roughly 1.7 million stands are covered by this recall. While the company believes only some of the more recently produced stands are affected, it is recalling all stands with those part numbers to be sure. In this case, stands produced by China’s Jiaxing Golden Roc Tools Co., Ltd are potentially defective that’s why it’s important to check the part numbers, not just the models. Harbor Freight sells jack stands made by a variety of manufacturers, which may be visually similar. Pittsburgh Automotive 3 ton heavy duty steel jack stands, part No. Pittsburgh Automotive 6 ton heavy duty steel jack stands, part No. No matter which makes, models or eras of cars you wrench on, there’s a very, very good chance that you (or a friend) have a pair of these kicking around your garage, and you probably don’t give them a second thought.Īs detailed in two safety reports filed in March and May of this year, here are the models affected by the recall:

Given Harbor Freight's reach, this is like the Takata airbag recall of the DIY world. Certain models may fail suddenly and without warning, leading to injury or death. A jack stand is one of the most basic, but one of the most important, bits of safety gear in a DIY-er’s garage unless you have the luxury of a lift, they’re often the only things preventing you from getting squished like a bug under that rusty heap you call a project car.Īnd if you have, or even suspect that you have, jack stands purchased from popular budget hardware-supplier Harbor Freight, you’re going to want to head out and take a look at them as soon as possible.

Jack stands harbor freight review