Harbor Freight recalls jack stands over potential for sudden collapse

Jeff Glucker

/comment

Comments

Jack stands are an essential tool for car repair. You put a lot of faith in those hunks of steel to hold your ride over your body, and to keep you safe. It’s worth spending the dough for proper stands. Or you can go the less expensive route and buy a set from Harbor Freight, which I myself have done. If you have a set of jack stands from Harbor Freight, you need to go take a look at them ASAP as the company has just issued a recall notice as a certain run of them may collapse during use.

A run of 450,000 jack stands, both 3-ton and 6-ton units, have a faulty pawl that could disengage while under load. That’s… bad, to put it mildly. The specific models are labeled either 56371, 61196, or 61197. On the 6-ton stands, you can find this number (61196 or 61197) on the yellow portion of the label on the base of the stand. The 3-ton units (56371) have the number on the label on the upper portion of the stand.

If you have a set of these stands, bring them into Harbor Freight for a gift card valuing the price of the stands. The company has pulled any unsold stock from this run. The issue was the result of old tooling being used on the stands built between 2013 and 2019.

Go check your jack stands. This is a serious matter and we don’t want any of you getting squashed by your rusting heaps.

[Source: Harbor Freight via The Drive]

About

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 64 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here

5 responses to “Harbor Freight recalls jack stands over potential for sudden collapse”

  1. outback_ute Avatar
    outback_ute

    If you have this type of stand,it’s worth checking how well the ratchet engages because I have heard of this happening before.

    In fact next time you get under a car have a review of what you are doing and possible failure modes, and make sure you have a backup to prevent being squashed should something go wrong. Squashed is not actually the worst thing that can happen, I know of a guy who had a car come down and was killed by suffocation, as in the car (an MGB) put enough pressure on him that he couldn’t breathe. Sorry for the confronting image but it’s a serious issue.

    I’m not perfect either, just thinking about it last time I didn’t chock the wheels on the other axle.

    Reply
  2. 0A5599 Avatar
    0A5599

    In high school metal shop class, I was going to make a pair of jackstands as my project. I don’t remember why, but after I bought the materials, I ended up doing something different.

    That’s probably a good thing. I doubt 14-year-old me could have engineered or welded jackstands even as safe as these recalled ones.

    Reply
  3. SlowJoeCrow Avatar
    SlowJoeCrow

    How hard is it to make a jack stand that won’t fail? I’m glad my son uses my old cheapo jack stands with locking pins instead of ratchets.

    Reply
    1. Lokki Avatar
      Lokki

      It’s not hard at all. However: China. The adjustable vertical part of the Jackstand on which the car will rest is a cast piece. Over decades of inattention , the molds have gradually filled in and the cast-in teeth against which the pawl is supposed to catch no longer are produced with a sharp indentation. The pawls, under pressure of the weight of a car can slip on the curved surface causing the Jackstand to slide to its lowest position. The resulting noise will notify your next of kin of the problem.

      The fact that the stands are so simple to make is a great factor in why they have had zero quality analysis or control…. For the last 20 years it would have been a waste of money to employ an inspector…. it now they will have one full-time for the next 90 days.

      Reply
    2. Lokki Avatar
      Lokki

      It’s not hard at all. However: China. The adjustable vertical part of the Jackstand on which the car will rest is a cast piece. Over decades of inattention , the molds have gradually filled in and the cast-in teeth against which the pawl is supposed to catch no longer are produced with a sharp indentation. The pawls, under pressure of the weight of a car can slip on the curved surface causing the Jackstand to slide to its lowest position. The resulting noise will notify your next of kin of the problem.

      The fact that the stands are so simple to make is a great factor in why they have had zero quality analysis or control…. For the last 20 years it would have been a waste of money to employ an inspector…. it now they will have one full-time for the next 90 days.

      Reply