THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

Saw this news story about Harbor Freight jack stands failing while using it on a VW car. Should that be a surprise? They have a recall notice out.

"Pittsburgh" is about as Chinese as it gets. Gotta love the marketing companies with these good old American brand name ideas. Smittybuilt is another popular one.

https://www.autoblog.com/2020/06/14/har ... d-failure/

Yikes, like Holly crap, Gezzzzzz, WTF, I can't count how many times
I have relied on El Cheapo HF 3T jacks preventing me from looking like
a squeezed tube of toothpaste.

Though the ones I have do not have a weld in that area. They look more
robustly designed. Still give you pause.

Ya, Smittybuilt stuff is absolute crapola IMHO.

Yeah makes you want to examine your critical tools. I use some fairly cheap ones but they are rated way past normal and are massive.

Last week I saw a Smittybilt awning, which I didn't know they made. It looks kinda like my ARB awning which is somewhat aged now but it still looks way better than the newer Chinese one. The hardware, finish, light-dutyish appearance.. it just looked Chinese made. I doubt they would hold up too well. I just used mine for 3 days out in Mojave and some serious wind slammed it a few times and it was just fine like usual. (Thanks Dave )

I have seen this story on other web sites and blogs. I have a pair of 3-ton jacks that are not in the recall, but I'm taking mine back to Harbor Freight anyway.

Had my set of HF stands for 7 years, they are 6 ton jacks, no signs of weld failure.
All this still makes me nervous -- still gonna keep these guys.

I also have a pair of Sunex 10 ton jack stands medium height, used when pulling a
differential -- used once. These babies are built like tanks.

Here's what I ordered- https://www.zoro.com/hein-werner-vehicl ... lsrc=aw.ds

These American-made stands will easily hold the Pinzgauer up with 12 tons of total capacity. The maximum height works out just right. The safety factor would be 12 if you were holding up just one end of the Pinz, which weighs about a ton.

I decided to go with these: https://www.usjack.com/images/pdfs/Gara ... 19_Web.pdf

Completely made in the USA.

...and this is why I stick with cement blocks, correctly loaded in continuous-line compression, and with thick planks on top to ensure load distribution.

I'll catch flack from some for using blocks, but if used properly I'd argue they are a more robust and reliable solution than the jackstand. Of course they're a whole lot heavier!

This is a good read - https://www.motortrend.com/news/harbor- ... fety-tips/

Well my 6T stands are older and not the P/N# for recall.

In any case I don't trust stands 100%, I don't trust any one
thing for that matter 100%.

As such when I use stands I also have a Hydraulic jack under
the diff taking some of the weight and ready to catch it all
if there was a failure.

Now the replacements are being recalled! Such quality.

https://www.autoblog.com/2020/07/07/har ... ds-recall/