HUGE RECALL- Harbor Freight Jack Stands

L5wolvesf · Apr 6, 2020

Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/rec...-ton-heavy-duty-steel-jack-stands-033120.html

Bacon! · Apr 7, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

Thanks. Mr. Limbach's article was a bit lazy in not providing more detail.

Here's the recall report PDF, # 20E-016:
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2020/RCLRPT-20E016-6561.PDF

It states they are HF part # 61197 as the article does, but also mentions the manufacturer and export/importer so I would be weary of any other brand these companies handle, as you know how these Chinese factories work, continuing to pump out product for other relabelers if their primary contract is fulfilled and they have extra capacity:

manufactured by Jiaxing Golden Roc Tools Co., Ltd
(exported by Shanghai Shen Da Import and Export Co Ltd.)
Production Dates : JUN 13, 2013 - NOV 22, 2019

No matter where you get your jack stands, inspect and reject if there is any doubt. Some will say this is why double pin stands are important, and I half agree... if it is made right, the 2nd pin should never matter, but it is an inexpensive, good, redundancy measure for this most common jack stand design.

Now the important thing is getting customers notified. If you own these, has HF contacted you?

Steve_P · Apr 7, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

Good info. I have some of the HF stands but don't like them after I had an issue, so I bought the Esco pinned ones. I also have some home made pinned ones. On one of my HF stands the dowel pin that holds the pawl to the lever somehow broke and of course I didn't notice it as it's hidden. The pawl was engaged enough to hold up the support when I set the height, but it dropped as soon as I put the vehicle's weight on it; talk about a surprise.

DerekV · Apr 7, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

Bacon! said:
Now the important thing is getting customers notified. If you own these, has HF contacted you?

I have four (4) of these, purchased them in ~August 2017. I haven't heard anything yet.

I hope they have a replacement because I really like them.

driftpin · Apr 7, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

Here's how I look at this (from the CPSC release):

The ratchet teeth on the jack stands may not sufficiently engage the pawl to a sufficient depth, possibly causing the stand to fail under load.

If you don't take the probably five seconds to confirm for yourself that the pawl is fully-engaged, before you load them, you don't have any-business crawling under a vehicle using these, or any jackstands in the first place. The HFT naysayers will be lining-up to slam HFT: crappy, killing tools! Pieces of sheet, etc.

I'm not going to stop using my jackstands, they are much-more robust than what I was using before, and those Sears jackstands had served me for decades. Use common sense. Check your load before going underneath a vehicle. It's not uncommon for me to re-position a jackstand, after I see the load settle on it. 'An ounce of prevention prevents many-pounds of collapsed load to-endure.'

SGKent · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

I have some HF orange ones that look exactly the same as the Pittsburgh ones. This is spooky.

Bacon! · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

Notice the part #, 61197. So far that is all that's effected.

The HFT naysayers will be lining-up to slam HFT: crappy, killing tools! Pieces of sheet, etc.

Yes that would be very easy to do. It's one of my top gripes with HF tools, that the quality control is terrible. You can find a widget on a shelf and have to sort through all of them to find the best specimen, for example a pile of sledgehammers and some have loose heads that never should have been put on the ship to come here, and never put on the shelf to buy. I did have to do that, did buy their sledgehammer.

As a customer I'd rather not have to check whether the head is loose, and when it's a safety related item, it makes you stop and think about how many corners to cut when you thought your HF jack risk:benefit ratio was okay because you thought your HF jack stands were reliable.

I'll still buy HF tools, but not certain items, especially those where it's harder if not impossible to find a QC problem before purchase. Jack stands, I suppose I could see misshapen teeth or the pawl, but could I see a painted over, cast iron stress crack? I am not sure I would notice that.

mike93lx · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

driftpin said:
Here's how I look at this (from the CPSC release):

The ratchet teeth on the jack stands may not sufficiently engage the pawl to a sufficient depth, possibly causing the stand to fail under load.

If you don't take the probably five seconds to confirm for yourself that the pawl is fully-engaged, before you load them, you don't have any-business crawling under a vehicle using these, or any jackstands in the first place. The HFT naysayers will be lining-up to slam HFT: crappy, killing tools! Pieces of sheet, etc.

I'm not going to stop using my jackstands, they are much-more robust than what I was using before, and those Sears jackstands had served me for decades. Use common sense. Check your load before going underneath a vehicle. It's not uncommon for me to re-position a jackstand, after I see the load settle on it. 'An ounce of prevention prevents many-pounds of collapsed load to-endure.'

I would say that roughly 99% of people don't check that. Come on. You act like this is common knowledge or was taught to everyone at some point.

Most people place the stand and lower the car onto it. Some probably give it a shake before crawling under

Busted Knucles · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

I wouldn't buy a screwdriver from HF much less a tool that supports a 5,000 lb vehicle over my body. Its simple, poor quality tools.

Bacon! · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

Steve_P said:
On one of my HF stands the dowel pin that holds the pawl to the lever somehow broke and of course I didn't notice it as it's hidden. The pawl was engaged enough to hold up the support when I set the height, but it dropped as soon as I put the vehicle's weight on it; talk about a surprise.

That lever-pawl pin is supposed to be a form of shear pin, as a safety measure so that breaks off if excessive force is applied to the lever while under load, with the stand continuing to hold the load fine (or else its shear feature was useless) if it breaks, as long as the jack was set securely (pawl fully engaged) already.

I suspect you had a defect besides just the pin itself breaking.

I happen to have a diagram with that pin for a Torin, because a while back I bought a pair of Strongway 6 Ton from Northern Tool, which are a relabeled Torin set. The sheer pin on one of mine was broken out of the box but they wouldn't send me the pin, wanted me to ship the whole set back at my expense, then their expense to send the new set, for a 30 cent shear pin... which was annoying as well as wasteful and bad customer service, so I just kept them and found a pin in a parts bin.

Edit: Something screwy is going on with the image I linked, here's the link in case the image doesn't display:
https://imgur.com/a/mjEjqKp
I think imgur is overloaded right now, one time it gives a 403 error and refreshing, eventually makes it work.

demarpaint · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

Thanks for sharing. I checked mine they're not impacted by the recall.

dsaabm · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

driftpin said:
Here's how I look at this (from the CPSC release):

Personal Responsibility over Corporate Responsibility Rant .

Get a grip man, read the NHTSA report, they made these with worn out tooling. The pawl does not have proper engagement and can fail under load.

They are dangerous but if you trust the pawl tooth that you cannot see has proper engagement with the lifting post by all means keep using them....

cablebandit · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

So how do you know what part number you have? Since they use multiple part numbers for just about every product. Is it on the product anywhere?

demarpaint · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

cablebandit said:
So how do you know what part number you have? Since they use multiple part numbers for just about every product. Is it on the product anywhere?

My 6 ton stands have a part # decal on the side of the base.

chewy7 · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

we have like 8 of those orange ones on our farm. i wonder if those are the same part number too.

Parrothead · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

chewy7 said:
we have like 8 of those orange ones on our farm. i wonder if those are the same part number too.

Definitely check. I have the old orange jack stands too, and the part number is not part of the recall.

jacked_72 · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

My SIL had those a couple of months ago. One part number is good; the other is bad. I saw a video on Youtube about the problem. I have not seen any of the social media posts mentioned in the recall notice. I told him and he returned them. Good to know that HF is taking corrective action. Hope no one has been injured on these things in the years they've been in production.

here's the video:

yamaha0343 · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

Bacon! said:
Notice the part #, 61197. So far that is all that's effected.

Yes that would be very easy to do. It's one of my top gripes with HF tools, that the quality control is terrible. You can find a widget on a shelf and have to sort through all of them to find the best specimen, for example a pile of sledgehammers and some have loose heads that never should have been put on the ship to come here, and never put on the shelf to buy. I did have to do that, did buy their sledgehammer.

As a customer I'd rather not have to check whether the head is loose, and when it's a safety related item, it makes you stop and think about how many corners to cut when you thought your HF jack risk:benefit ratio was okay because you thought your HF jack stands were reliable.

I'll still buy HF tools, but not certain items, especially those where it's harder if not impossible to find a QC problem before purchase. Jack stands, I suppose I could see misshapen teeth or the pawl, but could I see a painted over, cast iron stress crack? I am not sure I would notice that.

That’s where I am, there’s a couple things I don’t mind from there, but HF as a company has not shown me anything that makes me believe I should trust my life to them on safety items like jack stands.

driftpin · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

mike93lx said:
I would say that roughly 99% of people don't check that. Come on. You act like this is common knowledge or was taught to everyone at some point.

Most people place the stand and lower the car onto it. Some probably give it a shake before crawling under

Ok I suppose the standard of safety with jack stands is < someone using any firearm. However if I'm using something that can kill me, if used in an unsafe manner, I owe it to my longevity to check-out what I need to-do to use it safely. Another person may just throw it under their car, and not-pay-attention to where the car's load is being transferred-to, is that particular point of the undercarriage strong-enough to bear the weight of the car/truck, or is it just an 18 ga. piece of sheetmetal, bolted in-place as a splash guard, and entirely unsuitable as a point of vehicle weight support?

I do work the ratchet/pawl mechanism, setting it so that I can feel the pawl drop into-place on the teeth of the adjustable load bearing beam, fully-engaged. When I lower the weight of the vehicle onto the top pad of the beam, I check to-see how the weight affects the legs of the jackstand. Sometimes I have to re-lift the vehicle, and re-position the jackstand, because I see that as the load settles, one side of the jackstand lifts, showing me that the load is not settling equally-across the four jackstand legs.

If some person is careless in his use of tools, and he is injured, there has to-be an assumption of risk on the part of the end-user that he knows how-to safely use the equipment, that he displays that knowledge, and minimizes his risk.

If worn tooling has affected the quality of a piece of equipment, then yes it should be removed from service.

Kev442 · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

jacked_72 said:
My SIL had those a couple of months ago. One part number is good; the other is bad. I saw a video on Youtube about the problem. I have not seen any of the social media posts mentioned in the recall notice. I told him and he returned them. Good to know that HF is taking corrective action. Hope no one has been injured on these things in the years they've been in production.

here's the video:

That video is great, gave me peace of mind over my orange 3 ton ones. Well, as much as HF product can give, anyway.

anndel · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

Hope no one experiences failures with these.

Steve_P · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

It is not that easy to tell if the pawl is fully engaged . You have to look in from the side and even then you can't really fully tell. And realistically no one does that. Anyone that thinks this is a no brainer, then ok, but this same type failure happened to me and I've been using jack stands 30+ yrs. I can always easily tell when the pin is in on my other stands. Plus I also decided to not trust the cast supports. There were pictures posted here years back of a broken cast support. And I'm not a HF hater, I bought my first tools from them in ~1985 and still occasionally shop there. But I no longer like this type of stand.

demarpaint · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

Mine are gray with the #62393. I'm guessing a revised later model, or from another mfg?

Motorman55 · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

Good video that explains the problem well. I have a pair of the bad ones too.
Guess we just take them back to HF and get a Gift card. Can't remember if I got these on sale or not. Wonder what the total amount will be credited.

mrvm · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

Motorman55 said:
Good video that explains the problem well. I have a pair of the bad ones too.
Guess we just take them back to HF and get a Gift card. Can't remember if I got these on sale or not. Wonder what the total amount will be credited.

Description of Remedy Program : Harbor Freight Tools will provide a gift card equal to the shelf price of
these jack stands to all customers who have purchased them.

All 6 Ton Heavy Duty Steel Jack Stands, model 61197

Jacobson · Apr 8, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

Busted Knucles said:
I wouldn't buy a screwdriver from HF much less a tool that supports a 5,000 lb vehicle over my body. Its simple, poor quality tools.

Keep paying $600 for a screwdriver on the ToolTruck

M635_Guy · Apr 9, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

Steve_P said:
It is not that easy to tell if the pawl is fully engaged . You have to look in from the side and even then you can't really fully tell. And realistically no one does that. Anyone that thinks this is a no brainer, then ok, but this same type failure happened to me and I've been using jack stands 30+ yrs. I can always easily tell when the pin is in on my other stands. Plus I also decided to not trust the cast supports. There were pictures posted here years back of a broken cast support. And I'm not a HF hater, I bought my first tools from them in ~1985 and still occasionally shop there. But I no longer like this type of stand.

I don't really like any kind of stands. I've used them for a long time, but my 50th b-day present to myself was a QuickJack and I love it. So much easier and safer.

I have the 3-ton version of these HF stands, and just went in my garage to inspect the teeth, pawl and lever on mine. Because of the QJ, I haven't used them yet - I bought them a while ago as a gift for a buddy who moved here with no tools, but would up letting him keep my set I'd loaned him.

M635_Guy · Apr 9, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

Busted Knucles said:
I wouldn't buy a screwdriver from HF much less a tool that supports a 5,000 lb vehicle over my body. Its simple, poor quality tools.

lol - I can't say I disagree that ensuring quality on something like a jack stand is always the right idea, but saying everything HF isn't good quality is just nonsense. Hell, I'd go as far as saying most HF tools are very good quality overall these days.

American Locomotive · Apr 9, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

driftpin said:
If you don't take the probably five seconds to confirm for yourself that the pawl is fully-engaged, before you load them, you don't have any-business crawling under a vehicle using these, or any jackstands in the first place. The HFT naysayers will be lining-up to slam HFT: crappy, killing tools! Pieces of sheet, etc.
]

It has nothing to do with checking that the pawl is engaged. The teeth on the moving part of the stand, and the pawl were manufactured out of tolerance. The teeth physically do not engage enough to support the rated weight.

It's got nothing to do with "making sure they are engaged"

thugline · Apr 9, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

mrvm said:
Description of Remedy Program : Harbor Freight Tools will provide a gift card equal to the shelf price of
these jack stands to all customers who have purchased them.

All 6 Ton Heavy Duty Steel Jack Stands, model 61197

I have 2 pairs of the defective stands. HF hasn't notified me yet and I no longer have the receipts.

demarpaint · Apr 9, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

thugline said:
I have 2 pairs of the defective stands. HF hasn't notified me yet and I no longer have the receipts.

I'd print the recall and bring them back to the store, once the CV problem passes. I doubt they'll hassle a safety recall. If they do notify HF corporate.

BDT/NWMN · Apr 9, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

jacked_72 said:
My SIL had those a couple of months ago. One part number is good; the other is bad. I saw a video on Youtube about the problem. I have not seen any of the social media posts mentioned in the recall notice. I told him and he returned them. Good to know that HF is taking corrective action. Hope no one has been injured on these things in the years they've been in production.

here's the video:

For the Members of the Garage Journal Quality Control Squad; That video is well worth watching. The test method could be used on any ratcheting jack stand. :beer:

Skin · Apr 9, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

Jacobson said:
Keep paying $600 for a screwdriver on the ToolTruck

I get what you're saying but one extreme doesn't justify the purchase of another. I'd use a HF floor jack no problem but when it comes to supporting thousands of pounds of steel over my head I wasn't going to run off and buy stands made by the lowest bidder. This is what happens and this is definitely not a piece of equipment you'd want to see a recall on. Shop around a bit more. Your life is worth it.

BonzoHansen · Apr 9, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

so you guys that say you won't use HF stands or don't use that style of stand anymore, what stands would you buy today?

jgromada · Apr 9, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

i never rely on just a single jack stand. I have enough i always double them up

mrvm · Apr 9, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

thugline said:
I have 2 pairs of the defective stands. HF hasn't notified me yet and I no longer have the receipts.

Just called my local HF store and they did not know about any jack stand recall. Gave them the item # 61197 and manager was able to find 6ton jack stand on his list as of March 13. Read to him part of the HF pdf about getting credit for them and he said that would be the steps to deal with the recall. Probably stop in there one of these days when it’s safer.

Farmall450 · Apr 9, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

Not shocking. Get O'Reilly's if you want to be cheap, I picked up a pair by chance and they're quite nice.

L5wolvesf · Apr 9, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

BonzoHansen said:
so you guys that say you won't use HF stands or don't use that style of stand anymore, what stands would you buy today?

I've never really liked that style but I have a pair that I picked up at a garage sale.

mike93lx · Apr 9, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

BonzoHansen said:
so you guys that say you won't use HF stands or don't use that style of stand anymore, what stands would you buy today?

I like my Esco stands a lot. About $50 each

BonzoHansen · Apr 9, 2020

Re: Harbor Freight recalls Pittsburgh 6 Ton Jack Stands

mike93lx said:
I like my Esco stands a lot. About $50 each

like so?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0019JVIPM/?tag=atomicindus08-20

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