[EDIT - I've got to start looking at the damn dates on posts. Too many zombie/resurrected threads...]
Thanks. I'm wary of Daytona since Harbor Freight couldn't make jackstands that didn't fall down.
That's not accurate. They did have a recall of a small number of stands that were defective. Since I owned a set of the stands affected, I did a lot of searching about it. As best I could tell, the number that escaped was very small and the defect extremely obvious. It should never have gotten out of the factory, but it was not a big number and there were zero reports I could find of any injuries, etc.,
When the internet whipped things into a frenzy, HF expanded the recall to any model/PN of 3 ton jack.
Shortly after this, a single guy showed a picture of a huge old Buick/similar sitting on one stand on asphalt. The car had apparently shifted and split the weld on the base. It's pretty clear that jack was being improperly used in at least a couple ways, but when the internet hopped on that pic they expanded their recall to essentially any stand ever sold by HF.
All in all, while I think it was a bad thing for any escapes to happen, it wouldn't be accurate to say they can't make jack stands that didn't fal down. I give them credit for acting quickly and broadly. I kept my recalled set for a while (because they did not have the defect, and had been often-used before all this, but when my wife heard about the recall she insisted I replace the stands. I was a little surprised when my new ProLift stands were clearly from the same factory (though weren't as cleanly made...):
I have since moved to an Esco set because I find the pins on these (and the new Daytonas that use the same thing) kinda fiddly. I got the similar Daytona set as a second/backup and they turned out to be more-cleanly executed too - lol.
Net: there was a hell of a lot more smoke that fire on that issue IMHO.
Taiwan would be OK but there isn't an easy way to differentiate between those and Chinese. I also looked at "assembled in USA from global components" but $600 was way too much.
There's actually a really easy way to tell: the product will say "Made in China" or "Made in Taiwan"
If there's no statement of COO, it's probably safe to assume made in China. I'm not aware of a brand that offers a Made in Taiwan floor jack, but of course they could exist...
My Made in China HF Dayton Super Duty 3 ton does an excellent job for me. I'm a DIYer, but supporting/maintaining six family car, so it stays busy. It was great today while replacing the strut tower mount and bearing on my wife's Odyssey.
That said, there has been a thread here where the Yellow Jacket from Northern Tool was identified as similar to the Daytona, but using superior y-rings over Daytona's o-rings. I think it is this jack:
https://www.northerntool.com/produc...-4in-23in-lift-range-56647#hotbar-description (still MiC as far as I know, but does have a four year warranty)
All that said, I have to say always hoped to find a deal on an 2-ton-or-so low-profile AC Hydraulic. They seem amazing, but at $800-$900+, I just went with a QuickJack.
