Harbor freight 6-ton jack stands NOT SAFE. What do you use on your 100? (1 Viewer)

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Pyrenees

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I apologize if this has been beaten to death already, but I'm in the process of evaluating what jacking tools I use and wanted to give anyone here a heads-up on this.

I went to HF today and bought a pair of their 6-ton (Pittsburgh) jack stands since I'm about to do the brakes and all I have is a pair of 3-ton stands. $37/pair after a coupon, what's not to like, right? I opened the box up in the parking lot just to check them out before the drive home. They were downright dangerous. I went inside and showed the folks and returned the stands 5 mins after I bought them.

I have no idea what the terminology is for these parts, but the lever-operated catch on the base part didn't fit all the way into the triangular notches on the adjustable insert part. Just the tip of the catch rested on the edge of the notch instead of nestling into it. This means the pressures exerted on the tips of the catch and the notch would have been enormous and unsafe. On top of that, one of the adjustable inserts had a very poorly-machined triangular notch (half of it was completely filled in and unusable) and one of them had a poorly-machined top cup (that would rest on the truck's frame rail). There was just a random huge chunk missing.

I'm planning on purchasing something like the LCP bottle jack frame rail adapter for on-the-road jacking, and I've already got a beefy floor jack from harbor freight for the lifting at home. I've bought a bunch of OK things from HF before that I love, but this was appalling.

What jack stands do you all like for your 100-series? I just need something that isn't going to drop my truck on my head.
 
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I use the 12-ton variant (12-ton for the pair...that's how jack stands are rated) mostly because I wanted the extra height. But after a dozen years of using them...I'd buy them again if I did it all over again.
 
So, while I was there, I noticed they had the 6-ton and the 12-ton. The 12's were HUGE. I mean freaking enormous. They were also pretty expensive, especially when considering that I will buy four of them for stuff like brake bleeds.

I just installed a factory Toyota Land Cruiser suspension on the LX last week, so no plans for a lift kit in my future. Any reason that I shouldn't just get four 6-ton stands?

Thanks guys.
 
I have 2 pairs of 12-tons, a pair of 6-ton, and a pair of 3-ton. All from various vendors. You just gotta check them out like you did before going nuts. But I also would argue that overkill is better. I like the 6 tons the most for lifting the axles and the 12-ton for anything on the frame.
 
I own 4 of those from HF, i don't have a good eye like you.

I use the jack, 6 tons and some 3 tons as well to give me piece of mind. I've held the entire truck with those 4 6 ton stands overnight while i spray the rims luckily they didn't fail.

They sell thousands, cant be that dangerous right?
 
I own 4 of those from HF, i don't have a good eye like you.

I use the jack, 6 tons and some 3 tons as well to give me piece of mind. I've held the entire truck with those 4 6 ton stands overnight while i spray the rims luckily they didn't fail.

They sell thousands, cant be that dangerous right?
I think the OP just got a batch that failed QC. Never blindly trust safety equipment mechanicals. Eyeball it, make sure it's straight, not destroyed, missing chunks, that it goes up and down properly, won't disconnect arbitrarily, etc. Unless you don't value your life, in which case, rock out.
 
I think the OP just got a batch that failed QC. Never blindly trust safety equipment mechanicals. Eyeball it, make sure it's straight, not destroyed, missing chunks, that it goes up and down properly, won't disconnect arbitrarily, etc. Unless you don't value your life, in which case, rock out.

This is more or less what I said to the HF lady when she asked me why I came right back in. I wasn’t mad about it, but instead glad that I never suspended 5500lbs of of steel over my body while using these things.

It’s one thing if you buy a cheap torque wrench for your mobile tool bag and it’s inaccurate, or another thing if the pivoting head snaps off your cheap breaker bar. It’s a whole other thing if you are crushed to death and slowly suffocate for ten minutes, leaving your wife and two kids alone in this dark world because you used crap jack stands.
 
This is more or less what I said to the HF lady when she asked me why I came right back in. I wasn’t mad about it, but instead glad that I never suspended 5500lbs of of steel over my body while using these things.

It’s one thing if you buy a cheap torque wrench for your mobile tool bag and it’s inaccurate, or another thing if the pivoting head snaps off your cheap breaker bar. It’s a whole other thing if you are crushed to death and slowly suffocate for ten minutes, leaving your wife and two kids alone in this dark world because you used crap jack stands.

Well that was sobering
 
I got the 12 tons ones from HF. I figured knowing the company it was better to be go way over board. I did not have any problem with them, they look fine and very beefy -although of course you can't tell the quality of the metal from the outside-. Be that as it may, I would never go under without putting in some backups under there somewhere, like wheels or big chunks of wood or rocks.
 
My next set of stands will be US Jack Company 6-Ton stands. I contacted the company and received email from their production manager with full explanation of jack stand rating per industry standards. Great customer support and 100% US made.
 
I went to HF today and bought a pair of their 6-ton (Pittsburgh) jack stands since I'm about to do the brakes and all I have is a pair of 3-ton stands. $37/pair after a coupon, what's not to like, right? I opened the box up in the parking lot just to check them out before the drive home. They were downright dangerous. I went inside and showed the folks and returned the stands 5 mins after I bought them.

There's a reason HF is known as "Horrible Fright". :eek:
 
I've got a set of the pro lift 6 ton stands. Two equal 6 ton capacity. The teeth grab well and they have a slide safety that I use.

I looked at the HF ones too but found issue with some welds on the ones at my store.
 
I built a set of these about decade ago and they're still going strong. Adjustable height with a screw gun. :) I simply didn't trust any cast-mechanical-lever-tooth-thingy, no matter where it's made.

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the hydraulic press channel has a vid where they test rounds of wood for compression strength. Pretty impressive. IIRC they were talking like 20 and 50 tons to break one.
 

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