Quote:
Originally Posted by soundman98
dude. where the hell did you think your were shopping?
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I knew exactly where I was shopping. I did my research before buying, and up until the recall their jacks and jack stands had a decent reputation. The biggest problem reported was not with Harbor Freight specifically, but with the pawl design in general (which that Snap On stand you linked shares) which can be kicked out and drop if it's not set properly and gets bumped. Some guy dropped a Porsche on himself with another brand that was designed that same way. I specifically looked for stories about failures and found them among several brands, HF no more than any other.
I have a diverse collection of automotive tools including Irwin, Kobalt, Craftsman, Milwaukee, Husky and Harbor Freight, plus specialty tools from Eastwood and several other brands. By far the worst stuff I've bought was Husky, and strangely second worst is Craftsman.
My general experience with HF is that it either works fine or it's dead out of the box. With hand tools, you can usually see whether it's fucked when you pick it up in the store. None of their stuff feels as good in the hand as Kobalt or Irwin. But I also don't buy things like ratchets or torque wrenches from HF. If I need a "dumb" tool that doesn't require a lot of precision, HF usually works just fine.
If you read the articles about the recall, they're all about
potential failure. I'm sure there's a story about an actual failure leading to the recall, but it's not quickly rising to the surface.