Technical How can you be safe?

Strange title but.. How can you be safe when your safety equipment breaks?

I was rotating my tires on my OT daily driver when this happened, both at the same time!



I had both of my legs under the car lifting the tire and wheel onto the hub when it collapsed. I banged up a knee but that was nothing compared to what could have happened. They were 3 ton jack stands.

Larry

 

wow!!! Your a LUCKY man...where did those stands come from?

 

Holy Crap! Where and when did you buy those stands?

 

Dang!

 

Pretty sure Harbor Freight had a recall few years ago on some like that.

 

WOW! You were LUCKYY!!

 

Are those a pair from the famous Horrible Freight recall a few years ago?

 

What is the make of those stands??
I sure am glad you’re alright.
I never forget the ambulance runs to these type of accidents.
My memory instantly goes to seeing two legs coming out from under a car that fell.
Always always use two stands on each side with one of them as a backup.

 

WOW! You were LUCKYY!!

 

I bought them from Harbor Freight but I've used them for about 10 years and have had a lot heavier vehicle on them and have never had a problem.

 

yep, safety first - always expect the unexpected

 

I'm going to buy me some 20 ton jack stands now, I've used up another life with this and I'm not sure I have any left.

 

spend more money on your safety equipment?

 

That is the reason that they were recalled. You should have been notified.

 

Cheap safety equipment. It's an oxymoron.

 

I spent 3 days unconscious, without a jackstand.
I have more than a dozen today.
Don't believe there are any HF. I spent loads at the Boys

 

The black moveable part must have been made of cast iron, not forged.

 

Glad your OK. One of my bike riding pals was not as lucky. He was crushed in his own driveway, when a jack stand collapsed on him. No one was home at the time, later on his wife pulled into the driveway, and saw a puddle of blood around his car. I never heard what brand of jack stands, his wife moved away and never talked much about it.
Be careful out there.

 

The H.F. units that were recalled were because of welds on the lower part. I have not seen any recalls involving the cast part.

 

And always , the gory ,bloody testimonial .......

 

I believe those were made by Lincoln and I have the Lincoln version. The only ones I know of that are USA made are Gray Manufacturing. We use them at work.

 

Ah yes and the mandatory cob webs and wish maker. All my stands have them.

 

Wow. Your lucky day.

 

The load was surely straight down on those things. I don't get it.

 

To me it looks like the load slid sideways and snapped the uprights. Were the tires chocked?

 

If the arms were cast iron then they are brittle, shock loads will cause cracking which will lead to failure.

 

All of my jack stands are more then 20 years old. There were times you used to feel better replacing those old safety things for new safety things, but I'm thinking we may be well past the point of that being a good idea. Think I'm sticking with my old jack stands.

I've got about a 10 year old HF floor jack. Its been great up to about a month ago. Suddenly, that 10 year old 3 ton jack won't even lift the front end of my Dakota 4x4 pickup. I have no idea what I'm going to replace it with. Not sure they make a USA manufactured floor jack these days, but given the quality of almost everything these days, I'm not sure a made in the USA floor jack is any better then the HF jack at 1/4 the price the last USA jacks I saw were.

 

Glad you are OK and thanks for the heads up.

 

40 some years ago, a friend of mine was killed when a jack stand collapsed and crushed him. Ever since then, I never get under a car up on jack stands without a big wooden block in place as a backup.