On replacing my jack stands

[Hovannes]

My '26 Master's tires are shot and I'm also planning to drop the oil pan, so I brought my jack stands out of storage because I thought they'd eventually come in handy.  They're Harbor Freight Orange 6 ton rated probably circa 1982.

Looking at the new Harbor Feight jack stands I notice they now have a triangular shape insert that holds the column in place in addition to the pawl.

A little searching on the web and I found out why---it was found to be hit or miss how much the pawl surface  will engage the ratchets on the column, so it could fail, and tragically has failed on some of these jack stands, hence the design change.

Not wanting to end up a pancake----this is supposed to be fun, right?---- I figure a set of new jack stands is in order so my question is, should I get 3 ton rated jack stands or 6 ton rated jack stands for my 26' Buick?  It's a big heavy vehicle but does it require 6 ton jack stands?

Which size jack stands do you use on your pre-warBuick?

[Robert Engle]

The question  is how high do you want the car on the jack stands?  if you just want the tires off the ground for removal, the 3 ton stands will do just fine.  If you want more room to roll under the car on a creeper for lubing and oil pan removal etc.  Get the 6 ton  stands. 

Bob Engle 

[Hovannes]

6 tons it is then, thanks!

[Larry Schramm]

On 8/7/2023 at 10:02 PM, Hovannes said:

My '26 Master's tires are shot and I'm also planning to drop the oil pan, so I brought my jack stands out of storage because I thought they'd eventually come in handy.  They're Harbor Freight Orange 6 ton rated probably circa 1982.

Looking at the new Harbor Feight jack stands I notice they now have a triangular shape insert that holds the column in place in addition to the pawl.

A little searching on the web and I found out why---it was found to be hit or miss how much the pawl surface  will engage the ratchets on the column, so it could fail, and tragically has failed on some of these jack stands, hence the design change.

Not wanting to end up a pancake----this is supposed to be fun, right?---- I figure a set of new jack stands is in order so my question is, should I get 3 ton rated jack stands or 6 ton rated jack stands for my 26' Buick?  It's a big heavy vehicle but does it require 6 ton jack stands?

Which size jack stands do you use on your pre-warBuick?

 

Check on line if your HF jack stands might be included in a recall that they had a few years ago.  They might be eligible for replacement.

[Hovannes]

2 hours ago, Larry Schramm said:

 

Check on line if your HF jack stands might be included in a recall that they had a few years ago.  They might be eligible for replacement.

I checked and sadly the serial numbers aren't in the range affected by the recall.

[Brian_Heil]

Harbor Freight jack stand and recall.  
 

That about sums up their product for me. 

[hidden_hunter]

40 years service seems pretty good to me! I've previously eyed off some US made ones when the time comes to replace our no longer manufactured Australian made ones

[Hovannes]

The new Harbor Freight jack stands with the triangular bar that locks the ratchet teeth in place so all the weight isn't resting on the pawl looks like a solid design to me. At 80 bucks for two 6 tonners, I'll have to wait until they go on sale though.

The blue ones look pretty snazzy!

[Hovannes]

4 hours ago, hidden_hunter said:

40 years service seems pretty good to me! I've previously eyed off some US made ones when the time comes to replace our no longer manufactured Australian made ones

They could probably go for another 40 years easy.  The flaw is that the weight bears on the pawl, which provides a minimal bearing surface for the ratchet teeth to bear upon.  Any weakening of the pawl from corrosion, wear or out of spec forging and..... that's all she wrote.

The new design fixes the problem.