Harbor Freight’s recall of 3- and 6-ton jack stands was spurred by 11 reported injuries, Harbor Freight spokesman Craig Hoffman told Road & Track in an email. The issue—which can cause the stand to disengage and collapse—affects a small percentage of units from a certain factory. To be safe, the entire production run from that factory has been recalled.
“[O]ver the course of the sales of these [6-ton] jack stands, we received 11 claims of injuries related to their use, none of them life threatening,” Hoffman told R&T in an email. “And there have been no fatalities.”
The company went through the mandatory process of notifying the NHTSA when the defect was discovered. After the NHTSA approved the recall along with Harbor Freight’s proposal for contacting customers, the company began notifying the public to return the affected jack stands for a store credit.
“There is no way for someone to tell if their jack stand is one of the small group that has this inconsistency, so we are recalling all of the jacks that come from this one factory and advising our customers who purchased them to return them to the store (or by mail) for a gift card for the original purchase price,” Hoffman said via email.
All other jack stands from Harbor Freight have been inspected and tested for this fault, which led to the simultaneous recall of a second 3-ton jack stand model. All unsold units that fall under the recall have been removed from stores, but Harbor Freight assures customers that it has tested all of its other jack stand models and found them to be safe for use.
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