Harbor frieght aluminum jack. "RACING JACK"

[Rojodiablo]

Yeah... if you intend to finish dead last. My big jack was borrowed, and it uh, came back not working so well. So in a pinch, I went to HF and got the aluminum jack. Figured it would be light, and decent for a trail jack. I dunn figgerd' wrong. jack sucked. Bled it, added oil, bled it. It would elevate half way pretty quick, then just SUCK. maybe 1/8" lift per throw of the handle. Took the POS back. They had many, many returns there to deal with. DEFECTIVE EVERYTHING. I told the girl when it was my turn, Harbor Frieght has delivered the quality I have come to expect from them. She laughed a lot, until her boss gave her snake-eye!:mad: Grumpy biatch.. Got my money, went home, flushed and purged my old jack. It works decent again. Says it was made in a place called Ohio. I don't know what part of China Ohio is in, but the 20yr old jack I have from there still works better than the 1 day old jack from the other parts of China. :nono: more HF tools for me ever. Just the consumables, like grinder disks, it isn't worth it for the headache.

[Reptile]

A friend bought that jack and I was going to get one also until we had to use it. Tried it on both his Chipper and 1 ton Dodge Diesel truck and it wouldn't lift either. My $20, 20 year old steel K-mart jack lifted both things, although it didn't seem happy doing it. It looks sturdy and very well made, I wonder what the problem is? I may offer to buy his and see what needs to be changed/altered to make it work properly :confused: . I'm thinking the fast raise system.

[steve45]

I've had one for about 3 years. It works great! In fact, I just finished using it about 30 minutes ago. It's the middle one, 3000# capacity. They have another 3000# unit that doesn't lift as high, and another 4000# one that is a lot more expensive.

I was surprised that mine will lift my 4x4 Suburban, no problem.

I did have a problem with it once. It was working erratically, and I tried putting more fluid in it and bleeding it. Turned out that the vent was plugged.

[gnm109]

30 years ago I bought a Hein-Werner ton and a half floor jack. It's still going strong and I'm sure glad I have it. I bought a Craftsman floor jack from Sears once and it leaked and let the car down before I could get a jack stand under it. The ones at HF are scary, too.

There are few bargains in floor jacks. I'd spend more to get a good one that is safe.

[steve45]

I'd spend more to get a good one that is safe.
I would never get under any vehicle that didn't have jackstands under it.

[thumbs]

gmn109

"30 years ago I bought a Hein-Werner ton and a half floor jack"

Funny I did the same about the same time. I used it for a while but it leaked down all the time. I went to have it rebuilt and it was a fortune. I then got a cheap 2.5 ton from China for about 60 bucks. I really thought it would last a year or two at best. Nope. I've been usin the thing for years with no problems. I guess ya never know. I really hate to buy from China. I know almost everything we buy comes from there but damn can't we compeat anymore?

[MicroZone]

gmn109

"30 years ago I bought a Hein-Werner ton and a half floor jack"

Funny I did the same about the same time. I used it for a while but it leaked down all the time. I went to have it rebuilt and it was a fortune. I then got a cheap 2.5 ton from China for about 60 bucks. I really thought it would last a year or two at best. Nope. I've been usin the thing for years with no problems. I guess ya never know. I really hate to buy from China. I know almost everything we buy comes from there but damn can't we compeat anymore?

The sad truth is NO. Wal-Mart currently imports 88% of their total merchandise from there. What happens - cheap Americans buy stuff there because...well, it's cheap. Wal-Mart basically founded their company on this - buy alot of stuff for next to nothing...or at a lower price than their nearest competitor. So, until we stop buying from Wallie World, who had a business motto not too long ago of "made in America" ...then the massive imports will continue. It's a vicious cycle!

[wallythacker]

But has everyone noticed that as consumer goods prices plummeted housing and services (heat, light, gas) have gone ballistic?

I don't know if

1. soaring house prices caused consumer goods prices to plummet (can't stay in business if you can't sell enough of it, mortgage comes first to most people, make and sell it cheaper, even if it means getting it from China)

or

2. Are cheap goods driving up the prices of housing? (With all this cheap stuff from China people have more money to pay a bigger mortgage)

There's no way an average family could make it if they had to pay the price for all locally made goods plus their mortgage, taxes, heat etc. No way at all.

The *average* AmeriCadian has no choice but to buy the cheapest priced goods or live in a cardboard box. IMO.

Yep, it's a vicious cycle and it's not going to let up

[David R]

I bought a 3 ton long frame jack from harbor freight 2 years ago. It think it was $219.00. I also got the extended 2 year warrenty for $20.00. I asked the guy if it was covered even if I tied it in a pretzel. He said yes. Well, I own a garage and was using it out side on unlevel ground. I twisted it pretty good. Took it back and got a new one. This one I welded a 3/8 plate on the bottom to give it some strength. Had no trouble. Used it today.

I also bought their 2,000 lb transmission jack. Used it to change a 10 speed in a mack. It was about all it could handle, but it did the job. Not bad for $300.00. Its the BALLS for gas tanks.

As far as the warrenty, I bought a auto darkening helmet there for $59.00. Used it for a year. Was welding light posts in a paking lot on a HOT summer day. The lot had been paved that morning. I was sweating like mad and it trashed the electronics. I bought a new one and the 2 year warrenty. Took the old one back a week later with the warrenty. They exchanged it with out even looking at the paper work. Now I have 2 good ones.

David

[Ben Wilson]

I've got a similar aluminium jack which isn't as good as a quality steel jack, but the light weight is a huge advantage if you actually want to use it for motorsport. Lugging a full weight jack in and out of the back of my ute at rallys teaches you very quickly that a light weight jack has its advantages...