Why I don't (hardly ever) buy from Harbor Freight

Everyone knows it’s unsafe and stupid to work under a vehicle that is not firmly supported by jack stands. Well, it turns out it can be unsafe and stupid to work under a vehicle that is supported by jack stands—if you bought them at Harbor Freight.

Recently the company announced a recall of some of its jack stands due to “. . . the possibility they could fail under load.” Customers who returned their stands were given a refund or credit. Apparently many of those customers, being, shall we say, somewhat slow learners, used the credit to buy the jack stands with which HF replaced the defective units.

Wrong move. Harbor Freight just announced a recall of those jack stands, too. Reportedly these stands fail due to the use of old and worn-out casting equipment that produced shafts with insufficient tooth engagement.

I understand the need to economize. But there are right ways to do so, and wrong ways. I actually own a Harbor Freight product: a two-ton hydraulic press. I bought it because I needed one for a particular job and wanted my own, but I knew I wouldn’t use it more than every few years. I also knew that if it broke, no dire consequences would ensue. The structure is a simple steel framework, the ram an ordinary hydraulic bottle jack, easily replaceable. It wasn’t a tool that could injure (or kill) me if it failed, nor could it strand me in the middle of nowhere.

The Harbor Freight story is an object lesson in the economics of cheap Chinese goods. Sure, labor costs are lower in China, but don’t imagine for a second that’s the only way companies that manufacture there cut costs. I took apart a Chinese winch a few years ago, a winch that appeared to be an exact copy of a Warn XD9000 from the outside despite costing a third as much. Once you got beyond the exterior, however, the differences were stark.

Obviously not all products made in China are junk—or cheap. I’m typing this on a pricey Macbook Pro that proclaims in zero point type on the back, “Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China.”

If you’re going to go for a cut-price Chinese product, however, just make sure it’s not one that could turn you into a garage pizza.