HF jack stands

[Donald]

Awhile ago there was a post about a tiny pin coming partially out of a HF jack stand. And it was mentioned this was a safety issue. I searched for it and read through a bunch of posts but could not find it.

I pulled two HF jack stands from under my boat trailer as I finally got the wheels back on after upgrading to disc brakes.

One of my jack stands had an issue with the pin and the other did not.

But I disagree its a safety issue. The pin merely holds the finger to the handle. It has nothing to do with the finger jamming into the teeth of the moveable support. Once the finger is jammed the handle is out of the picture.

True without the pin you have to fiddle with the finger a bit, but no big deal.

 

[skyactiv]

It's a roll pin. The jack can safely support a vehicle with a broken roll pin. Lowering the jack stand is no fun however.

 

[Donald]

Now is the best answer to get a new roll pin or bang in the one thats only half way in?

 

[stephen9666]

Just push it back in. It's actually a shear pin. So if you replace it with a normal roll pin it might not have the same breaking number as the original pin. Frankly, it would probably be fine, but better to keep the original.

BTW - the pin falling out isn't really a safety issue. It makes the stand pretty difficult to use, but it won't make the stand drop under load.

 

[stephen9666]

And, the original thread in question was removed because if the dumb arguing.

Here's a post I made in another thread referencing the deleted thread and the issue at hand:
Originally Posted By: stephen9666
Originally Posted By: Donald
But this particular thread talked about possible safety issues with a HF jack stand and I was going to look at some of the HF jack stands I have and then review some of the pictures and comments.


Without rehashing the thread,

It's not encouraging that a piece broke or fell out, but according to the manual it wasn't really a safety risk. It did, however, pretty much render the stand unusable.

The piece that fell out or broke was a shear pin. It's supposed to break if someone pulls on the handle when there's a vehicle on the stand. The pin breaks to prevent someone from accidentally lifting the handle and releasing the stand when there's weight on it.

The pin failing or falling out means you can't easily use the stand anymore, because the handle is disengaged from the pawl. But the the stand would not drop a vehicle if the pin fell out or broke while the stand is in use.

I looked at my various jack stands. They're all Chinese, but not HF brand stands, and they have the same shear pin safety feature.

Pics from the owner's manual:

 

[Donald]

Even if the handle was welded to the pawl, I do not believe one could lift the handle up enough to disengage the lifting
suppport.

While annoying, the jack stand is still usable.

 

[stephen9666]

Originally Posted By: Donald
Even if the handle was welded to the pawl, I do not believe one could lift the handle up enough to disengage the lifting
suppport.


You could if you accidentally hit the handle with the jack as the jack was going up. I suspect that's the main concern.