Harbor Freight has issued two separate jack stand recalls because some of them are defective and pose a safety risk to consumers.

On May 3, 2020 Harbor Freight recalled approximately 1.2 million Pittsburgh Automotive 3-Ton Heavy-Duty Steel Jack Stands.

Earlier in the year, they also recalled approximately 454,000 Pittsburgh Automotive 6-Ton Heavy-Duty Steel Jack Stands.

The recall has been issued in cooperation with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

We contacted an attorney investigating the Harbor Freight jack stand recall and he stated, “Defective jack stands can pose a serious, life-threatening risk to people who have a jack stand suddenly and unexpectedly fall on them or crush them.”

According to the NHTSA Safety Recall Report, “after ongoing quality testing, inspection and assurance reviews of 3 Ton Heavy Duty Steel Jack Stands manufactured by Jiaxing Golden Roc Tools Co. Ltd, it was determined that product quality was inconsistent due to aging of the tooling and inconsistent location indexing of the pawl armature hole. All jack stands imported from this manufacture as part number 61196 and 56371 are included in the recall population. Although we believe this issue arose in more recent production batches, because we are not able to confirm the earlier production units do not have this issue, out of an abundance of caution we are recalling all units prior to the recall date.“

The jack stands sold by Harbor Freight that are recalled are manufactured under the brand name Pittsburgh Automotive. 

The 6 Ton Jacks include Part No.: 61197 (manufactured between June 2012 through November 2019) and 61196 (manufactured between December 2012 through December 2019). 

The 3 Ton Jacks include Part No.: 56731 (manufactured between January 2020 through March 2020) and 61196 (manufactured between December 2012 through December 2019).