Me and some friends of mine needed to do some minor mechanical work on our cars last week and in the absence of any jacking tools thought we'd split the cost of some jacks and stands, deciding we might need them in future. Screwfix do a 2 Tonne combi kit for £27.99. Brilliant we thought.....a jack, two folding axle stands and two wheel chocks all in a carry case for under £30 quid. So I went and bought them last Tuesday. Was a little wary of the 'MADE IN CHINA' sticks and questionable English on the instructions, but not overly concerned. Didn't think there was much to go wrong with them.
On Friday we did the actual work. Nothing major; jacked up my friend's Mondeo Mk2 to change the coolant. Then moved onto my Focus to do the same. While I was there, I decided to jack up both the front and back of the car on the driver's side, to see if I could finally get my fuel filter changed. I had one jack stand under the front jacking point, the second one under the rear torsion beam with the jack left in place next to it as a backup.
I got my head under to do the fuel filter and glanced to my left to look at the front axle stand. Anyone who's familiar with jack stands will know that they have a shallow wedge shape. As I was looking, I noticed that one of the angled sides had actually started to flatten out under the weight of the car. So we stopped working and let the car down. My friend removed the other axle stand and I heard a "Erm, Dave, you better take a look at this" from the rear of the car. Looked down at the jackstand he was holding and the pin holding the top of one of the the folding legs had actually sheared and come away; the whole rear of the car over my head had been sitting on a jack stand that, had it been knocked or jolted, would have collapsed
Needless to say, I took the whole set back for a full refund. Thinking about it, I should have got some pictures of the damage to show everyone. I told the guy I wanted a refund because they failed on first use, but he didn't seem to care much, just gave me the refund. Just wanted to let anyone else who has this set or is thinking of buying it to be wary, they are certainly not of the best quality. I'll be looking for something not made China next time.
On Friday we did the actual work. Nothing major; jacked up my friend's Mondeo Mk2 to change the coolant. Then moved onto my Focus to do the same. While I was there, I decided to jack up both the front and back of the car on the driver's side, to see if I could finally get my fuel filter changed. I had one jack stand under the front jacking point, the second one under the rear torsion beam with the jack left in place next to it as a backup.
I got my head under to do the fuel filter and glanced to my left to look at the front axle stand. Anyone who's familiar with jack stands will know that they have a shallow wedge shape. As I was looking, I noticed that one of the angled sides had actually started to flatten out under the weight of the car. So we stopped working and let the car down. My friend removed the other axle stand and I heard a "Erm, Dave, you better take a look at this" from the rear of the car. Looked down at the jackstand he was holding and the pin holding the top of one of the the folding legs had actually sheared and come away; the whole rear of the car over my head had been sitting on a jack stand that, had it been knocked or jolted, would have collapsed
Needless to say, I took the whole set back for a full refund. Thinking about it, I should have got some pictures of the damage to show everyone. I told the guy I wanted a refund because they failed on first use, but he didn't seem to care much, just gave me the refund. Just wanted to let anyone else who has this set or is thinking of buying it to be wary, they are certainly not of the best quality. I'll be looking for something not made China next time.
Infact for hardware I now stick to brands I know or if I am going to go cheap I'll get it from Machine Mart where I can physically see what I'm buying.
