Bull Cockey HF new cherry picker..

All consumer products seam to be going that way. Bought a new GE gas stove. The switches on the burners that activate the lighter spark were made with such cheap plastic they failed after a few months. Still under warranty they said they could not find a repair man to send out. They were too busy. They still refuse to honor their warranty. I have GE stoves in rentals that are over ten years old and no trouble. I figured that if they held up in that environment that had to be ok. Wrong. GE sold of the appliance division to a China firm.
 
I worked at Appliance Park in Louisville, KY. They do everything they can to save a nickel, because everything they make will be line up at the Big Box "Home Improvement Center", so that people can compare them right next to each other, and then walk away with the one that XX.92 instead of XX.99.

Consumers products are going that way, because that is what consumers will buy.
 
pontiac428 said:
I have had both of these experiences with HF engine hoists and HF engine stands. They were made for 4-bangers. Even with a 4-cyl the stands still are tippy and the hoist can't be used at full reach. Folding my hoist at full ram extension was a separate event that I earned credit for, but having to weight the back of the hoist in a panic while pulling a 1.3l without the trans is silly.

There must be some simple fix to make these seemingly rudimentary tools functional. As purchased, it's as if these are designed to fail. They probably engineered them to fail 99% of the time, but the factory botched it 'cause it's Harbor Freight, so they only fail 40% of the time, missing their intended goal. Since it doesn't do what it's supposed to, it meets the HF gold standard, and they continue to be sales leading items.

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Horrible sight.

You are scaring me. I have both of them. My 4 banger has been sitting on the stand for 18 months now. I don't trust either of them, but it is what I have. I don't lean on the stand, or push it, as it seems just barely up to the task.
 
pontiac428 said:
I have had both of these experiences with HF engine hoists and HF engine stands. They were made for 4-bangers. Even with a 4-cyl the stands still are tippy and the hoist can't be used at full reach. Folding my hoist at full ram extension was a separate event that I earned credit for, but having to weight the back of the hoist in a panic while pulling a 1.3l without the trans is silly.

There must be some simple fix to make these seemingly rudimentary tools functional. As purchased, it's as if these are designed to fail. They probably engineered them to fail 99% of the time, but the factory botched it 'cause it's Harbor Freight, so they only fail 40% of the time, missing their intended goal. Since it doesn't do what it's supposed to, it meets the HF gold standard, and they continue to be sales leading items.

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Guys, don't let that bother you. John has a habit of tipping things over. I have seen the pics of him tipping his lathe over too. I think John just gets a little too tippsie too often. :D
 
I should have said those weren't my pics, but I've lived both experiences in several iterations. I didn't take pics, and if I did, several would have been on polaroid, because I've been cussing my HF engine hoist and engine stands for a really long time.

DavidR8 said:
Dang that second pic is painful!
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Dude, he got so lucky it landed on its side! I had a freshly built full-prep 4 cyl long block go over on its face! The point of balance is so bad, it went over forwards. Doesn't make a lick of sense. All it would take is making it wider and longer by a teeny bit, but maybe they had to save the steel for Three Gorges dam.

WobblyHand said:
Horrible sight.

You are scaring me. I have both of them. My 4 banger has been sitting on the stand for 18 months now. I don't trust either of them, but it is what I have. I don't lean on the stand, or push it, as it seems just barely up to the task.
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I have two on stands right now. One is a breeze to move, it's 180 lbs, so light it's common in UL aircraft. I think that's what HF had in mind, because the other one is a complete Honda B16 race motor, 350 wheel HP on plain air. It's putting a heck of a nod on that engine stand (the newer of the two). The one with the light motor has held a half dozen Pontiac V8s on it, but I bought it in the early 1990s. The one with the Honda on it scares me to tilt or rotate the motor on. For what they cost, you'd think they could make them out of heavy receiver tube and still pull a profit.

woodchucker said:
Guys, don't let that bother you. John has a habit of tipping things over. I have seen the pics of him tipping his lathe over too. I think John just gets a little too tippsie too often. :D
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I know, right? I even tipped my mill, but was an arc second to the right side of fate and it stopped short of catastrophe. I wobble when I walk, I've got crappy balance and even straight lines seem bowed unless I squint. But I'm not short on enthusiasm for what I do. Hey, you should see how I tip a cute waitress! (As long as she's cute when I squint)
 
So all you guys have these poorly executed copies of a real American engine stands.....how come I am not reading about the various solutions?
I don't care what anybody thinks my new engine crashes on the stand I am going to cry....
So how about welding a peice of box tubing cross wise (perpendicular) on the front with two wheels? Could be made with a smaller tube to fit in the original tube.
 
I can't bring myself to improve them out of spite for what they are. Replacing them with marvelous fabricated versions would be a project, and not a project I want to take on while I'm spending all my effort and resources on an engine. As soon as I'm done with the tools, they're in the corner and off my mind until something else shows up on four wheels, then it's go time, not time for fabbing a better hoist- because project car! It's part of the cycle of addiction.

Edit: I agree, I'd love to see the mods and solutions- it should be at least as good as the 4x6 band saw mod pool, don't you think?
 
Good old American stuff comes up on Craigslist every now and then....

John
 
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