Flat tire on a tow truck in rush hour taught me a lesson about cheap tools

I was on the shoulder of I-5 near Seattle around 5 PM last Tuesday, trying to swap a donut onto a customer's Honda Civic. My $40 scissor jack from Harbor Freight started bending sideways the second I got the car off the ground. The whole thing tilted and the car almost slid off onto the highway shoulder. I had to block the wheels with my spare floor jack from my truck, jack it up again, and finish the job with crap visibility and traffic roaring past. Took me 45 minutes instead of 15 and the customer was standing there freaking out. Has anyone else had a cheap jack fail on them in a bad spot like that? I'm thinking about spending $150 on a real trolley jack now.

2 comments

2 Comments

kaib181mo ago

Wait, the scissor jack actually started bending sideways while you had the car up? That's terrifying man, I would have been freaking out worse than the customer lol. Glad you had that floor jack handy or that could have been a real mess on the highway.

dakotal161mo ago

Started bending sideways" is the part that gets me. Was it like a slow creep or did it just let go all at once? I've always wondered how much warning you actually get before those scissor jacks fold.