2023 test11 productsAuto Parts & Repair
Which Jack Stands (6 Ton Rated Pairs) Brand Wins?
A head-to-head test of 11 jack stands (6 ton rated pairs) options with the measured results for each. See how they ranked and watch the full test video.
Some figures on this page were transcribed from the test video and have not been independently re-verified. Treat the numbers as a close guide and watch the full video for the exact readings.
Ranked first
TCE
Price shown in test: $46
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The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Scroll sideways to see all measurements. Products are listed in the order they finished.
| Product | Made in | Height range | Weight | Welds | Side-to-side movement (highest setting) | Test 1 - lateral tip force (Ford Ranger, dry pavement) | Test 2 - rubber mat/soft asphalt simulation | Test 3 - two-leg forward tip test | Handle test, lock removed (~800 lb load) | Handle test, roll pin in place (~1,400 lb load) | Test 4 - maximum vertical load to failure (100 ton press, flat surface) | Claims | Side-to-side movement | Test 1 - lateral tip force | Test 4 - maximum vertical load to failure | Quality control note | Quality note | Asymmetry note | Design | Note | Test 1 - lateral tip force (three-legged stability check) | Test 4 - maximum vertical load to failure (repaired with a bolt after Test 1 breakage) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1TCE$46 | China | approximately 15in to just about 24in | transcript reads '14.77%'; almost certainly 14.77 lb with the unit garbled to a percent sign, kept literal and flagged | described as pretty decent | just over 1/2 inch | transcript reads '1866 lb'; almost certainly garbled (an inserted or misplaced digit), since every other brand in this same test scored in the 150-200 lb range and the Arcan result is explicitly stated as '18 lb less than the TCE' at 169 lb, which would put the TCE's true value at about 187 lb, not 1866; kept literal with this cross-reference flagged rather than silently corrected | 154.32 lb; test was stopped early (before full failure) to preserve the stand for further testing | no distinct number stated directly for the TCE in this test; only inferable from the Arcan's own result being described as '15 lb more than the TCE' at 350 lb, implying an inferred TCE value of about 335 lb; this is a derived/inferred figure, not a directly quoted one | collapsed with only around 180 lb of upward force on the handle | roll pin sheared at just over 200 lb; passed | almost 39,000 lb when all four feet buckled/crushed | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 2Arcan$55 | China | 15 5/8 in to 24 5/8 in (11in of total range) | 15.52 lb | look better than the TCE's welds, but has a lot of slop in the ratchet bar | not tested | not tested | transcript reads '1549 lb'; almost certainly garbled, since the narrator explicitly says this result is 'almost the same as the TCE' (154.32 lb), implying the true value is about 154.9 lb, not 1549; kept literal with this cross-reference flagged | 350 lb, described as 15 lb more than the TCE's inferred value; has a longer base than the TCE, which helped | does not have a locking pin to prevent collapse if the handle is contacted; dropped the load with only 27 lb of upward force, much weaker than the TCE | roll pin did not shear until about 268 lb; passed | not tested | base pads prevent the jack from sinking into asphalt; counterweighted pawl locks in place; 10.5 by 11.5in base for superior stability | almost 7/10 of an inch | 169 lb, stated as 18 lb less than the TCE | close to 33,000 lb; handle twisted and the locking mechanism was crushed under load; same type of ratchet-bar failure later seen on the Sunex | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 3Big Red$70 | China | 15 3/8 in on the lowest setting to 23 7/8 in on the highest | 15.11 lb | quality looks about the same as the TCE | not tested | not tested | transcript reads '148.9mm'; the 'mm' unit is clearly a caption artifact (should be lb, not millimeters); the vehicle fell off one of the jack stands at this point, and the feet were described as digging badly into the rubber mat | 362 lb, described as good enough to move into the lead over the Arcan; has a lower maximum height than the Arcan, which helped, despite a shorter base | not tested | roll pin held to almost 300 lb, described as 100 lb more than the TCE, before finally giving out with 'a big bang' (bent ratchet bar and four bent legs) | not tested | large saddle surface area for better load contact | just over 1/3 of an inch, the best (least movement) of the brands tested up to that point in the video | 189.5 lb, the best yet at that point in testing | just over 36,000 lb; one leg began to buckle before the final failure with a bent ratchet bar and four bent legs | one ratchet bar was extremely stiff and would not settle into the locked position without help; the other stand's ratchet started stiff and loosened up quickly; the chain holding the locking pin arrived already broken | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 4Larin$80 | China | 14.5 in to 24 1/4 in (11.75in total range, the most of any brand) | 12.95 lb, the lightest of the brands tested up to that point in the video | not tested | not tested | not tested | 151 lb, described as still a pretty good performance; this brand's feet lack rubber pads, which held it back somewhat and caused sinking into the mat | 371.5 lb, described as moving into the lead over the Big Red; uses a locking pin design rather than a ratchet bar, which the narrator credits for the strong result | not tested | not tested | not tested | heavy-duty steel body and collar; locking-pin style (not a ratchet bar) for added safety; full welds for added strength | less than 1/2 inch, described as pretty good | just over 172 lb before losing balance | not tested | not tested | narrator jokes this stand 'looks like it was built on a Friday just before punching the time clock' | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 5Daytona$80 (same price as Larin; sold at Harbor Freight) | China | not tested | transcript reads '15.82% 7 lb'; almost certainly a garbled 15.82 lb (heaviest of the brands stated up to that point), kept literal and flagged | not tested | not tested | not tested | almost 154 lb, described as performing well; foot pads helped prevent sinking into the mat | 334.3 lb; ratchet bar leaned toward the front of the vehicle a little during the test with the locking pins in place | not tested | roll pin did not break until over 360 lb, the best yet at that point in testing | not tested | heavy duty reinforced steel base; double locking mobility pin for extra safety; welded foot pads to disperse the load | not tested | no clear individual number given in the transcript for this brand in this specific test; the surrounding sentence only confirms 'the Big Red holds onto the lead' (implying Daytona scored lower than Big Red's 189.5 lb), but no distinct Daytona figure is stated; flagged as a data gap rather than invented | just over 33,000 lb; ratchet bar assembly began to stretch | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 6Sunex$87 | China | not tested | transcript reads '15.53% behind the tce'; the weight figure (approximately 15.53 lb) is followed by a garbled, seemingly unrelated fragment ('behind the tce') that does not parse as a coherent sentence; kept literal and flagged as unresolvable caption corruption | not tested | not tested | not tested | 169.99 lb; pads on the feet helped it stay stable on all four legs | 345.8 lb; the ratchet bar began to lift and lean forward, shifting the center of gravity | not tested | roll pin held on for a long time before finally letting go at 340 lb | not tested | large saddles with locating lugs for support; self-lock ratchet stud that prevents the stand from lowering under load | not tested | not tested | just over 33,000 lb; ratchet bar and assembly bent and broke, described as the same type of failure seen on the Arcan | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 7Husky$90 | China | not tested | transcript reads '15.4.1 lbs' (a double decimal point, a clear caption-split-decimal artifact); almost certainly 15.41 lb, kept literal and flagged | quality seems acceptable but not as good as some other brands | not tested | not tested | not tested | 372 lb, moving into the lead; benefits from a longer base; transcript describes this as 'less than a pound less than the Larin' even though 372 is numerically greater than Larin's 371.5, an apparent internal logic inconsistency kept as stated rather than corrected | not tested | roll pin broke at 242 lb, about 100 lb less than the Sunex | not tested | heavy-duty steel base with anti-sink feet for added durability and safety | just over 1/2 inch; anti-sink feet add a lot of stability | transcript reads '1995.5 lb'; following the same apparent garble pattern seen with the TCE and other brands in this test (an extra/misplaced digit inflating a ~150-200 lb range result), the true value is likely around 199.5 lb; kept literal and flagged, described as moving into the lead when it finally reached the tipping point | described as reaching almost 36,000 lb with a bad popping sound, then continuing ('jumped right back into the fight') to a further failure noted at 32,000 lb when the ratchet bar and assembly began bending and breaking; the two-stage description is kept as stated even though the second figure is lower than the first, rather than assumed to be a single result | not tested | not tested | one of the pair's stands is about 5/16 in taller than the other; lowest position just over 15.2in, highest just over 24.5in | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 8Esco$145 for the pair | China (implied; not explicitly restated but consistent with all other brands except Hein Werner and US Jack) | just under 13in without the rubber pad, just under 21in with it | 11.51 lb, the lightest yet at that point in the video | look good enough but not as good as some other brands | not tested | not tested | 147.5 lb; the three-leg design held it back a little, though the foot pads did a pretty good job | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | circular base pads for maximum stability and safety; rated 3 tons per stand or 6 tons for the pair per the owner's manual | almost 1/2 inch | not tested | almost 30,000 lb | not tested | not tested | not tested | the only three-legged jack stand design in the video | does not offer enough lifting height to keep the rear wheels of the test Ford Ranger off the ground; the narrator gently lowered the truck and chained the rear axle to the frame for the remaining tests as a result | 187.5 lb; large foot pads and lower clearance both helped a three-legged design in this test | not tested |
| 9ZSP$178 | China | about 10.5in to around 16.25in on the highest setting, offering notably less ground clearance than other brands | extremely light at only 4.35 lb | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 6 ton adjustable performance car and truck jack stand (3 ton per stand); built with high quality cast ductile iron; very compact; manufacturer claims it is 'as steady as a rock' | almost 3/4 of an inch, the most slop of any brand tested | both jack stands broke (not merely tipped) at only 95 lb of lateral force; explicitly called out by the narrator as 'definitely the most dangerous jack stands I've ever seen' | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | with the center bar carrying the load (legs not load-bearing in this configuration), reached almost 15,000 lb, about half the load of the other brands, before failing; a second ZSP stand tested with the legs carrying the load instead had one leg completely break off at around 5,000 lb |
| 10Hein Werner$179 | USA | not tested | transcript reads '2.42m it', an unresolvable caption corruption; described as by far the heaviest jack stand of the video, but no usable numeric value could be recovered | not tested | not tested | not tested | transcript reads '159.jpg' (an unmistakable caption/OCR corruption where a number appears to have been replaced by an image filename-like string); described as offering the second highest ground clearance of all brands but lacking foot pads; the narrator separately states this brand 'moves into second place' and 'performed very well' at this same garbled '159.jpg' figure, followed immediately by an oddly-placed '3351 lbs' fragment that does not fit this test's expected range and may actually belong to the later two-leg forward tip test (where Husky, Hein Werner, and Larin are said to finish within a pound of each other around 372 lb); none of this could be confidently resolved to real numbers and is flagged rather than guessed | not tested | not tested | roll pin held in for quite a long time before finally breaking at just over 300 lb | not tested | dual-purpose handle serves as both a carry handle and a saddle-column release; multi-purpose ratchet bar for strength and durability | not tested | 187.5 lb before 'dancing around' on the way down, nearly knocking over the camera (camera survived undamaged); this figure is numerically identical to the Esco's stated Test 1 result of 187.5 lb, which may be coincidental or may reflect a transcript duplication; flagged rather than assumed | just over 31,000 lb; ratchet bar assembly broke near the weld | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 11US Jack$280 (most expensive jack stand in the video) | USA | most clearance of any brand, just over 25.5in | 14.52 lb | look very good | not tested | not tested | not tested | transcript reads '2978 lb'; following the same apparent extra-digit garble pattern as other brands in these tests, almost certainly about 297.8 lb; described as hurt by not having as long a base as some other brands despite offering the highest lift | not tested | did not collapse despite quite a bit of upward force applied; uses a different (non-roll-pin) locking mechanism so no comparable numeric force is given | not tested | double lock security system using two pawls to engage two teeth on the load bar | less than 1/10 of an inch, the least slop of any brand tested, though the narrator notes its greater height puts it at a disadvantage in the tipping tests | 186.653 lb (transcript caption split the decimal across a line break: "186.65" then "3 lb"; joined as one continuous reading); toppled over at this point, described as finishing behind the Big Red (189.5 lb), with 'several other brands were all within a pound of each other' | feet began to buckle at almost 37,000 lb, but the ratchet bar itself did not give up; legs finally buckled at over 47,500 lb, the highest failure load of any brand in the video | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
How it was tested
- lateral tip force test (Ford Ranger loaded onto jack stands on dry pavement, force to reach tipping point)
- soft asphalt simulation (rubber mat under the loaded truck to see how much force causes sinking/tipping)
- two-leg forward tip test (truck rocked forward onto two legs, progressive load to tipping point)
- handle/roll-pin safety test, phase one (lock removed, approximately 800 lb load, upward force applied to the handle to see if the stand collapses)
- handle/roll-pin safety test, phase two (lock/roll pin in place, approximately 1,400 lb load, force required to shear the roll pin)
- maximum vertical load to failure (100 ton hydraulic press pressing straight down on a flat surface)
- side-to-side (wobble) movement measurement
- weight, height range, and base dimension measurements
Data notes and caveats
This transcript has unusually heavy numeric caption corruption throughout, well beyond typical brand-name mangling: several Test 1 (lateral tip) and Test 3 (two-leg forward tip) results for TCE, Husky, and US Jack appear to have an extra or misplaced digit inflating an expected ~150-370 lb range result into a 4-digit number (for example '1866 lb' for the TCE, cross-referenced against the Arcan's stated 18 lb differential to imply a true value around 187 lb; '1995.5 lb' for the Husky; '2978 lb' for the US Jack's Test 3 result, likely 297.8 lb). Hein Werner's Test 2/3 results suffered the worst corruption, rendering as the literal non-numeric string '159.jpg' followed by an unrelated '3351 lbs' fragment; neither could be resolved to real figures. The closing average-finish ranking is internally inconsistent: the US Jack is described as finishing 'just over third place' while the Husky, with an explicit average finish of 3.3, is called 'a close second' - a lower average-finish number should represent a better placement under this channel's usual scoring convention, so these two statements point in opposite directions and could not be reconciled from the transcript alone. Because of this contradiction, no single winner is declared here (winner: null) despite the video appearing to build toward one. Additional safety-relevant findings: ZSP ($178) broke outright at only 95 lb of lateral force in Test 1 (versus other brands merely tipping in the 150-200 lb range) and is called out explicitly by the narrator as the most dangerous jack stand he has ever tested, prompting a direct on-camera warning against buying adjustable-leg jack stands of this style. In the handle safety test (lock removed, ~800 lb load), the narrator notes that, unlike a prior 3-ton jack stand video where most stands passed, none of the ratchet-bar-style stands in this video passed; Larin, Esco, and US Jack were excluded from this specific test because they use locking-pin or double-pawl designs rather than the traditional handle/ratchet bar. Esco's three-legged design meant it could not keep the test truck's rear wheels elevated at full height, so the truck was partially lowered and chained for the remaining tests; Esco was also excluded from the two-leg forward tip test, likely for the same structural reason, though this is not explained directly.