Harbor Freight Badland 3 ton Off-Road jack discussion

Got everything unboxed and assembled. Initial thoughts: this thing is HUGE and HEAVY. So far so good, might make a video later except I'm usually pretty lazy so don't get your hopes up. Time to put it through torture tests in the shop and see how it holds up.

 

I'll add to the nuttiness. Don't trust what it says online about stock. What I think is happening is that some stores are getting one or two for display purposes and the stores won't sell them. I tried in two stores and they wouldn't give them up. I pre-ordered mine and it came in pretty quickly. I think two weeks or so. It's definitely a nice jack for the money. I'll probably use it more in my gravel driveway than the trails, but it's all good.

Question to those that already have one: Was there some kind of safety lock for the pump when you pulled it out of the box? In my excitement I just start working the thing and some plastic piece broke and went flying. I still can't find it. Everything seems to work okay, but wanted to make sure and possibly inform the masses because I don't recall seeing anything in the manual about it.

 

Yup, that piece of plastic was there and had to be removed as specified in the instructions, and it says there that I’ll be under spring tension so eye pro is recommended. As it can be observed in my video in minute 11:39. https://youtu.be/9dkWARcQghk

 

Whoops. Guess I took mine out the cave man way!

 

If you neglected to take the plastic safety block out before using you most likely bent the metal rod it rest against. I've seen several bent from people who neglected to take plastic safety block out.

 

Uh oh. Since I don't really know where it was, which rod?

 

Nevermind. I see which. It is, indeed, bent a little. No big deal.

 

Ok good that it's not bent that bad. Yeah no big deal. Jack will work fine.

 

Several vehicle mounts.
https://www.911motorsports.net/Vehi...Jack--Harbor-Freight-Mounting-kit_p_1117.html

https://grovefabworks.com/shop/ols/products/badland-jack-mount

https://ac-fab.com/products/badlands-3ton-mount

Upgraded handle:
https://grovefabworks.com/shop/ols/products/upgraded-badland-jack-handel

 

I’ve been looking out for one of these jacks but there are currently none available in the entire Washington State according to the website. Might have to pay the extra and go with the pro eagle.

 

Go to the store, place the order and it will arrive shortly.

 

I did a no BS comparison between the Badlands and the Pro Eagle -- Even if I never take this thing off road it is the smoothest jack I've had in the garage. Quiet and easy to move around, the locking tab for the lift arm is genius. I was due for a new jack anyways. It's been perfect. Works great if you don't have a concrete/cement floor in your work shop. I should mention, it rolls easily, so when lifting vehicles on a smooth surface like a garage floor it will roll. Chock blocks are your friend.

Someone asked earlier about the wheels sinking into the ground. The jack has a flat bottom the full length of the body that will prevent it from sinking. Obviously if the ground is so soft the whole thing sinks you probably should not be doing any repairs in that area anyway.

https://youtu.be/GBZhii_dYZU

 

I've only been using mine in the garage so far. It is not well-suited for this. It rolls too easily on the concrete floor. I've had to chase it a few times. In general, I'm not liking the spring loaded handle. I forget about it all the time and it bangs into my vehicle. If I could slide the foam a little higher, it might not be an issue. I'm leery about doing that because I don't think the foam would like it too much. I'll probably get a pool noodle or something to wrap around it. Or possibly see if the spring can be completely removed. I'm also worried about durability. I already have some gouges in the paint/powdercoat that run into the metal in a few places. I'm not sure what's steel and what's aluminum on this jack, but if these gouges are into steel, rust would be a concern.

I'm not necessarily disappointed by any of this. Still happy with the purchase. Still happy that I save $300. They're more pointing things out for would-be purchasers. My overall suggestion would be that if you're buying this as a multi-use jack (on/off road), I would seriously try and swing a jack that's better suited for the garage. And then just leave this in the wheeling rig.

 

Dude, that piece of plastic is freakin deadly. its under tension and was a pain to pry out from between the cross bar and that pump handle. pretty sure i dented the drywall in my garage too because it hit an 8ft ceiling. check that cross bar, sometimes it will get bent if you raised the pump handle but should effect performance.

My local HF also went thru the "Inventory available" online notifications but once in store they were scarce. i allegedly got the last one from the store but my in store display was only a photo with a "take one" deli counter ticket. but i did get one. changed out all 4 of my tires from stock to my new falken WP AT3 and Method MR701 in the driveway. moving the jack around was very easy and i did notice that the jack was able to move inward when the arc of the jack arm reached a certain height. i really liked the idea of the bigger tires and getting around debris, grass, dirt, gravel, etc.

But, yes. damn heavy but has multiple handles to make it more easy to manipulate.

 

It bent it a little. Still functional. I finally found both pieces of that deal. Manual needs bigger/more photos.

 

I would agree re: the manual. But i also think that we have gotten far to accustomed or dependent to youtube videos with step by step unboxing and assembly and have gotten away from just reading directions. However, i do say that knowing full well that the included manual does need some additional clarification. took me a good bit to figure out where to mount the bracket for the jack extension. Assembly was pretty straight forward.

 

If it makes you feel any better I had to look a bit to figure out where it went as well.

 

I know some of these things might or might not have been said in some of the posts or YouTube videos, but I just got mine in last week, and I'm going to try to give you my honest overall pros and cons list.

Pros:
1. extremely easy to put together
2. Absolutely love the height extender and how it can be stored within the jack itself
3. Extremely easy to move around
4. The hinge lock that is made for the jack handle is very nice to have so the handle does not move up and down while moving it and also great for portability
5. Even though it is a lot heavier than I expected, the handles both on the side and on the top give you many different ways of being able to carry it.
6. Comes with all of the tools (Big Allen Wrench) to lock down the Extension piece onto it and has storage within the jack for those tools.

Cons:
1. I was on the fence with this and it might be a pro for others, but $300 is a lot for a Jack. I understand when you compare it to the "Eagle" is a great buy, but if you are just looking for something to carry around the shop, the garage, or in the shed, you can still get a pretty decent three-ton Jack for cheaper. If you can get this Jack with a coupon like some of the other members did, I would say it would be worth the price.
2. It is a lot heavier than I expected. For this being a "portable or trail" type of Jack, you would expect it to be focused a lot more on weight saving other than just its wheels. I do understand that a lot of people would say "well a high lift Jack weighs a lot as well" and I say most certainly yes but there are also tons of different ways of being able to rig up something to carry and mount a high lift Jack on your off-road vehicle and there are only a couple different ways of being able to mount this on your off-road vehicle, all of which are not related to Badlands or Harbor Freight. I'm sure that you could rig up something custom, but it would be nice to have something to be able to purchase right off the shelf with the Jack at the store.
3. Even though it does come with the side handles, the handles are offset to the front (not the heaviest part of the jack) and the balance when carrying it from the side is extremely awkward. I know that the handles are in the same place as the "Eagle," and there is a handle on the top that you can choose from as well, but moving them further back towards the center or even a little to the rear to balance the weight better would be more ideal. I really don't know if they can do this because something might be in the way or if it is a design flaw that they can work on.
4. Even though this was a pro of mine, it is also a con. It is extremely easy to move around. This is great when you are moving it from under the vehicle to out from under the vehicle or moving it around the shop, garage, driveway, or even whatever off-road service you might be on, but if you are on a plane hard surface, it would be extremely nice to have the ability to lock the wheels like you can the handle. Everyone should be using wheel Chocks to begin with so the vehicle does not move when you are jacking up the vehicle, but it still might be nice to have that extra added security especially if you are using it off-road.
5. (biggest con so far for me) - the little dial in screw that allows you to lock the initial handle into the jack itself is the most worthless piece of engineering that I have found so far on this Jack. Let me explain. When you put the handle in initially, you can go ahead and lock in the handle and twist the screw so the handle stays in the hole of the jack but the screw does not 100% line up with the groove on the handle. This results in a couple of different problems. If you lock in the handle by tightening the screw all the way, then you can't twist the handle to slowly let the jack up and down. If you just back off a little, you can turn the handle so the jack will release pressure to let the Jack downward, but then when you go to pull it out from underneath the vehicle, the handle comes right out. This might be only a problem with my specific one that I got, I am curious to see if others are having this exact same problem, but my grove does not line up with the screw no matter how far I push in or adjust the Jack handle into the hole. I understand the entire simplicity of it, but it just doesn't work the way that it was intended to work with mine.

All in all, I am not regretting buying the jack at all and it will definitely be a good thing for me to have both on and off the trail.