Learned the hard way why you don't cheap out on lifting chains after a job in Portland

Bought a set of harbor freight chains last year to save $80. First time I rigged a 500 gallon tank the load shifted and one link started to kink up bad. Supervisor saw it and shut the whole lift down. Told me if that chain had snapped it'd have taken my legs off. Threw them in the scrap bin right there. Anyone else had a close call with cheap gear?

2 comments

2 Comments

troy_reed2d ago

Hold on now... let's not act like Harbor Freight chains are automatically death traps. Plenty of guys run them for years on smaller jobs without a problem. Maybe the real issue here was you using a 500 gallon tank on chains that were underrated for the load to begin with... that's on you for not checking the working load limit, not necessarily the brand. People love to pile on cheap gear but half the time it's user error or they're pushing stuff way past its rating. HF sells the same grade 70 chain as everyone else, just without the fancy packaging and the markup.

kim_smith1d ago

Yeah I read that grade 70 chain from them is actually rated fine if you stay within its limits.