On April 7, 2023, Harbor Freight Tools announced a recall for certain Central Hydraulics High Position Motorcycle Lifts due to two possible issues: Welds that may be susceptible to fatigue cracking, and also tubing quality that may be insufficient to repeatedly lift the loads for which this lift is rated. If the welds and/or tubes fail, the lift may fall unexpectedly and/or drop its load. This, in turn, could cause injury to people around the lift, and/or their bikes or other property in the vicinity. 

The affected item number is #99887, which should be present somewhere on the lift itself and/or any packaging that came with it. Affected units were sold at Harbor Freight stores between October 6, 2008, and February 23, 2023. Around 41,715 units are believed to be affected. 

Harbor Freight’s official recall for this motorcycle lift states, in no uncertain terms, that owners of this lift should “IMMEDIATELY STOP USING THE HIGH POSITION MOTORCYCLE LIFT. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO REPAIR THE PRODUCT.” (Use of all-caps is taken directly from the Harbor Freight recall notice.)  

At the same time, Harbor Freight also advises that owners should also not return the entire unit to their nearest Harbor Freight store. Instead, they should follow Harbor Freight’s instructions to carefully remove the Hydraulic Ram (thus rendering the lift nonfunctional) and return that part to the store instead. 

Harbor Freight provides a detailed set of instructions to remove the Hydraulic Ram, complete with photos to act as visual aids in your disassembly of the unit. We will post a link in our Sources to Harbor Freight’s recall so you can read these instructions and follow along if you have one the affected lifts in your possession.  

Owners of the affected lifts will receive a Harbor Freight gift card as a refund for the faulty motorcycle lift, once they’ve removed the Hydraulic Ram and returned it to the store. Notification letters will be sent from Harbor Freight to customers on or about April 28, 2023 regarding this recall. Owners can also call Harbor Freight Tools at 1-800-444-3353, Monday through Friday, between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Additionally, owners can email Harbor Freight about this recall at Recall@harborfreight.com .  

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