Harbor Freight engine stand modification

67Dart273 said

While you are fiddlin' with bolt holes, take a GOOD look at the rest of the stand. Is it one where the vertical bolts to the lower crossarm? I'd upgrade/ beef that. Consider adding (at least) a forward triangular brace between the vertical and the front horizontal. And, while you are worried about grade 8, I can assure you the rest of the factory hardware "ain't"

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Sounds like good advice to me. Yes, the vertical bolts to the lower crossarm. The bolt heads read "SC 8.8" which are 116,000lb tensile strength - lower than a grade 5. I considered welding all of the components, but I'd like to be able to break it down when not in use. I think assembled properly with substantial hardware, it'll be stout enough to skip the welding hassle.

I do like that they at least updated the front part of the stand to a two-wheel crossmember, instead of the single wheel up front. That 3 wheeler design was terribly unstable. However, the bar they provide for turning the engine is about a foot long, and while rotating an assembled engine, doesn't provide nearly enough leverage to control all that mass when the heads go over and the weight shifts. I added a 36" bar and it works nicely. I've seen designs where folks add a sort of "steering wheel" to the front of the engine, which would seem to give better control when rotating, but for me the bar works just fine.