If you’ve ever called a parts counter and gotten stuck when they asked “what model is it,” you already know why knowing how to find your lift model and serial number matters. We get this call multiple times a week at Auto Lift Services — a shop owner needs an arm restrictor, a cable, or a hydraulic seal kit, but without the right model and serial number, we’re just guessing at what fits. Guessing on lift parts wastes money and delays your bay getting back online. This guide walks through exactly where manufacturers hide these tags, what to do when the tag is missing, and how to use what you find to order the correct parts the first time.
Once you know your model and serial number, our parts lookup tool matches you to the correct cables, arms, cylinders, and hardware for your exact lift, no guesswork required.
Why the Model and Serial Number Actually Matter
A lot of owners assume all 2-post lifts of a given brand use the same parts. They don’t. Manufacturers change cable lengths, arm pin sizes, hydraulic fittings, and even safety lock mechanisms across production runs — sometimes within the same model year. That’s why how to find your lift model and serial number is one of the first questions we ask before quoting any part. The serial number in particular often encodes a manufacture date or production run that tells us which revision of a component your lift actually has.
We’ve seen customers order a cable kit based on the model name alone, only to find out the lift was built eighteen months into that model’s run with a slightly different column height. The serial number resolves that ambiguity. It also matters for warranty claims, safety inspections, and insurance documentation — most certifying inspectors in Iowa will ask for both numbers before they sign off on an annual inspection. Skipping this step doesn’t just risk the wrong part; it can hold up your shop’s compliance paperwork too.
Where to Look on a 2-Post Lift
On most 2-post lifts, including Rotary and Challenger models, the data tag is riveted or bolted to the inside or outside face of one of the columns, usually within a few feet of the ground. Check both columns — some manufacturers only tag one side, and it’s not always the same side across model lines. The tag is typically a metal or heavy-duty vinyl sticker with the manufacturer name, model number, serial number, capacity rating, and sometimes a manufacture date stamped or printed on it.
If the tag isn’t at eye level, look lower — near the base plate or behind the power unit cover, since some columns route the tag behind the hydraulic hose bundle. Years of shop grime, paint overspray, or a coat of touch-up paint can also hide the tag entirely. We’ve pulled tags from underneath decades of grease buildup with nothing more than a rag and some degreaser. Before you assume a tag is missing, clean the columns thoroughly at chest height and knee height on both sides — it’s often just obscured, not gone.
Where to Look on 4-Post, Scissor, and Mobile Column Lifts
Four-post lifts typically carry their data tag on one of the ramp rails near the front or rear, or sometimes on the runway itself close to where the ramp meets the frame. Scissor and mid-rise lifts usually have the tag on the base frame near the power unit or on the underside of the scissor arm assembly, which means you may need to raise the lift partway and look underneath with a flashlight. Mobile column lifts almost always tag each individual column separately near the base, since each column can technically have its own serial number if columns were added or replaced over time.
This is part of why how to find your lift model and serial number gets more complicated with multi-column setups — you may be dealing with four or six separate tags, and they don’t always match if a column was swapped out or added to a set later. When you call for parts on a mobile column system, have all the column serial numbers ready, not just one, especially if you’re ordering wireless communication boards or synchronization parts that need to match the whole set.
What to Do When the Tag Is Missing or Unreadable
Tags fall off, get painted over, or corrode past readability, especially on older lifts that have lived outside or in a humid shop for years. When that happens, we can often still identify your equipment. Photos of the lift’s overall shape, the arm style, the base design, and the power unit are usually enough for our team to narrow down the manufacturer and general model family. From there we can sometimes cross-reference measurements like column spacing, arm reach, or cylinder bore size to pin down the exact model.
It’s not a perfect substitute for the actual serial number, but it gets you close enough to order the right category of parts, and in many cases exact. If your lift is genuinely unidentifiable, we’d rather spend fifteen minutes on the phone working through details with you than have you order a part that doesn’t fit and have to ship it back. We’ve walked dozens of Iowa shops through this exact process, and it almost always ends with a confident parts order.
Recording the Information Before You Need It
The best time to find your lift model and serial number is before something breaks, not during a breakdown when your bay is down and a customer’s vehicle is stuck in the air. We recommend photographing the data tag on every lift in your shop and keeping those photos in a shared folder, a maintenance binder, or even just a text to yourself. It takes two minutes and saves you from crawling around a column looking for a tag while a technician waits.
This is especially useful for shops with multiple lifts of the same brand — it’s easy to mix up which serial number belongs to which bay when you’re ordering parts for several units at once. Label your photos by bay number, and update the record any time a lift is moved, resold, or has a column replaced. If you manage a multi-bay shop, this five-minute habit pays for itself the first time you need an emergency part and don’t have to search the shop floor for a data tag while a car sits on a dead lift.
Using the Numbers to Order the Right Parts
Once you’ve got both numbers in hand, the fastest path to the right part is our parts lookup tool, but a phone call works just as well if you’d rather talk it through. Have the full model number, the complete serial number, and ideally a photo of the tag itself ready when you reach out — small details like a suffix letter on the model number can indicate a different production spec entirely. We cross-reference against manufacturer parts diagrams for Rotary, Challenger, BendPak, and Atlas equipment to make sure what we ship actually bolts on.
If you’re not sure whether a part number listed online matches your unit, send us the tag photo before you order. It takes us a few minutes to confirm and saves you the hassle of a return shipment. For a deeper walkthrough on decoding what’s actually printed on the tag itself, see our guide on identifying your lift model and serial number, and if all you can find is a partial serial number, check out our post on how to find lift parts by serial number for next steps.
When You Should Just Call Us
Some situations call for a phone call instead of guesswork: lifts purchased used with no paperwork, lifts inherited from a previous shop owner, or lifts that have clearly been repainted at some point in their life. In all of these cases, tracking down how to find your lift model and serial number can turn into a bit of detective work, and that’s fine — it’s something our team does regularly for shops across Iowa who bought equipment secondhand or acquired it along with a building.
We’d also point you to our related post on how to find your lift serial number if you want another rundown of tag locations across brands. Whatever the situation, don’t let a missing tag stall your shop. A quick call to our team, a few photos, and a rough description of the lift’s design usually gets us to an answer fast enough to get parts moving the same day.
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