If you run a tire and alignment shop up around the Iowa Great Lakes and you’re finally ready to get auto lifts installed so your techs can drop exhaust systems and driveshafts without laying on a creeper, the biggest mistake we see is skipping the site survey. We’ve walked into shops from Spirit Lake to Storm Lake where the owner already picked out a lift model before anyone checked the floor, the ceiling height, or where the delivery truck was even going to park. Auto Lift Services has been installing lifts across Iowa long enough to know that the survey is what actually determines whether install day goes smooth or turns into a headache for everyone standing around waiting.
Browse the same lifts we install for exhaust and driveline work in tire and alignment shops across Iowa, or call us for a site survey before you buy.
Why Exhaust and Driveline Access Changes the Lift Choice
A general repair bay and a tire and alignment bay don’t need the same setup. When exhaust and driveline access is the main job, techs need a clear run underneath the vehicle without the frame contact points or a center column blocking the exhaust path. That’s a different conversation than a shop that mostly does brakes and tires, where an alignment-ready 2-post or a drive-on scissor might make more sense. We ask shop owners up front: is this mostly alignment work, mostly exhaust and driveline, or a mix? That answer changes whether we’re recommending a symmetric 2-post, an asymmetric model, or a 4-post with a sliding jack.
We’ve had customers who ordered a lift based on a catalog picture, then called us after auto lifts installed on-site didn’t leave enough swing room to drop a full exhaust system in one piece. That’s a fixable problem if we catch it during the survey, and an expensive one if we don’t. Arm length, drive-through clearance, and where the columns sit relative to a full-length driveshaft all matter more for this use case than for a shop doing mostly oil changes and tires. We’d rather spend twenty minutes on the phone or on-site talking through your actual work mix than sell you the wrong lift and have to fix it later.
Measuring Ceiling Height Before Anything Else
Ceiling height kills more lift plans than anything else we run into around the lakes region. A lot of older buildings up there were built for hoists, not modern 2-post or 4-post lifts, and the difference between a 12-foot and a 14-foot clearance can rule out an entire category of equipment. Before we quote auto lifts installed for any bay, we want the actual measurement from the floor to the lowest overhead obstruction — not the roof deck, but lights, sprinkler heads, ductwork, and any beams that hang down into the bay.
We also look at column height versus your tallest lift height needs. If your techs need full-arm reach under raised trucks for driveline work, a lift that maxes out too low defeats the purpose of the upgrade. We’ve measured bays in person more than once and found the ceiling worked fine for one model but not the taller version the shop actually wanted. That’s exactly the kind of thing a site survey catches before a truck shows up with the wrong lift on it. It costs nothing to have us look, and it saves you from ordering equipment that doesn’t fit your building.
Concrete: The Part Nobody Wants to Talk About
Slab condition is the other half of the equation, and it’s the part shop owners like to skip past. Auto lifts installed on cracked, too-thin, or improperly cured concrete are a liability problem waiting to happen, not a hypothetical one. We’ve had jobs where a customer needed brand new concrete work poured before we could even schedule the lift install, and we’ve had others where the existing slab was fine and we moved straight to anchoring.
For 2-post and 4-post lifts especially, the anchor bolts are only as good as what they’re set into. We check slab thickness, look for existing cracks or old anchor holes from previous equipment, and confirm the concrete has had proper cure time if it’s new. If your shop is planning a remodel or new bay construction anyway, this is the point to loop us in early — telling us your lift plans before the concrete gets poured saves a second trip and extra cost down the road. We’d rather flag a slab issue during the survey than during the install, when a crew and a truck are already standing there.
Delivery Access and the Forklift Question
Every install quote we write depends heavily on how the lift actually gets from the truck to the bay. We ask every customer the same questions: is there a forklift on site, or do we need to bring one? Is there a loading dock, a gravel entrance, a specific gate we need directions to find? We’ve had jobs where the customer’s own forklift cut real money off the install cost because we didn’t have to bring one, and we’ve had jobs where bringing our own equipment was the only way to make it work.
Around the Iowa Great Lakes, a lot of shops are set up with multiple entrances, seasonal gravel lots, or gates that aren’t obvious to a delivery driver who’s never been there. Simple details — which gate to use, how far it is from the main road, whether there’s a locked entrance — save real time on install day. We confirm arrival windows and access points before we ever load the truck, because a crew standing around waiting to be let onto a property is wasted labor on both sides. Good communication here is the difference between a half-day install and a full-day one.
Electrical and Utility Prep Before We Show Up
Most 2-post and 4-post lifts need dedicated power run to the mounting location, and that’s not something our crew handles — it needs to be done by your electrician ahead of time, to the specification in the manufacturer’s install manual. We’ve shown up to jobs where the customer had power run exactly to spec days before we arrived, and it made the whole install faster because we weren’t waiting on anyone else to finish a step.
We send the electrical spec sheet for whichever lift you’re getting well before the scheduled date, so your electrician has time to plan the run, whether that’s a straightforward single circuit or something more involved depending on the lift’s motor and control box requirements. If you’re not sure what your current panel can support, that’s worth a call to your electrician early rather than finding out the week of install. Getting this piece handled ahead of time is one of the simplest ways to keep an install on schedule instead of pushing it back a day.
Scheduling Around Your Shop’s Real Workload
We know a tire and alignment shop doesn’t stop taking customers just because a lift install is happening. When we schedule auto lifts installed at an active shop, we try to work around your bay usage — sometimes that means we take the bay that’s down for other reasons, sometimes it means scheduling a slower day of the week. We’ve also booked extra buffer days into a schedule when a job involves installing a new lift and relocating an old one, because moving equipment always takes longer than a fresh install into an empty bay.
If your install involves removing old lifts — inground hoists, older 2-posts, anything getting replaced — that adds real time to the job, and we plan for it rather than rushing through. We’ll give you a realistic window, usually a day or two of flexibility built in, rather than promising a single date we might miss. A shop that’s still running customers through during an install appreciates knowing roughly what to expect rather than getting surprised.
What the Actual Install Day Looks Like
On install day, our crew shows up with the lift, the hardware, and everything needed to anchor and align it to the manufacturer’s spec. For a 2-post, that means setting base plates, checking floor level, anchoring, running hydraulic lines, and testing the full range of motion before we call it done. For a 4-post, it’s leveling the runways, connecting the equalizer cable system, and confirming the ramps and locks work correctly across the full lift height.
We test everything under load before we leave, not just an empty-arm cycle. That means running a vehicle up and down, checking that the locks engage evenly, and confirming there’s no binding or uneven rise between posts. If your job includes moving an older lift to a different bay, we handle the disconnect, relocation, and reinstall as one coordinated job rather than treating it as two separate visits. We also leave the install report and any paperwork the manufacturer requires, so you’ve got a record of what was done and when, which matters if you ever need warranty support down the line.
Our Clients Include: