Forward 2 Post Lift Parts for Restoration Shops

When a restoration shop owner outside Urbandale called us about a Forward two-post that had been sitting through a long Iowa winter with a customer’s project car parked on it, the first question wasn’t “what’s broken” — it was “what’s this going to cost, and can we spread it out.” That’s the real starting point for most shops needing forward 2-post lift parts: not a parts list, but a budget. We’re Auto Lift Services, based in Ames, and we install, service, and stock parts for Forward lifts and every other major brand across Iowa. If you’re trying to figure out what you actually need before you spend a dime, here’s how we walk shop owners through it.

Step One: What’s the Actual Symptom, Not Just the Budget Number

Before we ever talk price, we ask what the lift is actually doing wrong. Is it a car that won’t lock in at height on a restoration project you’ve had up on the posts for months during seasonal storage? Is a rolling jack not lowering all the way, like we’ve seen on other rolling jack setups in the field? Is there a switch on the power unit that’s dead, or a cylinder that’s leaking down overnight? Each of those points to a completely different price tier, and lumping them all into “I need forward 2-post lift parts” without narrowing it down is how shops end up over-ordering bearings, spacers, and rollers they didn’t need.

For a restoration shop specifically, seasonal storage adds a wrinkle most daily-use shops don’t deal with: a car parked at height for weeks or months puts constant, uneven load on the same set of rollers and bearings, in the same spot, for a long stretch. That’s different wear than a shop cycling cars on and off the lift five times a day. We’ve seen columns where rollers looked fine on inspection but were flat-spotted from sitting still under load through a Midwest winter. So step one in our decision tree is always: tell us what’s happening, when it started, and how the lift has actually been used — daily service versus long-term static storage changes which forward 2-post lift parts we recommend first.

Budget Tier One: Under a Few Hundred Dollars — Cables, Switches, Small Hardware

If the fix is a cable, a footpad, a restraint gear pawl, or a power unit switch, you’re in the smallest tier. These are the parts we can usually ship same day if you order before early afternoon, and they don’t require us to send a technician out unless you want help with install. A lot of restoration shops handle this tier themselves once we’ve confirmed the part number off your model tag — Forward lifts, like other brands, stamp a model and serial number on the column that tells us exactly which cable length or switch spec you need.

This tier is also where financing conversations rarely come up, because the dollar amount doesn’t usually justify a payment plan. What we do recommend is buying a little extra hardware at this tier if you’re already opening things up — a second cable, an extra footpad — because freight on a single small part is often close to the cost of the part itself. Combining a small order with a slightly larger one later saves you shipping twice. If your shop runs several older lifts, it’s worth building a small stock of common wear items at this tier so a bad cable doesn’t take a bay out of service for a week while you wait on shipping.

Budget Tier Two: Roller and Bearing Sets — Plan for the Whole Column

When a column starts making noise or a carriage isn’t tracking smoothly, the temptation is to replace just the one bad roller or bearing. We almost always advise against it. In our experience, when you disassemble a column and find one bad bearing, the other three on that column are usually close behind — the process of swapping one puts new strain on the ones you leave in place, and they tend to fail within months. So this tier is priced as a set, not a single part, and that’s the honest way to plan your budget for forward 2-post lift parts at this level.

This is also the tier where lead time matters most for a restoration shop. If you’ve got a customer’s car up on the lift for a long-term build, you don’t want to start disassembly and then find out two of the four rollers are back-ordered for months. We’ve had jobs where we could get two of four parts within a week and the rest took three months — in that situation we do the urgent repair first and schedule a return trip, rather than leaving a lift down completely. Ask us about current lead times before you commit a bay to teardown.

Budget Tier Three: Cylinders and Power Units — Where Financing Actually Makes Sense

A leaking cylinder or a dying power unit is where the numbers get big enough that spreading payments across a schedule actually matters. This is also where mistakes get expensive fast — if a technician has the cylinder already disassembled and the wrong part number goes out, your lift sits non-functional in the meantime. We push hard to get the part number right before disassembly starts specifically because of this risk.

For shops in Urbandale and around central Iowa financing this tier, we typically structure it as a deposit at order placement with the balance due on completion, and we’re upfront that some cylinder and power unit components carry longer lead times than cables or rollers. If your restoration shop runs on tight seasonal cycles — heavy work in fall and winter storage in summer, or vice versa — timing a cylinder rebuild for your slow season avoids the double hit of losing a bay during your busiest months while also waiting on parts.

Configuration Matters as Much as Model Number

Two lifts with the same model number can still need different forward 2-post lift parts depending on configuration — cable diameter, stud button setup, arm length, and whether it’s a symmetric or asymmetric column. We’ve had calls where a shop ordered based on model number alone and got a cable that was close but not correct because the lift had a different stud configuration than the standard build. The safest approach is always to give us the model and serial tag info directly, plus a measurement of the part you’re replacing if you have it, rather than relying on model number alone.

This matters even more for older Forward lifts that have been resold or relocated — a unit that started life at one dealership may have had columns or arms swapped over the years, so the tag doesn’t always tell the whole story. When in doubt, we’d rather you send us a photo of the actual part and dimensions than guess. It takes an extra day but saves you a return shipment and a second wait on freight.

Financing Terms and Payment Schedule: What to Expect

We structure payment around the size and lead time of the job, not a one-size-fits-all policy. Small parts orders — cables, switches, hardware — are typically paid at order. Mid-tier jobs like roller and bearing sets are often split between a deposit to place the order and the balance on completion of install, especially if a technician trip is involved. Larger jobs — cylinder rebuilds, power unit replacements, or multi-part repairs with staged shipments — get a written quote up front so you know the full number before we order anything, and we’ll break that into a schedule that lines up with when parts actually arrive rather than asking for everything at once.

For restoration shops specifically, we’ve found it helps to time bigger repairs around your slow season rather than mid-project on a customer’s car. If you know a lift is going to need work eventually, tell us during a slower stretch and we’ll get the quote and parts moving so the repair lands when your bay usage is lowest, not when the failure forces your hand.

When to Call Us Instead of Ordering Blind

If you’re staring at a Forward two-post that’s acting up and you’re not sure which tier you’re in, call before you order. We’ll walk through the symptom, pull the model and serial info, and tell you honestly whether this is a same-day cable order or a bigger job worth scheduling around your slow season. We do this for shops across Iowa daily, and we’d rather spend ten minutes on the phone getting it right than have you order the wrong forward 2-post lift parts and wait on a return.

We also stock and quote parts for Rotary, Challenger, BendPak, and Atlas equipment, so if your shop runs a mixed fleet of lifts, we can usually source everything through one call instead of juggling multiple vendors and multiple shipping windows.

Related: forward 2 post lift parts comparison · forward 2 post lift parts warranty · forward 2 post lift parts spec comparison