A forward four post lift was the piece a Urbandale collector needed before he’d let us near his garage. He had three vehicles he rotated through storage and sale, and he wanted something safer than jack stands for brake service and the occasional rotor swap before a trade-in walk-through. We’re Auto Lift Services, based in Ames, and we install and service four post lifts for collectors, shops, and fleets all over central Iowa. This is the story of his first year with that lift, from the day we poured concrete confirmation to the first set of rotors he pulled off it himself, plus what it did for the resale numbers on two of his cars.
Browse Forward and other approved four post models built for storage, brake work, and resale-ready vehicle care in an Iowa home garage or shop.
Why a Collector Chose a Forward Four Post Lift Over a Two-Post
Our customer had looked at two-post lifts first, since they take up less floor space and cost less upfront. But once he explained he wanted to store one car for months at a time while working on another, a four post model made more sense. A forward four post lift lets a vehicle sit parked on the runways indefinitely without anyone worrying about arm placement or pinch points under the frame, which matters when you’re rotating three vehicles through one garage bay.
We walked him through concrete thickness, ceiling height, and whether he wanted a rolling jack tray for brake work, since that’s the one thing a flat runway lift doesn’t give you automatically. He decided on the accessory jack because he specifically wanted the ability to pull wheels and do rotor swaps without driving anywhere else. That single decision shaped the rest of his first year with the lift, because it turned storage equipment into service equipment. A lot of collectors make the mistake of buying a four post purely for parking and then discover six months later they need the jack tray anyway once they start doing their own brake service.
Install Day: Concrete, Clearance, and What We Checked First
Before we scheduled the install, we asked the same questions we ask everyone: is there a forklift or at least a way to get the runways off the truck, is there a pit or is this a surface mount, and how old is the concrete. His garage had a slab poured within the last five years, which gave us confidence in anchor holds without extra core samples. We still checked ceiling height twice, since a forward four post lift with a raised vehicle needs more overhead room than most people expect, especially if you’re adding a jack tray that lifts the car even higher off the runways.
The install itself took about a day with two of our techs on site, running hydraulic lines, leveling the runways, and testing the safety locks through a full cycle before we called it done. We showed him how to read the lock positions and how to lower evenly, since we still get calls about one arm or one side not lifting evenly on lifts where the owner skipped that walkthrough. Uneven lifting almost always traces back to either a lock that didn’t fully release or hydraulic fluid that’s low, and we make sure every new owner knows how to check both before we leave.
The First Brake Service: Rotors, Runways, and the Jack Tray
About two months after install, he called to schedule his first real service job, a rotor swap on the daily driver before winter. This is where the jack tray earned its keep. He drove the car onto the runways, raised the whole platform to a comfortable working height, then used the rolling jack to lift just the corner he needed and pull the wheel free. No creeper, no jack stands sliding on a garage floor, no awkward angle under a low car.
He told us afterward that the forward four post lift made the job feel like a real shop bay instead of a driveway repair. That’s the difference a four post platform makes for brake work specifically: you get full access to calipers and rotors at a height where you’re not kneeling, and the vehicle stays rock solid because it’s resting on its own tires rather than hanging from arms. For a collector who might do rotor swaps on more than one car a year, that stability and comfort adds up fast, and it’s a big part of why we recommend this setup to anyone doing recurring service rather than occasional oil changes.
Storage Between Service: Keeping Cars Trade-In Ready
The other half of his year was storage. He’d park one car on the lift, raise it a few feet off the ground, and leave it there for weeks at a time while he worked underneath or simply kept floor space open for the next project. Storing a vehicle raised keeps tires from developing flat spots from sitting in one position too long, keeps it away from garage floor moisture, and keeps it out of the way of foot traffic and dropped tools. All three of those things matter when you’re trying to keep a car in trade-in or resale condition rather than just storage condition.
He mentioned more than once that buyers and dealers notice the difference between a car that’s been sitting on a garage floor collecting dust and one that’s clearly been maintained on real equipment. It’s a small thing, but a service history that includes proper lift-based brake work rather than driveway jack stand repairs reads better to anyone doing a pre-purchase inspection.
What the Lift Did for Two Trade-In Deals
By the end of his first year, he’d traded in two of the three vehicles he’d been rotating through the garage. Both went through pre-sale inspections, and both came back with clean notes on brakes and undercarriage condition. He credited the lift directly, since it let him catch small issues like a sticking caliper or worn pad early instead of after a dealer’s inspector found them first.
We’ve heard similar feedback from other Iowa customers who use a forward four post lift for the same mix of storage and light service. A vehicle that’s been raised regularly for inspection and maintained on stable equipment tends to show fewer surprises at trade-in time. It’s not a guarantee of a better number, but it removes the negative surprises that knock value down, and for a collector moving cars in and out every year, that adds up over multiple trades.
Maintenance Habits That Kept the Lift and the Cars in Good Shape
We set him up on a basic maintenance rhythm: check hydraulic fluid levels every few months, cycle the locks fully on every use rather than resting on a partial engagement, and keep the runways clean of oil drips that can make footing slick during brake work. None of this is complicated, but skipping it is exactly how we end up on service calls for lifts that aren’t lifting evenly or locks that only catch on one side, like we’ve seen on other four post units around the state.
He also kept a simple log of when he serviced each car, which turned out to be useful documentation for the trade-in conversations. A forward four post lift used consistently and maintained on schedule doesn’t just protect the vehicles, it protects the paper trail a collector needs when it’s time to sell.
What We’d Tell Another Urbandale Collector Considering This Setup
If you’re weighing a four post lift for the same reasons this customer did, the questions we’ll ask are the same ones we asked him: how many vehicles are you rotating, do you want to do your own brake service or just store cars raised, and what’s your ceiling height and concrete situation. Those answers point toward the right model and accessories faster than any general spec sheet can.
A forward four post lift isn’t the cheapest option on the floor, but for a collector doing recurring brake service and caring about resale condition, it earns its keep within the first year the way it did here. If you’re in Urbandale or anywhere else in central Iowa and want to talk through concrete readiness, jack tray options, or install scheduling, give us a call and we’ll walk through it the same way we did with this customer.
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