An ALM lift shows up on a flatbed a lot heavier and a lot more awkward than most shop owners expect, and if there’s no forklift or dock on site when the truck backs in, the whole install schedule can slide by days. We ran into exactly that scenario on a recent mobile-mechanic setup in the Des Moines metro, where a tech doing exhaust and driveline work under vehicles needed a reliable two-post to replace crawling around on jack stands in a gravel lot. The lift itself wasn’t the hard part. Getting it off the truck and into position without damaging the crate, the concrete, or somebody’s back was.
We stock and install two-post equipment for mobile mechanics and small shops across Iowa. Ask about freight and unloading before you order — it saves headaches on install day.
What an ALM Lift Actually Weighs on Arrival
An ALM lift arrives banded to a wood pallet in two or three separate crates: the columns, the arms, and a hardware box with the hydraulic power unit. Depending on capacity, the column crate alone can run well over a thousand pounds, and it does not have convenient forklift pockets built into the packaging the way some commercial equipment does. That surprises a lot of first-time buyers who picture something they can muscle off a truck with a hand truck and a couple of guys.
On the Des Moines job, the mobile mechanic had ordered the lift to be dropped at a rented bay with no dock and no permanent forklift. We had already flagged this during the quote stage, because it’s the single most common reason install day gets pushed. Freight carriers running an ALM lift on a standard box truck with a liftgate can usually get the crates to ground level themselves, but from there it’s still a few hundred pounds of steel that needs to move ten or twenty feet and then get tipped upright. Knowing the actual delivered weight before the truck shows up is what keeps that from turning into an all-day problem.
Why Forklift Access Changes the Install Timeline
If there’s a forklift on site, we can usually have an ALM lift unloaded, staged, and ready for anchor layout within the first hour. Without one, we’re either renting a forklift for the morning, using an engine hoist and pry bars to walk the columns into place, or asking the customer to line up a lift truck from a neighboring business. All three work, but only one of them doesn’t add cost and time to the job.
This is why, on every quote we send for an ALM lift or similar two-post, we ask the same question up front: do you have a forklift on site, or access to one nearby? For the mobile mechanic in this case, the answer was no, so we coordinated a rental forklift for the morning of install and had the crates staged the afternoon before. That one phone call ahead of time is the difference between a same-day install and a multi-day delay waiting on equipment. If your bay doesn’t have a loading dock, tell us before the freight ships, not after it’s sitting on a truck outside with nowhere to go.
Concrete and Anchor Prep Before the Truck Even Arrives
Freight logistics only matter if the floor underneath the ALM lift is ready for it. We’ve shown up to jobs where the crates unloaded perfectly and then sat for a week because the slab was too thin, too old, or too close to a control joint to anchor into safely. For exhaust and driveline work specifically, techs want the columns spaced wide enough to get a full-size truck or van’s exhaust system accessible from underneath without the arms fouling on the frame rails, which means the concrete layout has to be right the first time.
We ask for a slab thickness and age before we finalize any two-post quote, and for a rented or leased bay like the one in Des Moines, we also confirm whether the tenant has permission to drill anchors into the floor at all. Landlords sometimes have opinions about that. Getting this sorted during the estimate phase, rather than the day the freight shows up, keeps the whole project moving instead of stalling out with an unanchored lift sitting in the middle of a bay.
Staging the Lift for Exhaust and Driveline Access
A mobile mechanic doing exhaust and driveline work needs different clearance than a shop doing routine oil changes and tire work. Full-length exhaust systems, driveshafts, and transfer cases all hang lower and longer than most people expect, so we set column spacing and overhead clearance with that in mind rather than defaulting to a generic layout. On the Des Moines job we walked through the typical vehicle mix — half-ton pickups, a few vans, the occasional SUV — before finalizing where the columns would sit relative to the bay door and the shop’s air lines.
Once the crates were unloaded and staged, assembly went the way it usually does: columns set and plumbed, arms hung, hydraulic lines run, and the unit cycled empty before we put a vehicle on it. Because the forklift and concrete prep had already been sorted before the truck arrived, we were able to go from unloaded crates to a fully cycled lift in a single day, which is what most independent techs are hoping for when they book an install.
Common Freight Surprises We See Across Iowa
Beyond the Des Moines metro, we see the same handful of freight problems repeat themselves on jobs from Ames to Dubuque. Trucks show up with a liftgate rated for less than the crate weight. Delivery drivers won’t take equipment off the truck without someone on site to sign for it, and nobody told the customer that. Or the freight arrives at a residential-style garage with a narrow driveway that a semi simply can’t navigate, forcing a last-minute transfer to a smaller truck.
None of these are deal breakers, but they all cost time if they’re discovered on install day instead of during scheduling. We build freight questions into every quote now specifically because of jobs like this one — asking about driveway width, dock height, forklift availability, and even how many people will be on site to help stage crates. It’s a short conversation up front that avoids a wasted trip and a rescheduled install later.
What We Learned From This Install and Apply Going Forward
The biggest takeaway from this particular case is that the lift itself was never the risk. The logistics around getting it off a truck and onto a prepared slab were. Every ALM lift we’ve installed in a rented or leased bay without a dock has needed some combination of forklift rental, extra labor, or a revised delivery window, and flagging that early has saved every one of those customers a wasted freight trip.
We also learned, again, that asking pointed questions during the quote — not after the truck is loaded — is the single best tool we have for keeping install day on schedule. It costs us five extra minutes on a phone call. It saves the customer days of delay and, often, an extra rental fee they didn’t budget for.
Getting Your Own ALM Lift Installed Without the Delays
If you’re a mobile mechanic or independent shop in the Des Moines metro or anywhere else in Iowa looking at an ALM lift for exhaust, driveline, or general service work, the best thing you can do before ordering is figure out your unloading situation. Do you have a forklift, or know someone who does? Is there a dock, or will the truck need to unload at grade? How thick and how old is your slab? We ask these same questions on every quote, and answering them early is what keeps an install a one-day job instead of a three-day one.
We handle sourcing, freight coordination, concrete evaluation, and the full install for two-post equipment throughout central Iowa and beyond. If you’re weighing an ALM lift against other two-post options for your bay, we can walk through capacity, column spacing, and what your specific building can support before you commit to an order.
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