About Automotive Lift Services

We Sell, Install, Repair, and Inspect Automotive Equipment Nationwide

Automotive Lift Services is based in Ames, Iowa. We service all makes and models of automotive lifts — 2-post, 4-post, mid-rise, scissors, inground, mobile column, alignment racks, and parking lifts. We also service air compressors, paint booths, frame machines, and related shop equipment.

We sell, install, repair, maintain, inspect, and relocate automotive lifts. We can source most major brands, but we are selective about what we recommend. At a minimum, we will not sell a lift we do not believe is high quality and safe. Our online store at store.autoliftserv.com carries our full catalog — and you can filter to see our exact picks, the specific lifts we would buy if we were outfitting our own shop.

We have been doing this work full-time since early 2019. In that time, our team has completed thousands of lift inspections, installations, and repairs across Iowa and beyond.

The Problem Nobody Talks About

Most shops do not think about their lifts until something goes wrong. By then, it is usually expensive.

The reality is that a significant number of automotive lifts in service right now are either the wrong lift for the application, were improperly installed, or have never been professionally inspected. Technicians work under these lifts every day. A lift failure — a broken cable, a failed lock, a hydraulic leak — can drop a vehicle weighing 4,000 to 20,000 pounds onto a person.

This is not hypothetical. The Automotive Lift Institute has documented lift-related fatalities and injuries across the country. Many of them were preventable with proper installation, routine maintenance, and annual inspections.

We started this company because we saw this problem firsthand. Shops were buying lifts online with no site evaluation, installing them without the right tools or knowledge, and never having them inspected afterward. We wanted to be the company that does it right — from the initial layout and concrete check all the way through annual inspections for the life of the lift.

What We Actually Do

Inspections are the foundation of everything we do — and the thing the industry gets wrong most often. Most lift inspections are pencil-whipped. Someone walks through the shop, checks a few boxes, hands over a piece of paper, and leaves. Nothing gets lubricated, nothing gets adjusted, nothing gets taken apart and actually looked at. Worst of all, most inspections do not turn into a quote for repairs, so the customer gets a report that says “needs attention” with no clear action, no pricing, and no indication of what really needs to be replaced versus what can safely wait. Our inspections are different. We go through every component — locks, cables, hydraulics, structural members, controls — and document each lift individually. When something needs repair, we tell you exactly what it is, what it costs, and how urgent it is. You walk away with a real plan, not a checkbox form.

Repair is where we spend most of our time. We repair all brands — Challenger, Rotary, BendPak, Forward, Mohawk, Dannmar, Globe, Western, Benwil, and others. We keep common parts on hand for faster turnaround and offer emergency service. If your shop is down because your only lift is broken, you go to the front of the schedule.

Installation starts with layout. Concrete thickness, in-floor heat, cracks and saw cuts, ceiling height, distance from walls, distance between lifts — all of it factors into whether a lift will work safely in your space. We have installed lifts in everything from one-bay home garages to 20-bay dealerships on active construction sites. On multi-lift commercial jobs, we stage the work so electricians can start wiring while we continue assembly — it keeps the project moving and gets your bays operational faster.

Maintenance programs are where shops save the most money long-term. Our program includes annual inspections, priority emergency service, parts stocking for your specific lifts, and detailed per-lift tracking so you know exactly when a lift is approaching end-of-life versus when a repair makes more sense.

How We Serve the Entire Country

Our headquarters and primary service team operate out of Ames, Iowa. From here, we directly service Iowa and the surrounding states — Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, and South Dakota. We also have a branch in Florida covering the entire state.

Outside of those regions, we maintain a nationwide network of vetted, highly skilled mechanics. We recruit experienced technicians, verify their skills, and provide technical support from our Iowa team on every job. This lets us take service calls in all 50 states while maintaining the same standard of work we deliver locally.

Josiah Ragsdale, Founder

I started working on lifts when I was 18. My father, Kent Ragsdale, was selling car lifts and Hunter Engineering equipment in Iowa. When he sold a lift, the customer would ask if he could install it too — that is where I came in. Over time it turned into him selling lifts and me installing them. I would bring a buddy along to help, track hours, and my father would pay us.

Eventually I was making more money installing and servicing lifts than I was at my full-time job in a custom car shop. More importantly, I was seeing the same problems everywhere I went — lifts installed wrong, lifts that had never been inspected, lifts that were genuinely dangerous. I saw the need in the marketplace, quit my shop job, and went full-time. Automotive Lift Services became official in early 2019.

Six years later, this is all we do. We are not a general contractor who happens to install lifts. Every recommendation we make is backed by data from thousands of jobs — which lifts last, which ones break, what fails first, and what is actually worth repairing versus replacing.

If you want the cheapest lift service, we are probably not it. If you want it done right, done safe, and done by people who have seen every way a lift can fail — give us a call or send us an email.

Josiah Ragsdale
Founder, Automotive Lift Services
800-674-9302 | info@autoliftserv.com