A Davenport RV and trailer service shop called us early last year with a wheel-bearing problem stacking up on their calendar. Their bays were tall enough for RV work, but they had nothing that would lift a tow vehicle to the height a tech needed to pull bearings all day. They wanted a 2 post car lift that fit under the same roof as their coach bays and would earn its keep the first week. Auto Lift Services quoted, installed, and now handles parts for that lift. This is the first-year story, ceiling survey to first service.
Commercial-duty two-post lifts for shops that need to handle everything from cars to tow rigs.
Meeting the Davenport RV shop before the install
The building was 40 feet deep with a 16-foot ceiling and two 14-foot roll-ups. Their existing lifts were a pair of four-post drive-ons they used for chassis and undercarriage inspection on Class C coaches. The problem was tow vehicles. A shop foreman we sat down with was rebuilding hubs on a customer’s F-250 that pulled a fifth-wheel from Florida to the Quad Cities every winter. Wheel bearings on a truck that runs 15,000 miles a year need proper access, and doing it on jack stands was chewing bay time. He wanted a proper 2 post car lift specifically for wheel-off work: brakes, bearings, seals, and CV boots. He was not going to lift coaches on it; that is what the drive-ons were for. He needed something that would earn its column time.
Ceiling height and door swing for the 2 post car lift
Their 16-foot ceiling was more than enough for any commercial 2 post car lift, but the door-swing measurement mattered more than we expected. The roll-up drum on the north bay hung down about 22 inches inside the door opening, which pushed the safe column position off center. We measured door swing on both roll-ups so the tech could park a Ford Excursion, a Sprinter, or a diesel dually inside without the mirror hitting a column. The final layout put both columns 24 inches inboard of the drum line and gave 12 feet of clear drive-through between them, which was enough for a dually mirror to pull clear. Ceiling height mattered less because we had the room to spec a taller column and get the extra pad height that a bearing tech wants at eye level.
Choosing the column height to clear the service bays
We specified a 12,000 lb symmetric with a tall column and a wide overhead beam. The tall column let a tech raise the F-250 to shoulder height so the hubs sat right in the sweet spot for bearing work. The wide beam meant no drive-through width penalty for the wider trucks. We picked a symmetric because their vehicle mix leaned toward trucks and vans rather than sedans, so equal arm reach front and back was the right pattern. The wide-beam version added about 8 inches to the pass-through width compared to the standard beam, which the shop foreman noticed the day the first Ram 3500 dually rolled through without brushing a column with the mirror. Column height on a 2 post car lift is not just about ceiling, it is about where the tech’s hands land when the vehicle is at working height.
Install day and the first wheel bearing job
Install ran about six hours. The slab was 6 inches of commercial-grade concrete, which the shop had poured when they built out for RV work, so anchoring was straightforward. We drilled, set anchors, plumbed, connected the equalizer cables, and cycled the lift three times before the shop foreman ever put a vehicle on it. The very next morning the first F-250 rolled in. The tech had all four hubs pulled and repacked by lunch, which was a job that had been eating a full day on stands. He told his boss the 2 post car lift had already paid for a week of bearing labor. That is the moment a lift becomes real equipment rather than a purchase order. From that morning forward the lift was scheduled every day.
Months two through six: what wore in
Nothing dramatic wore. Cables stretched a small amount in the first 45 days as expected, and we came back at day 30 to retension. Arm restraint gears break in during the first few dozen cycles and start to feel more positive after that. The hydraulic reservoir needed a top-off around day 90, which is normal for a new hose set that has never been fully bled. The lock ladders were quiet the whole time. The one thing the shop foreman flagged was that his techs were engaging safety locks harder than needed because they were used to the old lift’s soft engagement. We adjusted the lock ladder tension slightly and walked them through the correct engagement height. Small stuff. If those are the biggest first-six-month issues on a 2 post car lift, you bought the right one.
Small parts we shipped in the first year
We shipped exactly two parts during year one. One arm restraint pin at month five, because a tech dropped a starter on it and cracked the plastic. One lock-release cable at month nine, because it caught on a piece of debris and frayed. Both were in stock at our Iowa warehouse and shipped same day. Neither was a warranty claim; both were wear-and-tear. The reason we talk about parts availability so much when we quote a 2 post car lift is exactly this: a well-run shop will burn a few small parts a year, and if the lift maker cannot ship a $40 arm restraint pin in 24 hours you are paying for a machine that is worth less than the box it came in. We shipped both parts within two hours of the phone call.
What the shop foreman would change
Two things. He would have specified LED lighting on the overhead beam so the tech had light on the underside without a drop cord. That is a $200 upgrade at the factory and closer to $500 to add later. He would also have specified the taller-height column pad kit so the F-350 diesels sat 4 inches higher at full extension. Neither was a mistake, and both are on his upgrade list for year two. If you run an RV or trailer shop and you are looking at a 2 post car lift to handle tow vehicles alongside the coach work, read our related pieces on two-post lifts for truck shops and lift cable inspection. Call us at 800-674-9302 and we will do a Davenport-area site survey.
Our Clients Include: