An overlanding build shop in West Des Moines called us last year to design an autolift garage that could handle a rig with a 4-inch suspension lift, 37-inch tires, and a rear-mounted spare tire carrier that pushes overall length past 20 feet. Auto Lift Services is headquartered in Ames and designs and installs autolift garages across central Iowa for exactly this kind of specialty build. This case study walks through how we turned a two-car pole barn into a shop that does routine oil changes and full drivetrain work on tall vehicles.
Rotary and Forward four-post runways sized for tall vehicles and overlanding builds — the same lifts we spec for central Iowa custom shops.
The build brief: 20-foot overland rig, 12-foot ceiling
The West Des Moines shop started with a 30-by-40 pole barn, 12-foot side walls, a 4-inch slab, single-phase 240V, and a mixed workload of oil changes and full drivetrain work on custom overland builds. Primary vehicle envelope: a modified 4Runner and a 4-door Jeep JL platform, 20 feet nose to spare carrier, 84 inches tall on the roof rack, 6,500 pounds fully loaded. That length matters because it kills a lot of home-shop autolift garage options — a 15-foot runway four-post does not cover the rear tire on a rig with a spare carrier. Overhead clearance also matters: a 4Runner with a roof rack on a two-post at full rise is at 12.5 feet, which means a 12-foot ceiling forces a low-rise two-post or a four-post. We specified a Rotary SM14 four-post with a 172-inch runway, which covers the vehicle envelope and clears the ceiling by about 4 inches at full lock.
Why four-post beat two-post for this build
Two-post lifts win for repair depth; four-post lifts win for storage, alignment, and drive-on speed. This West Des Moines autolift garage owner needed both, but the tie-breaker was the oil change workflow. Overland rigs get oil changes every 5,000 miles under real off-road use, plus differential and transfer-case fluid changes twice a year. All of that is accessible on a four-post with wheels on the runway; you do not need to lift the wheels free. Add a hydraulic rolling bridge jack and you can pull tires when the rare brake or wheel bearing job comes up. The four-post also lets him park a second vehicle underneath, which he does — a build in progress sits under the daily-driver 4Runner, doubling his floor space. Two-post would have forced him into either giving up storage or building a second bay. Four-post gave him both. Our four-post vs two-post guide covers the trade in more depth.
Runway length and turntable placement
The Rotary SM14’s 172-inch runway was picked specifically to catch a 4-inch-lifted 4Runner’s full wheelbase without the spare carrier hanging off the back. Standard 4Runner wheelbase is 109.8 inches; a 4-door JL Rubicon is 118.4 inches. Add 8 to 12 inches of overhang each end and you need at least 155 inches of usable runway. Turntables for alignment on a four-post sit at the front wheels; on this build we set them at 118.4 inches from the rear stop so both the 4Runner and the JL pull in with front tires on the plates. Slip plates at the rear provide the same function for four-wheel alignment. Overland rigs are usually running non-stock caster and camber, and a proper alignment setup on the same autolift garage runway means the owner does not have to trailer the rig to another shop after a suspension swap.
The lift-bay layout that made it work
Layout on a 30-by-40 pole barn is a puzzle. The Rotary SM14 four-post needed 15 feet of column-to-column width and 20 feet of length end-to-end. We placed it long-side-parallel to the west wall, leaving a 15-foot wide bay along the east wall for the work bench, tire station, and a mid-rise scissor for lower-clearance vehicles. Center aisle: 4 feet for equipment cart clearance. That layout preserved the barn’s rear roll-up door line-of-drive so the owner could pull a trailer straight in through the four-post bay without repositioning. Air lines ran along the west truss with drops at the tire station and both ends of the runway. LED bay lighting sat above the runway centerline. The whole layout was mocked in chalk on the slab before we anchored the first column — mistake at layout costs an eraser; mistake at anchor costs a day and a redrill.
Oil changes and fluid service on the runway
Routine oil changes on a four-post autolift garage go fast once you rehearse the workflow. Pull in, hit the parking brake, engage the lift to 4 feet — enough to stand under. Drain pan under the sump plug, hit the plug with the 14mm, drain. While the oil drains, pull the filter with a strap wrench, prep the new filter with a smear of oil on the gasket. New plug and crush washer, new filter, refill through the fill port from a 5-quart jug. Total: 12 to 15 minutes with practice. Transfer case and diff fluids on an overland rig are the same workflow with a heavier gear oil pump. What kills the workflow is under-runway clearance — the SM14 rises to 68 inches which is enough to sit under with the drain pan; a 40-inch mid-rise scissor makes you kneel, and a full 6-foot commercial two-post is overkill for a drain-and-fill.
What we would do differently on the next overland build
Looking at this West Des Moines autolift garage a year in, two things stood out. First: we should have specified a longer air-line drop at the driver’s-side runway — the owner ended up running a 25-foot coiled hose that keeps coiling into the ratchet. Fifteen feet of hard-mounted reel would have been cleaner and cheaper long-term. Second: the mid-rise scissor lift on the east side gets less use than we expected. Overland rigs are tall; low vehicles are rare in that shop’s mix. A second rolling jack for the four-post would have been higher-utility for the same money. Neither is a build-killer, but if you are designing an overlanding autolift garage from scratch, prioritize compressed air routing to both ends of the runway, and skip the second lift unless you routinely work on sports cars or sedans. Overlanders do not own those.
What we would quote for a similar build today
For a similar West Des Moines-style autolift garage build in 2026, a delivered and installed Rotary SM14 four-post runs in the eight-to-ten-thousand range including anchoring, hydraulic commissioning, and ALI sign-off. Add a rolling bridge jack for on-lift tire pulls (twelve to eighteen hundred). Add turntables and slip plates for alignment work (eight to fifteen hundred). Air-line routing and reels (four to eight hundred depending on drops). LED lighting kit (three to five hundred for a bay of this size). Total: mid-teens for a build that handles daily overland shop work, alignment, and drive-under storage. Financing through First Business is available with 12-month zero-percent APR when promo is running; call 800-674-9302 to schedule a West Des Moines site survey. We walk the pole barn, chalk the layout, and quote before we leave the driveway.
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