An RV service shop out in Waukee took delivery of two automotive two post lifts a year ago March with one very specific job in mind: they were tired of dropping transmissions and pulling oil pans on jack stands. Their tech was throwing his back out, the work was slow, and they were losing bay days to jobs that should have taken an afternoon. This is that shop’s first-year story, from the garage build-out phone call through install day, through their first big oil pan gasket job on a 6.7 Cummins tow truck, all the way to the twelve-month inspection. It is written for any Waukee-area shop or hobby garage considering the same jump.
Configurations sized for oil pan clearance, differential work, and the everyday drivetrain jobs a busy Waukee shop actually sees.
Why Oil Pan Jobs Drove the Decision
Every RV shop has the same tow-vehicle problem: the diesel pickups that pull fifth wheels are the workhorses that show up leaking, and the oil pan gasket on a 6.7 Cummins or 6.6 Duramax is a common repair. On jack stands the job takes a full day and it is miserable. On a lift with the pan hanging in free space, the same job is four to six hours. When the Waukee shop ran the math on how many oil pan and transmission pan jobs they were postponing or refusing, the case for automotive two post lifts made itself.
They spec’d a 12,000-pound symmetric for the diesel work and a 10,000-pound versymmetric for gas-engine tow vehicles and general daily maintenance. The 12K has a taller lift height and a longer arm reach, which is what you need to clear the tall body sides of a crew-cab dually. The 10K covers everything else. That pair is our go-to recommendation for a shop that lives and dies by oil pan and transmission work.
Build-Out Sequencing Before Delivery
The Waukee shop was renovating an existing pole building, and the sequencing conversation happened before drywall went back up. Ceiling was 12 feet 8, adequate for overhead automotive two post lifts on the 10K but tight on the 12K, so we spec’d the 12K as a baseplate configuration. Concrete was existing at 5 inches with no cracks in either lift footprint. Panel had spare capacity for two dedicated 220 volt circuits.
The sequencing that mattered most was air lines and the drainage plan. Oil pan work generates a lot of fluid, and the shop poured a small trench drain in front of each lift bay before install. That drain caught the drips during pan removal and refill and kept the concrete looking new a year later. Sequencing infrastructure a month ahead of the lift delivery is the difference between a bay that ages well and a bay that looks abused by year three. Talk to your building contractor before you talk to us.
Freight and Install Day in Waukee
Two lifts arrived on a common carrier, palletized and banded. The shop had a rental forklift for the morning and both pallets were off the truck in 20 minutes. Automotive two post lifts install fastest when the columns can be walked directly to their final position with mechanical assistance. Sliding them across concrete on rollers works but eats time and marks the floor.
Our crew did the install as a two-day job because we wanted both lifts under load with the safety checks completed before we left. Day one: layout, anchor drill, column set, plumb, and level. Day two: crossbar or baseplate assembly, arm install, hydraulic hose routing, oil fill, and cycle testing. The shop was operational on day three. That two-day cadence is what we quote for a pair of installs in the Des Moines metro. Rushing it to one day is possible but it skips checks we do not want to skip.
The First Big Oil Pan Job
The first real test was a 2019 Ram 3500 with a 6.7 Cummins that came in three weeks after install with a slow oil pan gasket weep. The tech drove the truck onto the 12K bay, spotted the arms under the frame rails with the pad extensions installed to clear the running boards, and raised it. Total time to gasket ready was 25 minutes. On jack stands that would have been an hour and a half.
The gasket job itself took four hours instead of a day. The tech never had to lie under the truck; everything was at chest height. The transfer case skidplate came off with an impact from a standing position. That first job paid for a meaningful fraction of the lift’s monthly financing payment in one afternoon, and it convinced the shop owner that the second lift had also been the right call. This is the story we hear from almost every shop that jumps to a proper lift after years on stands.
Six-Month Adjustments
At the six-month mark the shop noticed the 10K lift’s equalizer cables were making a soft ticking sound at the top of the lift stroke. That is a classic sign of cable seating during break-in. We came out, adjusted the cable tension a quarter turn on each side, and the ticking was gone. Automotive two post lifts do not need much attention in the first year, but they do want a professional eye somewhere between month three and month nine to tune cable tension after the initial stretch.
The other six-month adjustment was operational. The shop reorganized the tool crib so oil pan gaskets, transmission pan gaskets, and drain plug seals were staged near the two lift bays instead of by the parts counter. Small workflow changes like that shave 10 minutes off every drivetrain job, and 10 minutes across 40 jobs a month is a full billable day the shop was throwing away. The lift is the equipment; the workflow around the lift is what makes the equipment profitable.
The Twelve-Month Look
We came back at 12 months for the annual inspection. Both automotive two post lifts got green checks. Anchor torque held. Cables were clean at the sheave contact patches. Hydraulic oil was clear with no metal shavings. Arm restraints engaged crisply. The shop had run something like 150 oil pan or transmission pan jobs in the first year, plus the everyday maintenance work, and neither lift showed meaningful wear.
The one thing we flagged was a small hydraulic seep at the pump manifold on the 10K. Not a leak, not a repair urgency, but worth a $60 seal kit at the next quarterly if the seep grows. That is the kind of finding an annual inspection catches early. If the shop had ignored it for another year, the seal kit would still be $60, but the mess and the potential for a mid-shift shutdown would have been on the table. Book the annual. It pays for itself.
What We Would Tell Any Waukee Shop
If you are running a Waukee-area service shop and you are doing oil pan and transmission work on stands, stop. The equipment case for automotive two post lifts is decisive. Spec a 10K plus a 12K, plan the electrical and drainage before delivery, budget two days for installation, and put a proper 90-day and 12-month inspection on your calendar. Read the manual. Warm the oil on cold mornings.
Do not skip the annual and do not chase the cheapest brand. Rotary and Challenger are what we install most in shops like this one and there is a reason. Cables are stocked, parts arrive next day, and the paperwork means something when insurance asks. Call us at 800-674-9302 with a rough sketch of the bay and we will spec the pair. First years go easy when the first month is planned right, and the first month starts with a phone call before the freight ships.
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