When a dealership service manager in West Des Moines called us about adding automotive two post lifts to a bay dedicated to wheel bearing work, the first question wasn’t which lift to buy — it was whether the shop’s slab and layout could actually support one. Wheel bearing service means the tech needs the wheel hanging free, arms set low and outboard, and a stable platform that won’t rock while a hub is being pressed. Before we quote anything, we walk the bay. That site survey, more than the brand sticker on the lift, determines whether the install goes smoothly or turns into a change order two weeks later.
Browse in-stock two post lifts sized for dealership and independent service bays, then let our Ames-based team walk you through the site survey before you order.
Why the Slab Matters More Than the Lift Spec Sheet
Every quote we send starts with concrete questions, because automotive two post lifts anchor into the floor and that floor has to hold up under asymmetric loading — especially during wheel bearing work when a tech might have the vehicle raised with a wheel off and weight shifted. We ask about slab thickness, age, and whether there’s rebar or mesh. A four-inch slab poured for foot traffic isn’t the same as a reinforced pad poured for lift anchors, and dealership bays built decades ago sometimes have thinner concrete near bay doors than in the middle of the shop.
We also check for radiant heat lines, conduit, or in-floor drains that a core drill could hit. On a recent West Des Moines survey we found the ideal anchor spot for a 10,000 lb 2-post lift sat almost directly over a floor drain, which meant shifting the columns by roughly a foot and rechecking clearance to the neighboring bay’s lift columns. This is the kind of detail that never shows up on a spec sheet but absolutely shows up on install day if nobody checked first.
Ceiling Height, Column Spacing, and Overhead Clearance
Wheel bearing bays often share space with lube or alignment work, so ceiling height matters twice — once for the lift itself and once for whatever’s parked on it. Most commercial-grade two post lifts need roughly 12 to 14 feet of clear ceiling height to fully raise a truck or SUV without the arms or the vehicle roof kissing the rafters, lighting, or HVAC ductwork. We measure to the lowest obstruction in the bay, not just the roof deck, because sprinkler heads and light fixtures get missed constantly.
Column spacing is the other half of that equation. Automotive two post lifts need enough width between columns to swing arms under a wide truck frame but not so much that a compact car’s pinch points fall outside the arm’s reach. For a dealership handling everything from sedans to half-ton trucks, we typically spec a wider drive-through clearance and confirm the door opening height clears the vehicle with mirrors folded. We measure twice on this because reordering columns after a slab is already drilled is a headache nobody wants.
Power, Electrician Scope, and the Motor Circuit
A 2-post lift needs a dedicated circuit, and dealership bays vary wildly in how close that circuit already sits to the planned lift location. Our estimates typically include electrician cost as a line item because running new conduit and a breaker is often the single biggest wildcard in a project timeline. If the bay was built for a different piece of equipment, the existing panel capacity might not have room for another 220V circuit without an upgrade.
We ask up front whether the facilities team wants us to coordinate directly with their electrician or handle it ourselves. On dealership properties managed by a larger maintenance group, there’s often a preferred electrical contractor already on site for other work, and folding the lift circuit into that visit saves a trip charge. Either way, we flag this during the survey rather than after the lift arrives on the truck, because a lift sitting crated in the bay for two weeks while power gets sorted is wasted rent on floor space.
Forklift Access and Freight Logistics
Before we ever finalize a delivery date, we ask the same question every time: is there a forklift on site, and can a semi actually back up to the bay door? Automotive two post lifts ship as heavy, awkward freight — columns, crossbeam, and arm sets on a pallet that a two-person crew can’t muscle off a truck by hand. If a dealership doesn’t have forklift access, we arrange a liftgate delivery or bring our own equipment, but that has to be planned before the truck shows up, not discovered when the driver is standing at the dock.
West Des Moines dealership lots are often tight, with limited maneuvering room for a full-size freight truck. We’ve had deliveries where the driver needed the service drive cleared of customer vehicles for a twenty-minute window just to get the trailer angled toward the bay door. Confirming that access during the site survey — not during a phone call the morning of delivery — is what keeps a scheduled install date from sliding a week.
Arm Configuration for Wheel Bearing and Hub Work
Wheel bearing service specifically rewards the right arm setup. Techs need low pickup points that clear rocker panels and frame rails without fighting the arm restrictors, and they need enough swing range to get a wheel fully off the ground and out of the way for hub removal. We talk through arm length options during the quote stage because a shorter arm set that works fine for oil changes can be genuinely frustrating on a wide truck when someone’s trying to pull a front hub assembly.
Some shops ask about adding a third stage to the arms for extended-length vehicles, similar to what we’ve seen requested for certain SUV and EV platforms that need specific arm reach to clear factory lift points. For a dealership running a mixed lineup, we’ll often spec arms with a bit more reach than the minimum, since retrofitting arm sets later costs more than speccing correctly up front.
Choosing Capacity for Dealership Duty Cycles
Dealership service bays run harder duty cycles than a typical independent shop, and that changes the capacity conversation. A 9,000 lb lift might handle sedans and crossovers fine, but if the same bay also sees half-ton or three-quarter-ton trucks in for bearing or brake work, we usually recommend stepping up to a 10,000 lb or heavier commercial-grade unit. The cost difference between tiers is smaller than most people expect, and undersizing a lift for daily dealership volume shortens its service life.
We also factor in whether the lift needs to handle occasional lifted trucks or aftermarket wheel packages, which can push effective width and pickup point location outside a standard lift’s comfortable range. Getting this right during the quote stage — rather than discovering a mismatch after the lift is anchored — is exactly why we walk through vehicle mix with the service manager before finalizing a model.
What the Install Day Actually Looks Like
Once the survey is done, power is confirmed, and freight access is scheduled, install day itself is fairly predictable. Our crew anchors the columns per the manufacturer’s torque spec, runs and tests the hydraulic lines, sets the crossbeam, and calibrates the safety locks before we ever let a vehicle near the arms. We also run oil and do a full function test — cycling the lift empty, then loaded, checking that both columns rise evenly and the locks engage cleanly at multiple heights.
For a dealership adding automotive two post lifts to an existing service department, we schedule install around shop downtime when possible, since a bay out of service for a day has a real cost. We’ve done installs early morning before the service drive opens and on weekends when a dealership’s volume allows it. The site survey is what makes that install day short and uneventful instead of a scramble to fix problems discovered on the fly.
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