Automotive Two Post Lifts in Des Moines: an RV Shop’s First Year

An RV and trailer service shop in the Des Moines metro called us last year looking at automotive two post lifts to replace an aging column set they had bought used a decade earlier. They needed something that could handle tow vehicles and heavy trailers as part of their general daily maintenance workflow, and they wanted the whole process — freight, unload, install, and first year of service — mapped out before they committed. This article follows that shop through their first year of two-post ownership, from the freight day through the twelve-month checkup, with the numbers, the surprises, and the lessons learned.

Why the shop needed a new lift, not a refurb

The old lift in the RV shop was a chain-drive 10K unit installed by a previous owner without a full commissioning check, and the cables had drifted enough over the years that one carriage always sat a quarter inch high. That is workable for oil changes and rough enough for wheel bearing work, but it was unacceptable for anything requiring level positioning. The shop had been quoting used units on marketplace for a year and had almost pulled the trigger on a private-sale lift out of Minnesota when they called us for a second opinion.

We walked them off the used lift path for two reasons. First, the private-sale unit had documented cable damage in the photos, which meant an immediate cable replacement plus a hydraulic inspection would eat most of the savings. Second, insurance on the shop specifically required ALI-certified automotive two post lifts, and a used unit without documentation would have failed the audit at renewal. New made more sense once those two line items were accounted for, and we quoted a mid-tier 12K direct-drive column that fit the shop’s tow-vehicle work.

Freight day and the forklift plan

Freight into the Des Moines metro from our Iowa warehouse landed in two business days. The columns shipped as two crated units at just over 900 lbs each, plus a separate pallet for the arms and hardware. The shop owner had a forklift on site because his RV service work required one anyway, which simplified the unload significantly. Curbside drop was the default, so the freight driver operated the tailgate lift and the shop’s forklift moved the columns off the truck and into the bay.

What surprised the owner was how compact automotive two post lifts arrive on the pallet. The columns look imposing when they are standing up in a bay, but crated they take up less floor space than a large refrigerator. The full pallet package fit into a single 10×10 corner of the shop while he cleared the bay for install. Freight arrived exactly on the promised window, which we credit to the carrier we use for Iowa deliveries and to the fact that we photograph and label every pallet before it leaves our dock. Damage claims are rare when the pallet leaves clean.

Install week: anchors, hydraulic bleed, and commissioning

Install ran a single day plus a return morning for post-cure anchor torque check. Our installer arrived with a hammer drill, a mag drill, an anchor kit, a hydraulic bleeder pump, and a torque wrench calibrated for the anchor spec. Columns went in first — anchors set at 125 foot-pounds to manufacturer spec — then the crossbar and hydraulic lines, then arms, then fluid fill and bleed. The whole physical assembly took about six hours with two people.

Commissioning is where the difference between our install and a DIY setup shows. Automotive two post lifts require both columns to reach the same safety-cam engagement position at the same time under load, which means cable tension has to be tuned within tight tolerance. Our installer put a reference weight on the arms and cycled the lift from full down to full up three times, adjusting cable tension between cycles until both carriages tracked within an eighth of an inch across the full stroke. That measurement gets recorded on a commissioning sheet, signed, and left with the shop for insurance documentation.

First month: RV tow vehicles and trailer service

The RV shop’s daily workflow put the new lift to work immediately. Tow vehicles — mostly full-size pickups and larger SUVs used to haul travel trailers and fifth wheels — cycled through for oil changes, brake inspections, tire rotations, and wheel bearing service on both vehicle and trailer axles. The lift handled all of it. The trailer work was actually easier than the tow-vehicle work because a trailer axle is well within the pad points of a properly sized two-post, and the shop could lift a single-axle utility trailer to work-height in a couple of minutes.

What the shop owner mentioned to us at the one-month check was that the versymmetric arm set on his new lift dramatically reduced the door-panel damage he had been paying for on tow vehicles. On his old symmetric-only lift, a driver opening a door inside the columns sometimes clipped the door edge on the column. With versymmetric geometry rotated to asymmetric mode, the door swings freely inside the column footprint. That one detail probably saves the shop a body-shop invoice a year on customer vehicles.

Month six: the first surprise and the phone call

Around month six the shop called us because one of the arm pad rubbers had chunked out and needed replacement. That is a normal wear item on any lift running a high-duty cycle, and we shipped a fresh pad set overnight. Nothing else on the lift needed attention. What the owner did not expect was how much preventive maintenance a well-designed two-post actually requires — which is to say, very little. He had been budgeting for a serious repair somewhere in year one based on his experience with the old chain-drive unit, and it never happened.

That is the pattern we see with new automotive two post lifts installed properly. Year one is quiet. Year two adds a possible cable inspection. Year three or four may need a hydraulic seal kit if the cylinders start to seep. Beyond that, the columns themselves last twenty years or longer with routine care. The old lift the RV shop replaced had been in service for over fifteen years despite its problems, which speaks to the underlying durability of the column design even when the commissioning was botched. A properly commissioned lift will outlast that easily.

Month twelve: inspection and the year-two plan

The one-year ALI-standard inspection ran the shop about two hours. We checked cable tension (still within spec), safety-cam engagement (all positions clicking correctly), hydraulic fluid level (down a quarter inch, topped off), arm restraint gears (worn slightly but well within spec), and anchor torque (all within five foot-pounds of factory). Nothing failed. The shop received a signed inspection certificate they added to their insurance file for the year-two renewal.

The year-two plan we outlined was straightforward: continue monthly visual checks by the shop team, replace pads as they wear (probably one set per year at that duty cycle), and schedule the next annual inspection. We also flagged the equalizer cables for a formal replacement at the four-year mark regardless of visible condition, because that is the standard preventive-maintenance interval on commercial automotive two post lifts. Being proactive on cables costs a few hundred dollars every four years and prevents the one failure mode that can actually drop a car — a snapped equalizer cable under load.

What year one taught us about that RV shop

Every shop we work with teaches us something about how to spec better next time. The RV shop taught us that versymmetric arms are worth the small upcharge in any bay where tow vehicles and passenger cars share the space. They taught us that scheduling freight around the shop’s own forklift availability saves a full day of frustration. And they taught us that the twelve-month inspection appointment is where the trust in the relationship really gets built — because that is when the shop realizes we are still there, still stocking parts, still answering the phone.

If you run an RV, trailer, or general service shop in the Des Moines metro and you are looking at automotive two post lifts, call us at 800-674-9302 and we will walk through your bay, your workflow, and your budget. We build quotes against real shops, not against catalog assumptions, and every lift we ship gets our full freight, install, and inspection support from day one through year twenty.