An EV specialty shop owner in Ankeny called us last year convinced that the automotive two post lifts in his building were an asset he could cash out whenever he wanted. He was expanding into transmission and drive unit service, needed taller capacity, and assumed the three used lifts already anchored to his floor would sell for most of what he had paid. That is the myth we spend more time correcting than any other. Lift equipment does hold value, sometimes surprisingly well, but the number depends almost entirely on brand, documentation, and whether anybody can legally certify the thing after it moves. Here is what we have learned buying, selling, moving, and scrapping this equipment across Iowa.
We stock Rotary and Challenger two post models from 10,000 lb through heavy-duty, plus every wear part they use. Thinking about replacing an older lift and wondering what the old one is worth? Call 800-674-9302 and we will tell you straight.
Myth one: any used lift is worth most of what you paid
The market for used lifts is real but it is brutally brand-sorted. A twelve-year-old Rotary SPO series in good condition with legible data plates will find a buyer quickly, often at a healthy fraction of new. A twelve-year-old import-only unit from a brand that no longer imports into North America is worth scrap plus whatever somebody will pay to gamble. The reason is parts. A buyer is not just buying columns and a carriage, they are buying the ability to get an equalizer cable, a lowering valve, a cylinder seal kit, and a lock dog five years from now. If those parts do not exist in a distributor’s warehouse, the equipment is a liability wearing a price tag.
That is why we tell shops that brand choice on day one is a resale decision as much as a service decision. When customers ask us to compare automotive two post lifts on purchase price alone, we push back — the spread between a name-brand commercial lift and a bargain unit closes fast once you factor in what each one is worth at year ten. The Ankeny shop owner had a mix: one well-known commercial two post that sold within two weeks of listing, and two units from a brand nobody around here services. He kept one of the orphans as a parts donor and paid to have the other cut out and hauled. That is not a failure of the used market. That is the used market working exactly as it should.
Myth two: capacity is the main driver of value
Buyers fixate on the sticker capacity, and we understand why — a 14,000 lb lift sounds inherently more valuable than a 10,000 lb one. In practice the 10,000 and 12,000 lb range is where nearly all of the demand sits, because that is what covers cars, half-tons, and most three-quarter tons. Higher-capacity units sell to a much smaller pool of truck and fleet shops, they need more ceiling and thicker slab, and a lot of buyers cannot host one. We regularly see a clean 10,000 lb unit move faster and closer to asking than a 15,000 lb one that has to wait for the right shop with the right building.
Configuration matters more than raw capacity. Clear-floor overhead designs command more than baseplate models in most markets because techs prefer nothing on the floor, but baseplate versions have a devoted audience among buyers in low buildings. We took a call from a shop in North Dakota with a hard 139 inch ceiling limit who could only use a baseplate model — for him the baseplate lift was the only option and therefore worth more than any overhead unit at any price. Arm style also swings value. Three-stage front arms and low-profile pads make a lift usable on modern unibody cars and EVs, and a listing that mentions them gets more calls. When we appraise automotive two post lifts for trade toward new equipment, arm geometry and configuration usually move the number more than the capacity plate does.
Myth three: EV work makes an older lift obsolete
EV shops hear a lot of noise about needing all-new equipment, and most of it is oversold. A well-built two post lift does not care what powers the car it holds. What matters is weight distribution and lift points. Battery packs sit low and centered, so many EVs are heavier than a comparable gas car and carry that weight differently, which means you should be honest about capacity and stop treating the plate rating as aspirational. A 10,000 lb unit is fine for most passenger EVs; some full-size electric pickups will push you past it.
The real EV-specific issue is lift point access, and that is an arms-and-adapters problem, not a whole-lift problem. Many EVs have designated jack pucks or reinforced sill sections that need a specific pad or an adapter, and the skirts sit low enough that a tall standard pad will not slide under. We fit low-profile pads and stackable adapters to existing units all the time, and those parts are inexpensive relative to replacing a lift. The Ankeny shop moving into drive unit and transmission service needed clearance under the vehicle to drop heavy assemblies, so we recommended a taller-rise model for the new bay and re-armed one of the existing lifts for general service. That combination cost far less than replacing everything. If you own solid automotive two post lifts already, upgrade the contact points before you assume the equipment itself is finished.
Myth four: moving a lift is cheap and simple
This is the myth that wrecks resale math. A buyer looking at a used lift is really looking at three costs: the purchase, the removal, and the reinstall. Removal means cutting or extracting anchor bolts, patching the holes in the seller’s slab, breaking down the hydraulics without dumping fluid across the floor, and getting two heavy steel columns onto a trailer without dropping them. Reinstall means a slab that meets spec at the new site, new anchors at the correct embedment and torque, fresh cable routing and tensioning, a bleed, and a load test. Every one of those steps takes real hours.
When we quote a decommission-and-relocate, the labor frequently rivals a meaningful share of what a new comparable lift costs. That is not us padding a bill, it is just the reality of the work. The practical consequence is that used lift pricing has to leave room for the buyer’s install cost, which caps what a seller can realistically get. A customer in northeast Missouri who wanted a 10,000 lb unit and had a forklift on site figured he could handle setting it himself, and honestly he probably could have handled the lifting part — but his slab was thinner than advertised, which is exactly the kind of surprise that turns a cheap self-install into a footing pour. We would rather tell somebody that before the money moves. Our overview of concrete requirements for two post lift installation lays out what a slab has to do.
Myth five: documentation does not affect price
It does, more than almost anything else. A used lift that comes with the original manual, the serial and capacity data plates intact and readable, and a record of annual ALI-certified inspections sells for meaningfully more than an identical lift with a painted-over nameplate and no paperwork. The reason is liability. A shop putting a used lift into commercial service needs an inspector to certify it, and an inspector needs to know exactly what model it is to check it against the manufacturer’s specifications. No data plate, no model identification, no clean certification.
We have walked into shops where somebody sandblasted and repainted a set of columns to make them look nice for sale and destroyed several thousand dollars of value in the process. If you plan to sell equipment eventually — and most shops eventually do — keep the manual in a folder, photograph the data plates now while they are readable, and file every inspection report and every parts invoice. That folder is worth real money. It also helps you: when a cable or cylinder fails, knowing the exact model and serial means we can pull the right part the same day instead of measuring and guessing. Our guide to equalizer cable replacement explains why matching the exact part number matters on automotive two post lifts.
What actually destroys value
Four things kill a lift’s worth, and none of them are age. Bent or gouged columns from a dropped vehicle or a forklift strike are structural and effectively terminal. Cracked or spalled concrete around the anchor bases tells a buyer the slab failed and the lift may have been loaded improperly, and it means the seller’s site cannot be reused. Cylinder pitting and chronic seal leaks are repairable but they signal years of neglected fluid maintenance elsewhere in the system. And missing safety hardware — worn lock dogs, a defeated lock release, frayed cables spliced instead of replaced — is a hard stop for any honest buyer.
The flip side is that basic maintenance is a genuine investment in resale. Fresh hydraulic fluid, greased carriage slides, cables replaced on schedule rather than after they fray, anchors checked for weeping rust, and locks that engage audibly on both sides. A shop that does that arrives at year fifteen with equipment somebody wants to buy. We service shops around Ames, Ankeny, Des Moines, and across the state, and the pattern is consistent — the owners who treat maintenance as an expense end up scrapping their equipment, and the ones who treat it as upkeep trade it toward the next lift. If you want a straight assessment of what your automotive two post lifts are worth today, or a quote on replacing them, call us. We will tell you when the answer is scrap value, because knowing that is worth something too.
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