BendPak XPR-10AS Pre-Purchase Checklist for Weekend Mechanics

If you’re a weekend mechanic straddling the Iowa-Missouri border and thinking about a bendpak xpr 10as for your garage, you’re already ahead of most people who buy a two post lift on impulse and regret it by the second oil change. This is a 10,000 lb overhead lift built for exactly the kind of use you’re planning — pulling the truck up for winter storage, swapping wheels between seasons, or finally having somewhere to work on the project car that’s been sitting under a tarp. We install and sell this exact lift across Iowa, and we’d rather walk you through the real checklist before you buy than after you’ve already poured a slab that’s six inches too thin.

Measure Your Ceiling and Door Height First

Before anything else, grab a tape measure and check your actual ceiling height, not the number you remember from when you built the garage. The bendpak xpr 10as needs enough clearance for the overhead safety shutoff bar and the vehicle on top, and a lot of weekend mechanics near the Iowa-Missouri border have garages built for storage, not lifts. We generally tell people to have at least 12 feet of clear ceiling height for comfortable use, though it can work in slightly less depending on your vehicle height and how the columns are positioned.

Don’t forget your overhead door track and any garage door openers hanging down — those low-hanging brackets have ruined more lift installs than any other single detail. Measure at the exact spot where the columns will sit, not just in the middle of the bay, because older rural garages often have uneven joists or a slight ceiling slope you won’t notice until the arms are swinging under a truck. If you’re not sure, send us a few photos and rough measurements before you order anything.

Plan Your Bay Layout Around How You Actually Work

A lot of guys buy a two post lift and center it in the garage without thinking about workflow, then spend the next five years walking around a truck bed to reach their tool bench. Before you settle on where the XPR-10AS goes, think about which side you’ll be working from most, where your air lines and tool carts live, and whether you need room to walk a full circle around a raised vehicle. The double-telescoping screw pads and expandable top beam on this model give you flexibility for wide or narrow drive-thru setups, which matters if your garage bay is on the narrow side.

We also recommend leaving at least three feet of clearance on the door side and behind the columns for arm swing and for your own movement when you’re rolling a floor jack or creeper underneath. Weekend mechanics who plan for seasonal storage often want to park a second vehicle nearby too, so map out where that vehicle sits before the lift goes in — moving a bolted-down two post lift after the fact is a real project, not a weekend one.

Confirm Your Slab Can Handle It

The bendpak xpr 10as is a floor-anchored lift, which means your concrete needs to meet minimum thickness and cure requirements before installation. We typically want to see at least four inches of properly cured concrete without major cracks near the anchor points, and older farm-style garages sometimes have thinner or patched slabs that need review first. If you’re not sure how old your slab is or what it’s rated for, this is worth a phone call before the lift shows up on a truck.

If your slab doesn’t meet spec, you have options — a partial pour, a full pour, or in some cases a different lift style entirely, like a mobile column setup that doesn’t require the same anchoring. But finding this out after delivery means storage fees and delays, and nobody wants that sitting in their driveway over a Missouri border winter. Have your slab checked, take a few pictures, and send them our way before you finalize the order.

Think Through Seasonal Storage Height Needs

If your plan is seasonal vehicle storage — say, lifting a truck or ATV trailer combo out of the way for months at a time — think about how high you actually need to raise it. The XPR-10AS offers solid lifting height for most trucks and SUVs, and BendPak also sells extension kits in two-foot, four-foot, and six-foot increments if you need more overhead clearance for storage rather than just service work. For pure storage, going a little higher than you think you need gives you room to still park a second vehicle underneath without stooping.

Weekend mechanics often underestimate how much they’ll want that extra rise once they’ve lived with the lift a season. If you’re storing a lifted truck or something with an oversized rack on top, do the math on total height with the vehicle raised, not just the lift’s rated height, and compare that against your ceiling measurement from the first section. This is one of the most common mistakes we see corrected on the second lift purchase instead of the first.

Understand What Comes With It and What Doesn’t

The bendpak xpr 10as ships with features like telescoping arms, single-piece columns, a padded overhead safety bar, and a single-point safety release, but it typically does not include things like rubber footpads for certain vehicle types or extended bead-breaker pads if you’re planning tire work too. Footpad sets and accessory pads for the pads themselves usually run in the range of a small add-on cost, not a major expense, but they’re easy to forget when you’re budgeting just the lift price.

If tire and wheel work is part of your plan, also think about whether you want a companion tire changer or balancer in the same bay, since that affects your layout more than people expect. We sell and install these as a package for a lot of weekend mechanics who want the lift and the tire equipment sorted out at the same time rather than piecing it together over two separate purchases.

Decide Between Delivery-Only and Full Install

Some weekend mechanics near the Iowa-Missouri border have a forklift or tractor with forks and want delivery only, unloading the lift themselves and doing the install as a project. Others want the full install — delivery, anchoring, calibration, and a walkthrough — handled start to finish. Both are legitimate paths for the bendpak xpr 10as, but be honest with yourself about which one you actually are before you commit, because a botched anchor job on a 10,000 lb lift is not a small mistake to walk back.

If you do have equipment to unload it yourself, tell your sales rep up front — it changes the delivery cost and the timeline. If you don’t, factor a professional install into your total budget rather than treating it as an optional extra. We do installs across Iowa and into the border counties regularly, and it’s usually the cheapest insurance you’ll buy on a lift this size.

Compare the XPR-10AS Against the Next Size Up

Before you finalize your order, it’s worth a quick gut check on whether 10,000 lbs is actually enough capacity for what you drive now and what you might drive in five years. For most pickup trucks without a loaded job box or heavy commercial equipment on the bed, the XPR-10AS is plenty — it’s genuinely a great hobby-shop lift for exactly this kind of use. The jump to a 12,000 lb lift is a bigger price step than most people expect, so it only makes sense if you know you’re going to need it.

Think honestly about your actual vehicle lineup, not your someday truck. If you’re firmly in daily-driver and weekend-project territory, the bendpak xpr 10as is sized right and priced right for that use. If you’re already looking at a one-ton dually or heavy trailer work, it’s worth discussing the step up before you buy rather than after.