If you run a farm shop outside Cedar Rapids and someone’s offering you a used two-post or four-post lift with a Forward nameplate on it, the first thing you should check isn’t the paint job or the price tag — it’s forward automotive lift parts availability. We’ve fielded plenty of calls from guys who bought a lift at an auction or a dealer liquidation, got it home, and then found out the cylinder seal kit or the cable set they need is either backordered for months or flat-out obsolete. As an Iowa-based lift installer and parts distributor, we can tell you exactly what to look at before you hand over cash for a used unit, so you don’t end up with an expensive yard ornament.
Have your model and serial number ready. We’ll tell you what’s in stock, what’s on backorder, and what’s obsolete before you buy anything used.
Why Forward Automotive Lift Parts Matter Before You Sign Anything
We’ve had customers call us mid-negotiation on a used lift, wanting a quick answer on whether a specific part number is still supported. That’s the smart move. A lift is only worth what you can keep running, and if forward automotive lift parts for that particular model have gone obsolete, the resale value drops fast — even if the lift looks fine sitting on the shop floor. We’ve had calls where five parts requested for one customer’s job turned out to be discontinued with no substitute available anywhere in the market. That’s not rare. Older lift lines get orphaned when a manufacturer changes distributors or consolidates model numbers, and the paperwork trail can be thin.
Before you buy a used unit for your farm shop, ask the seller for the model number, serial number, and manufacture year, then call a parts distributor and ask them to check availability on the cylinder, the cables, and the safety locks. If those come back clean, you’re in decent shape. If the person on the other end starts hedging about substitutes or tells you the list is old and nothing crosses over, that’s your leverage to negotiate the price down — or walk away entirely. We’d rather tell you that on the phone for free than have you find out after the lift is bolted to your slab.
General Daily Maintenance on a Used Lift Changes the Math
Farm shops put lifts through a different kind of daily maintenance than a dealership does. You’re not running eight vehicles an hour, but you are running dusty, muddy trucks and equipment up and down, often with dirt and grit working into the cable grooves and pivot points. That daily grind wears seals and bearings faster than a clean-floor shop, so the maintenance schedule you inherit with a used lift matters as much as the lift itself.
When we get a call about a leaking cylinder or a lift that’s drifting slightly on one side, it’s almost always tied to seals that were never replaced on schedule. If you’re buying used, ask when the seals were last serviced and whether the previous owner kept any service records. A lift that’s had its cylinder reseal done recently, with a documented parts trail, is worth more than one with an unknown maintenance history — even if they’re the same age and model. We tell every buyer the same thing: budget for a reseal and a full cable inspection in year one if you can’t verify recent service, because that cost should already be baked into your offer price.
The Trade-In and Resale Reality on Older Lift Brands
Resale value on lifts works a lot like resale value on farm equipment — parts support drives the number. A Forward lift that’s ten or fifteen years old can still be a solid daily driver in a farm shop, but if you ever plan to sell it or trade it toward a newer unit, buyers are going to ask the same questions you should be asking now. Can you still get the arm pins? Are the bearings still in production or do they require a hunt through obsolete parts lists? We’ve had techs call in for a Challenger sheave pin and matching bearings only to find the part wasn’t even loaded correctly in the supplier’s system, requiring a manual price and lead time lookup that took days.
That kind of friction is exactly why some older lift models hold value poorly on the used market even when mechanically sound. If you’re buying with resale in mind, favor models where the manufacturer has stayed active and the distributor network is still current. If you already own an older Forward unit, keep your maintenance receipts and parts invoices — that paper trail is what lets a future buyer trust the machine and pay closer to full value instead of discounting for the unknown.
Building Your Pre-Purchase Checklist
A good pre-purchase checklist for a used lift starts with paperwork, then moves to physical inspection. Get the model number and serial number first — every quote we build starts there, because parts numbers are tied to specific production runs, not just the model name. Next, call a distributor and ask for a parts availability check on the cylinder, cable set, arm pins, and safety mechanisms specific to that lift. Ask directly whether any of those parts are obsolete or on extended backorder.
Then get physical. Look for oil weeping around the cylinder base, check cable fraying at the pulleys, and run the lift up and down empty to feel for uneven travel side to side. Ask about concrete anchoring history too — a lift moved from a shop with a different slab thickness may need new anchors, and that’s a labor cost separate from parts. Finally, get a written quote broken out by parts and labor before you commit, the same way any commercial buyer would, so you know exactly what you’re inheriting versus what you’ll need to spend to bring the unit current.
What Cedar Rapids Farm Shops Ask Us Most
The calls we get from farm shops around Cedar Rapids follow a pattern. Guys want to know if a lift they’re eyeing at auction is worth the drive to look at, whether the freight cost to bring in replacement parts is worth it versus buying newer, and whether our team can do an on-site evaluation before they commit. We tell people the same thing every time: bring us the model and serial number and we’ll run the parts check before you spend a dime on fuel or an inspection trip.
We also get a lot of questions about lead time once a buyer does commit. If a seal, sheave, or bearing needs to be special-ordered, that can mean the lift sits idle for a week or two while the shop uses jack stands and floor jacks to get by. Farm shops running planting or harvest season repairs don’t have that kind of slack, so we always flag lead time risk during the pre-purchase conversation, not after the sale closes.
Concrete, Ceiling Height, and Site Readiness Still Matter
Even if the lift itself checks out on parts and maintenance history, a used unit moving into a farm shop needs a site check just like a new install would. We ask about concrete thickness and cure date, ceiling clearance for a two-post versus four-post lift, and whether there’s a forklift or loading dock on site to get the unit off the truck. A used lift bought cheap can still cost you real money if your slab needs core drilling repairs or your ceiling height won’t clear a fully raised vehicle.
We walk farm shop owners through this before delivery, not after. If your shop was built for tractors and combines rather than passenger trucks, headroom and anchor spacing might not match what the lift was designed for in its last location. Get those measurements before the lift shows up on your property, because moving a heavy two-post or four-post unit twice costs a lot more than measuring twice up front.
When Buying New Beats Buying Used
Sometimes the honest answer is that a used lift, even with a good price, isn’t the better deal once you tally reseal costs, freight on special-order parts, and unknown maintenance history. We’re not in the business of talking people out of used equipment reflexively, but we do run the numbers straight. If forward automotive lift parts availability is shaky and the seller can’t produce service records, a new BendPak or Atlas home-shop unit, or a Rotary or Challenger commercial-grade lift, might actually cost less over five years than the used option once you factor in downtime and part-hunting.
We’ll run that comparison for you honestly, whether you’re buying used, buying new, or trying to figure out if the lift already sitting in your shop is worth investing in versus replacing. That’s the kind of straight talk Iowa farm shop owners tell us they can’t always get from an auction lot or an online reseller.
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