Forward Lift Is Now Rotary Solutions: What Iowa Shops Need to Know

If you’ve been searching for Forward lift parts or service and keep landing on Rotary pages instead, you’re not losing your mind – Forward Lift is now Rotary Solutions, and the confusion is completely understandable. Forward built a lot of good alignment lifts and two-post hoists that are still working hard in Iowa shops today, and when the brand consolidated under Rotary, a lot of owners were left wondering who to call, whether parts still exist, and whether their lift just became an orphan. We’ve been installing and servicing lifts across Iowa long enough to have watched this transition happen, and we can tell you plainly: the equipment didn’t disappear, it just changed its name tag.

Why Forward Lift Is Now Rotary Solutions in the First Place

The short version is that Rotary Lift acquired the Forward brand and folded its alignment lift and two-post product lines into its own catalog and support structure. This is a pretty common move in the automotive equipment world – brands get bought, engineering teams merge, and manufacturing gets consolidated into fewer, more efficient plants. For the shop owner standing in front of a ten-year-old Forward alignment rack, though, none of that history matters as much as one question: can I still get parts and service. The answer is yes, and it’s actually a better answer than it would have been if Forward had simply gone out of business or been discontinued without a successor.

What this means practically is that when you call around asking about a Forward lift, don’t be surprised when the person on the other end starts talking about Rotary Solutions. That’s not a sales redirect, that’s the accurate current name of the division that supports your equipment. Rotary has kept the engineering drawings, the parts numbering in many cases cross-references directly, and the service network that already existed for Rotary equipment now covers Forward units as well. We’ve found that once shop owners understand Forward Lift is now Rotary Solutions, the anxiety about their equipment being abandoned goes away pretty quickly.

Getting Parts for an Older Forward Alignment Lift

Alignment lifts take a beating – turn plates wear, slip plates need lubrication systems serviced, hydraulic seals age out, and cables stretch. If you’ve got a Forward alignment rack from the 2000s or earlier, the parts hunt used to mean digging through old catalogs or calling numbers that no longer connect to anyone useful. Now that Forward lift is now Rotary Solutions, we can usually pull up your model, cross-reference the part, and get it ordered without the guesswork that used to eat up half a day.

We keep a working knowledge of Forward-to-Rotary cross-references because we get calls about this constantly from Iowa alignment shops who bought their racks years ago and never expected to need this information. If your data plate is worn or missing, we can often identify the unit by its runway design, turntable style, and lift mechanism. That’s the kind of diagnostic work that saves you from ordering the wrong part and waiting another week for the correct one.

Two-Post Forward Lifts Still in Daily Service

It wasn’t just alignment equipment – Forward also built two-post surface lifts that plenty of independent shops and small dealerships across Iowa still run every single day. These are solid lifts mechanically, and there’s no reason to replace one just because the nameplate says a brand that technically doesn’t sell new units anymore. Cables, arm restrictor pins, locking pawls, and hydraulic components are the parts that fail most often on these units, and all of them are available through the current support structure now that Forward lift is now Rotary Solutions.

If you’re running one of these two-post units and want a deeper technical comparison of how Forward’s two-post geometry stacks up against a current Rotary model, our Rotary vs Forward alignment lift comparison walks through the differences in more detail. It’s worth a read if you’re deciding whether to keep repairing an older unit or start budgeting for a replacement down the road.

What Happens When You Need Certification or Inspection

Annual lift inspections don’t care what brand is stamped on the column, they care whether the equipment is safe and functioning to spec. Because Forward Lift is now Rotary Solutions, inspectors and certified lift techs already have the reference material they need to properly evaluate your equipment – the engineering standards didn’t get lost in the transition, they got absorbed. We inspect a mix of Forward and Rotary equipment in the same day regularly, and the process doesn’t change based on which name is on the arm.

What does matter is documentation. If your shop has ever had a Forward lift flagged during an ALI inspection for a worn part, keep that paperwork. It helps us and any future inspector track the maintenance history and confirm what’s already been addressed versus what’s still outstanding.

Installing a New Rotary Lift to Replace an Aging Forward Unit

Some shops reach a point where a Forward lift has simply earned its retirement – decades of cycles, structural wear, or a shop layout change that calls for different lift geometry. When that happens, moving to a current Rotary two-post or alignment lift is a natural step, since it’s effectively the direct descendant of the equipment you’ve been running. Our Rotary Forward two-post lift install guide covers what to expect from a concrete pad evaluation through final certification, which is worth reviewing before you commit to a replacement date.

We handle these transitions across Iowa regularly, and one advantage of moving from Forward to a modern Rotary unit is that your techs won’t need to relearn much – the control layout and lifting philosophy carry over. It’s a smoother changeover than switching to a completely unfamiliar brand.

Specific Forward Models We See Most in Iowa

Two model families come up constantly in our service calls: the older Forward O8 alignment lift and the Forward E0 series. If you’re running either of these, we’ve put together dedicated pages covering common failure points and parts availability – see our notes on the Forward Lift O8 and the Forward Lift E0 for model-specific guidance. Both remain fully supported now that Forward Lift is now Rotary Solutions, and we stock or can quickly source the wear parts these units typically need.

Knowing your exact model number before you call saves everyone time. Check the data plate on the base or power unit housing, and if it’s illegible, a photo of the lift’s frame and lifting mechanism usually lets us identify it from experience.

Working With Auto Lift Services on Your Forward or Rotary Equipment

Whether you’re chasing down a part number, scheduling an inspection, or deciding it’s finally time to replace an old Forward rack with a current Rotary model, we can walk you through it without the runaround. We install and service both brands across Iowa, and because Forward Lift is now Rotary Solutions, there’s no split support system to navigate – it’s one call, one team, one parts network. That’s a lot simpler than what shop owners dealt with during the early years right after the brand consolidation.

If you’ve got a Forward lift sitting in your bay right now and you’re not sure what condition it’s really in, reach out and we’ll help you figure out the next step, whether that’s a repair, a part order, or a conversation about replacement timing.