A Pre-Purchase Checklist for Your Next Lift Store Visit

Rural farm shop owners around the Des Moines metro come to us every year needing a lift store that can actually explain how their new equipment fits into annual state inspections, not just sell them a box. Farm shops are a different animal — they’re doing oil changes and brake jobs on the family truck one day and running a state inspection lane the next, all in a building that might also house a tractor or two. Picking the wrong lift, or buying from a lift store that doesn’t ask about your actual workload, means retrofitting later. Before you buy anything, walk through this checklist so your garage build-out sequencing and your equipment choice line up from day one.

Start With What State Inspections Actually Require

If your farm shop is running annual state inspections, the lift needs enough clearance and access for a technician to check undercarriage components, exhaust, and suspension without contorting around arms placed in the wrong spot. Some inspection checklists specifically call for full underside visibility, which favors a 2-post lift with arms that swing clear, over a mid-rise or scissor design that can block sightlines to certain components.

Before you visit a lift store, pull your state’s actual inspection requirements and note what needs to be visible or accessible while a vehicle is raised. We’ve had farm shop owners in the Des Moines metro assume any lift would work for inspections, then discover the arm placement on their chosen model blocked access to a spot the inspector needed to check. A quick conversation with a lift store that does inspection-lane work regularly avoids that entirely.

The Pre-Purchase Checklist: Capacity and Vehicle Mix

Write down every vehicle type that will go on the lift, not just your daily driver. Farm shops often run pickups, occasionally a grain truck or trailer axle, and sometimes ag equipment attachments. A lift rated for a 7,000-pound passenger vehicle is not the right choice if a loaded pickup or a piece of equipment is going up on it even occasionally.

Match your heaviest realistic vehicle to the lift’s rated capacity with margin to spare, not right at the limit. We also ask about width — dual rear wheel trucks need wider arm reach than most base configurations offer, and that’s an easy detail to miss until the truck won’t sit right on the pads. A good lift store will ask about your full vehicle mix before recommending a model, rather than defaulting to whatever’s cheapest or most in-stock.

Checklist Item: Ceiling Height and Door Clearance

Farm shops built as pole buildings often have generous side wall height but lower clearance near doors or trusses than expected. Before ordering, measure your actual ceiling height at the specific spot the lift will sit, and check the raised height of any lift store’s recommended model against it — not just the general spec, but with a vehicle’s height added on top.

We’ve measured shops near Des Moines where the sidewalls were listed at twelve feet, but a truss or light fixture cut real clearance down several feet at the exact spot the customer wanted the lift. Also check your door height and width if you’re planning to store two vehicles, one under and one raised — towing a project in and out under a raised vehicle requires more clearance than most people initially plan for. Get these measurements before you finalize concrete placement, not after.

Checklist Item: Concrete and Anchoring Requirements

Every lift model has a specific slab thickness, PSI rating, and anchor bolt pattern requirement, and these are not interchangeable between brands or even between models from the same brand. If you’re pouring new concrete for your garage build-out, get the exact spec from your lift store before the concrete truck shows up.

We see this go wrong most often when a shop pours a standard slab based on general contractor advice, then finds out the 2-post or 4-post lift they wanted needs a thicker pour or a different PSI rating than what’s in the ground. Repouring concrete is expensive and slow — far more than the cost of a phone call to confirm specs first. If your farm shop already has an older slab, we can help evaluate whether it meets requirements for a new lift before you buy anything, which can save a very expensive surprise.

Checklist Item: Power, Compressed Air, and Utility Rough-In

Lifts need dedicated electrical circuits sized to the power unit’s draw, and many farm shops built for tractors and general repair don’t have adequate service run to the specific spot a lift will go. Confirm voltage and amperage requirements with your lift store before your electrician finishes rough-in, since running new circuits after drywall and finish work is far more disruptive.

If you’re also running air tools, tire equipment, or a brake lathe in the same bay, plan your compressed air lines and outlets at the same time as your lift’s electrical rough-in — trying to retrofit air lines around an installed lift often means rerouting around the columns. We walk farm shop owners through a full utility checklist before their build-out crew starts work, so the sequence goes concrete spec, then utility rough-in, then lift delivery, in that order.

Checklist Item: New vs. Used, and What a Fair Price Looks Like

Budget-conscious farm shops often ask us about used equipment, and it’s a reasonable question — a well-maintained used lift can be a smart buy if it comes without a lot of unknowns. We’ve quoted used commercial lifts without warranty at a steep discount off new pricing for shops that understand the tradeoff: no warranty, but a working lift at a fraction of the cost.

Whatever route you go, ask a lift store for maintenance history if it’s used, and ask about warranty terms and parts availability if it’s new. A cheap lift with no parts support becomes an expensive problem the first time a cable or cylinder needs replacing. We stock parts for the commercial brands we sell specifically so farm shops in the Des Moines metro aren’t stuck waiting weeks on a part that keeps their inspection lane shut down.

Final Sequencing Before You Call a Lift Store

Pulling this all together: confirm your inspection requirements and vehicle mix first, measure your actual ceiling and door clearances second, get concrete and anchor specs from the manufacturer third, rough in electrical and air fourth, and only then schedule delivery and installation. Doing these steps out of order is the most common reason farm shop build-outs run over budget or over schedule.

We walk through this exact sequence with farm shop owners across the Des Moines metro before they ever sign off on a model, because getting it right the first time is cheaper than fixing a mis-sequenced build-out later. When you’re ready, we’re a lift store that will give you straight answers on capacity, clearance, and cost — new or used — and we’ll stand behind the install with service after the sale.