If you just bought a two post lift or you’re planning the purchase, a solid two post lift accessory list will save you money and headaches down the road. We install and service these lifts across Iowa every week, and we’ve watched plenty of shop owners buy the base lift, skip the extras, then call us six months later asking how to add on what they should have ordered up front. This article walks through the accessories that actually earn their keep, ranked by how often our customers ask for them, so you can order once instead of twice.
Browse two post lift models and the accessories that pair with them, or call us for a quote built around your bay and your vehicle mix.
Arm Attachments Belong at the Top of Any Two Post Lift Accessory List
Every two post lift ships with a set of standard rubber pads on the arms, and for a lot of vehicles that’s fine. But the moment your shop touches trucks with running boards, low sports cars, EVs with battery pack rails, or anything with an unusual pinch weld height, stock pads stop working. That’s why arm attachments — stacking adapters, drive-on adapter kits, and truck adapter blocks — are the first thing we add to any two post lift accessory list we build for a customer.
The value here isn’t just convenience. Wrong contact points on lift pads can mean bent rocker panels, cracked battery trays, or a vehicle that won’t sit level, which is a safety issue as much as a cosmetic one. We keep several styles of adapters in stock precisely because one shop’s mix of Silverados and Civics needs different hardware than a shop running mostly minivans and crossovers. If you tell us your typical vehicle mix, we’ll tell you exactly which adapters belong on your order and which ones you can skip.
Jack Trays and Rolling Bridges
A jack tray or rolling bridge jack turns a two post lift into a real service platform instead of just a way to get a car in the air. Once the vehicle is up, a jack tray lets a tech drop a wheel, pull a strut, or drain a transmission without wrestling a floor jack under a raised vehicle at an awkward angle. For alignment and brake work especially, a rolling bridge that spans the lift’s base makes the job faster and safer.
We see this accessory skipped most often by home garage buyers trying to save money, and it’s usually the first thing they call back to add. In a commercial bay, it’s rarely optional — insurance and shop safety policies often expect one. If you’re building your own two post lift accessory list and budget is tight, this is one item we’d tell you not to cut.
Lighting and Lift Overhead Accessories
Most bays underestimate how dark it gets under a raised vehicle, even with decent overhead shop lighting. LED arm-mounted or overhead lift lighting kits solve that without a tech holding a trouble light in one hand. These mount directly to the lift columns or arms, run off standard shop power, and stay out of the way of moving parts.
Beyond convenience, better lighting cuts down on missed leaks, cross-threaded bolts, and slower jobs. It’s a small line item on a two post lift accessory list but one that pays for itself in labor hours saved within a few months for a shop running multiple vehicles a day. We usually recommend this alongside the jack tray for any bay doing regular undercarriage work, brake jobs, or exhaust repairs.
Safety Locks, Covers, and Cable Guards
Every two post lift already has mechanical safety locks built in, but wear items and add-on safety accessories deserve their own line on the list. Cable guards protect the lift’s cables from debris and impact damage in busy bays. Column covers and boot covers keep dirt and grinding dust out of the lift’s moving components, which matters a lot in a shop that does bodywork or brake jobs next to the lift.
We also recommend safety pin or locking pad accessories for shops training newer techs, since these force a positive lock check before anyone gets underneath a vehicle. None of these accessories are exciting to buy, but they’re cheap relative to a cable replacement or a locking mechanism repair, and they extend the working life of the lift considerably. If you’re comparing lift options before you buy, our two post lift comparison covers how different models handle these built-in safety features.
Power and Air Line Accessories
A two post lift needs reliable power and often compressed air nearby, and the accessories around that setup get overlooked constantly. Retractable air and power reel kits keep hoses and cords off the shop floor, reducing trip hazards around a lift that’s already a busy work zone. For shops running multiple lifts, a dedicated air line drop at each bay beats dragging one hose across the floor all day.
We also recommend surge protection or a dedicated circuit for the lift’s hydraulic power unit, especially in older Iowa shop buildings where electrical panels weren’t built with modern lift equipment in mind. This isn’t glamorous stuff, but it’s a real part of any complete two post lift accessory list, and it’s far cheaper to plan during installation than to retrofit afterward. Ask us about your building’s power setup when we quote the lift itself.
Matching Accessories to the Right Lift Capacity
Accessories only work well when they match the lift’s rated capacity and the vehicles it’s actually lifting. A shop running heavy trucks needs different adapter blocks and jack tray capacities than one servicing sedans and light crossovers. Before finalizing any two post lift accessory list, we walk customers through their heaviest, tallest, and lowest vehicles so nothing gets bought that won’t actually fit the job.
This is also where capacity planning matters most. If you’re still deciding on the lift itself, our guide on what capacity two post lift you need walks through how vehicle weight and mix should drive that decision before accessories even enter the conversation. Getting the base lift capacity right first means every accessory after that fits the way it should, instead of becoming a workaround for an undersized lift.
Building Your Own List With Our Help
Every shop’s two post lift accessory list ends up a little different because every shop’s vehicle mix, bay layout, and budget are different. What we’ve outlined here covers the categories that come up on almost every quote we build — arm attachments, jack trays, lighting, safety accessories, and power management — but the specific brands and models depend on what you’re actually working on day to day.
If you’re still weighing lift types entirely, it’s worth reading our comparison of a two post vs four post lift before locking in accessories, since the right base lift changes which extras make sense. We’d rather spend twenty minutes on the phone getting your list right the first time than have you reorder parts twice. That’s true whether you’re a one-bay home garage or a multi-lift commercial shop here in Iowa.
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