System for lifting, moving and transporting a vehicle via multiple slings connected to a common lifting vertex, and method of retrofitting a vehicle to facilitate lifting

A system for lifting a vehicle via multiple slings without damage to the vehicle, comprising in combination:

• a vehicle not engineered with structural facility to withstand lifting forces, the vehicle having a frame of a configuration which unmodified will deform in response to vertically imposed lifting forces applied to the frame,
• frame reinforcing elements affixed to the frame,
• a plurality of lifting members affixed to the frame at selected spaced-apart locations about the frame, including at least two lifting members spaced laterally apart at forward locations on the frame and at least two lifting members spaced laterally apart at rearward locations on the frame,
• each lifting member having an enlarged lower base portion rigidly affixed to the frame and an upper lifting portion, and
• a plurality of elongate slings extending respectively between the upper lifting portion of each lifting member and a common lifting vertex,
• the frame reinforcing elements being affixed to the frame at selected locations on the frame which are subject to lifting deformation to resist deformation of the frame in response to vertically imposed lifting forces,
• the lifting members being arranged relative to one another on the frame to transmit lifting forces to the frame at selected locations thereon and the enlarged base portion of each of the lifting members being configured to apply lifting forces over a correspondingly enlarged area of the frame without deforming the frame.