Abstract: An improved portable apparatus for moving and precisely placing a large and heavy object includes load support rails, aligned pairs of anchoring structures secured to and spaced longitudinally from one another along the rails, an actuator-supporting shoe movable along the support rails having lugs for releasably engaging one pair of the anchoring structures to hold the shoe in a stationary position, and an actuator extending between and connecting the shoe with the load movably supported on the rails. The improvements relate to the configuration of the shoe and to a pair of reinforced spaced anchoring pins which allow engagement with one or the other pin by the lugs on the shoe by merely reversing, or rotating 180.degree., the position of the shoe on the rails. In one position of the shoe with its lugs engaged with one of the pins, retraction of the actuator will produce movement of the load in one direction.

Abstract: A transportable heavy-lift apparatus for moving heavy objects comprising a base housing having a plurality of cylinder members vertically supported therein, the cylinder members having a load platform attached to their top ends, and a fluid actuating system disposed in the base housing for vertically moving the cylinder members and load platform. The cylinder members are so arranged such that their common lift vector is substantially aligned with the center of the base housing, and the base housing is constructed such that load forces experienced when moving heavy objects is equally distributed throughout the base housing to its floor plate. Swivel lugs disposed in the top end portions of the cylinder members connect the load platform thereto. The fluid actuating system permits the cylinder members to be independently rapidly elevated to a lift position for an object.