GDR (named after the owner, Gary David Riseborough) bought the machine from Ben Burgess, Yanmar’s official dealer for the region.

It is going to be used for riverbank maintenance, flailing and general building work. 

The SV120 is an 11.5-tonne tracked excavator, 2,500mm wide and with a maximum digging depth of 4,640mm. Its short tail and offset boom (unusual on a machine of this size) allows operators to work in small spaces and close to walls.

It is one of the most powerful machines in the Yanmar portfolio. It has a Deutz 3.6-litre 4-cylinder turbo diesel engine, delivering 85kW at 2,000rpm and 400Nm torque at 1,600rpm, all fed through a pressure-controlled autoshift transmission. A hydrostatic travel drive (with planetary reduction gears) allows the SV120 to travel in two speed ranges, 0-2.7km/h in forward and 5.4km/h in reverse – at gradients up to 60%.

With four independent hydraulic circuits, it can use a variety of tools from buckets to rock breakers, loading hooks and pallet forks. A hydraulic pump capacity of 190 litres/min and a maximum working pressure of 350 bar deliver a digging force of 81.5kN for the bucket and 61kN for the arm.

GDR owner Gary Riseborough (pictured above with Ben Burgess sales manager Robert Turner) says: “I’ve been a customer of Ben Burgess for more than 30 years and have a good working relationship with the team. Over the years I’ve purchased several machines and have always been really happy with the service received.

“I was visiting the Norwich site and spotted the SV120 in the yard. It was very similar to my existing midi excavator, but more compact. I asked the team if it was available and bought it on the spot.

“It's been a really good machine so far. It came as standard with all the features you would usually need to add on to a machine and this particular model actually runs on bio-oil, which (when working close to rivers) is ideal.

“We also work in a lot of wooded areas, so the machine’s compact size means we can easily fit between trees. Major components are accessible from ground level, so there are no rails to get in the way, and the visibility from the cab is brilliant. I can’t say that I’ve seen a comparable machine do it better.”