Yanmar’s shine at Machine Serve Open Day

Earlier this year Devon Based Machine Serve held another of its Open Day events and true to form, once again the West Country weather did its upmost to spoil the party! We ventured along to brave the elements to see what was on offer.

Machine Serve have long been known in this neck of the woods for being dealers of the Japanese Hanix mini excavator brand, but unfortunately the now Chinese backed manufacturer appears to have all but turned their back on the UK mini excavator market, as they turn their focus on producing a range of tracked access platforms. This has led to Machine Serve taking on the Yanmar range of Japanese designed machines which are built in its European facility in France.

Machine Serve presented a number of models from the Yanmar range that visitors to the event could try out in the dedicated “Dig Zone” area including this 2.5 tonne class ViO26-6 zero tailswing model. Tipping the scales at 2,665kgs in its full cab variant, the ViO26-6 is powered by a 3-cylinder in-house built Yanmar diesel engine which offers a power output rating of 15.2kw (20.7hp). Maximum digging depth is 2,690mm with a standard dipper, with the long dipper option this increases to 2,940mm.

To be perfectly honest, over the years I’ve not had a great deal to do with Yanmar products, so I was keen to get in the seat and try one out, this was also a great way to escape the near torrential rain that had decided to arrive as an unwelcome guest! I opted for the new ViO57-6 which competes in the six-tonne class sector weighing in at around 5,485kgs on rubber tracks. Power once again comes from the Yanmar stable from a 4-cylinder lump producing 32.6kw @2200rpm.

The cab interior felt spacious enough and well-appointed with a radio and full air-conditioning fitted as standard. This example was fitted with the long dipper arm giving it a maximum dig depth of 4,000mm so plenty of reach when needed. Controls were nice and smooth and precise movements were easily achievable. Little touches like the ram rod protection on the bucket and dipper rams are very welcome, especially if a machine is going into the self-drive sector where such damage appears to be inevitable these days. I would be more than happy to spend some time on one of these machines, at the end of the day Yanmar have been building mini excavators since 1971, so its safe to say, they know a bit about them!

Machine Serve are also main dealers for the Northern Irish manufactured NC Engineering site dumpers. On display was one of the companies NC HT (High Tip) 1.0 models. This one-tonne class dumper, like all models in the NC range is built to last and almost over engineered in many aspects which can only be a good thing.

Also featured in Machine Serves portfolio of products are the Italian built Dieci range of telescopic handlers like this Apollo 25.6 with 2.5 tonne lift capacity.

A warm welcome is always assured by Phil Davey and the crew at Machine Serve and on a cold, damp and blustery day a hot burger and a coffee was much appreciated as we chewed the cud with product specialists who were in attendance on the day.