When most people hear the word Yanmar, they think of small Japanese diesel engines and they would be correct. Yanmar does build small engines. Infact they build some of the best engines in the world. A lot of people will say that Duetz builds the best but I have seen small Yanmar engines run in extreme conditions and never let you down. 15000 plus hours of run time andnever had a tune up type of conditions.

What a lot of people fail to know though is that Yanmar builds more than engines. They are a huge company and small line construction equipment is just one of those production lines they manufacture. You don't see that many here in North America but in the Asian countries they are everywhere. They build some pretty nice excavators and they have been building these excavators since 1971. The excavators that they build range from 2,348 lbs through 21,660 lbs. There is also two difference lines of models. One is the "VIO" series which is a true zero tail swing and the other is "SV" series which is an ultra-tight turning excavator.

In the "VIO" series line up there are 7 models ranging from 3,704 lbs through to 18,268 lbs. In the "SV" series line up there is 2 models with the smallest model being the SV08-1A at (2,348lbs) and the largest model being SV100-1 weighing in at (21,660lbs). You will notice that these two models are on the extremes of size from biggest to smallest.

The seven remaining models are in the "VIO" series and the smallest being the ViO17 which weighs 3,836 lbs and is powered by a 13 horse Yanmar.The largest model in this series is the ViO80 which weighs 18,268 lbs and is powered with a 57 horse Yanmar engine. This excavator would compare in size and features with the Kubota KX80 but the Kubota has an additional 13 horse power. Both have a 15 foot digging depth and about the same breakout force.

One of the nicest features of the Yanmar is the way the company took the time and effort to enclose and protect the hydraulic lines that run up along the boom and digging stick. Its a simple design but helps helps to protect your hydraulic piping and hoses. Speaking of features, the larger SV100-1 model has a tappered crawler frame design that helps eleminate muck and debris build up between the cab and the tracks.

Yanmar does not build a backhoe type of loader but they do build a small 4 wheel drive front end loader much like Kubota builds.