Operator training is underway in South Australia for Austrack Equipment’s SafeVac Lifting System, as the machines prepare to roll out on water projects across the state. Austrack has developed three distinct SafeVac units to date: the SV400, the smaller and more manoeuvrable SV200, and the latest addition to the fleet, the SV400i. The new unit is possibly the company’s most innovative to date, combining the very best elements of its predecessors. As with the SV200, the dipper arm has been converted to provide a vacuum chamber which in single shoe mode dispenses with the requirement for using a spreader bar. This frees up more than a tonne of lifting end weight, resulting in the excavator being able to safely lift weights not previously possible.