diff --git a/requirements-swh.txt b/requirements-swh.txt
--- a/requirements-swh.txt
+++ b/requirements-swh.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 swh.storage >= 0.0.163
-swh.model >= 0.0.54
+swh.model >= 0.0.59
 swh.scheduler >= 0.0.39
 swh.loader.core >= 0.0.78
diff --git a/swh/loader/svn/loader.py b/swh/loader/svn/loader.py
--- a/swh/loader/svn/loader.py
+++ b/swh/loader/svn/loader.py
@@ -110,6 +110,7 @@
         self.destination_path = destination_path
         self.start_from_scratch = start_from_scratch
         self.swh_revision = swh_revision
+        self.max_content_length = self.config['max_content_size']
 
     def pre_cleanup(self):
         """Cleanup potential dangling files from prior runs (e.g. OOM killed
@@ -148,22 +149,6 @@
         self.svnrepo.clean_fs(local_dirname)
         return h
 
-    def get_svn_repo(self, svn_url, local_dirname, origin_url):
-        """Instantiates the needed svnrepo collaborator to permit reading svn
-        repository.
-
-        Args:
-            svn_url (str): the svn repository url to read from
-            local_dirname (str): the local path on disk to compute data
-            origin_url (str): the corresponding origin url
-
-        Returns:
-            Instance of :mod:`swh.loader.svn.svn` clients
-
-        """
-        return svn.SvnRepo(svn_url,
-                           local_dirname=local_dirname, origin_url=origin_url)
-
     def swh_latest_snapshot_revision(self, origin_url,
                                      previous_swh_revision=None):
         """Look for latest snapshot revision and returns it if any.
@@ -476,8 +461,10 @@
                 prefix=TEMPORARY_DIR_PREFIX_PATTERN,
                 dir=self.temp_directory)
 
-        self.svnrepo = self.get_svn_repo(
-            self.svn_url, local_dirname, self.origin_url)
+        self.svnrepo = svn.SvnRepo(
+            self.svn_url, local_dirname, self.origin_url,
+            self.max_content_length)
+
         try:
             revision_start, revision_end, revision_parents = self.start_from(
                 self.last_known_swh_revision, self.start_from_scratch)
diff --git a/swh/loader/svn/ra.py b/swh/loader/svn/ra.py
--- a/swh/loader/svn/ra.py
+++ b/swh/loader/svn/ra.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Copyright (C) 2016-2018  The Software Heritage developers
+# Copyright (C) 2016-2020  The Software Heritage developers
 # See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
@@ -248,8 +248,7 @@
                 self.directory[self.path] = Content.from_bytes(mode=mode,
                                                                data=data)
         else:
-            self.directory[self.path] = Content.from_file(path=self.fullpath,
-                                                          data=True)
+            self.directory[self.path] = Content.from_file(path=self.fullpath)
 
 
 class BaseDirEditor:
diff --git a/swh/loader/svn/svn.py b/swh/loader/svn/svn.py
--- a/swh/loader/svn/svn.py
+++ b/swh/loader/svn/svn.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Copyright (C) 2015-2018  The Software Heritage developers
+# Copyright (C) 2015-2020  The Software Heritage developers
 # See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
@@ -34,7 +34,8 @@
         local_dirname (str): Path to write intermediary svn action results
 
     """
-    def __init__(self, remote_url, origin_url, local_dirname):
+    def __init__(self, remote_url, origin_url, local_dirname,
+                 max_content_length):
         self.remote_url = remote_url.rstrip('/')
         self.origin_url = origin_url
 
@@ -53,6 +54,7 @@
 
         self.uuid = self.conn.get_uuid().encode('utf-8')
         self.swhreplay = ra.Replay(conn=self.conn, rootpath=self.local_url)
+        self.max_content_length = max_content_length
 
     def __str__(self):
         return str({
@@ -237,8 +239,9 @@
         # Update the disk at revision
         self.export(revision)
         # Compute the current hashes on disk
-        directory = Directory.from_disk(path=os.fsencode(self.local_url),
-                                        save_path=True)
+        directory = Directory.from_disk(
+            path=os.fsencode(self.local_url),
+            max_content_length=self.max_content_length)
 
         # Update the replay collaborator with the right state
         self.swhreplay = ra.Replay(