Hino is hoping a a range of new variants and specifications in its 700 Series range will enable it to make it through the tough times ahead with no new 500 Series medium duty trucks available for delivery in Australia until early next year, however Hino will be taking orders from this July for those prepared to wait the extra five months for delivery.
The previous Hino Fuel and Emissions fraud scandal in Japan has meant that its parent company could not supply any Euro 6 compliant 500 Series models in this country from late 2025 until supplies of the new trucks come on line at the end of this year.
To try to salve the demand for upper end medium duty 500 models Hino has doubled down on the new 9-litre engine in the lower end of the 700 line up believing that some buyers will go for that power train, coupled with either Hino’s own newly developed 12-speed AMT or an Allison Auto.
In what was the company’s first media drive and briefing for some time this week, the company gave the Australian truck media the chance to sample the new spec trucks back to back with some 13 litre models on a demanding two-day drive from its Sydney HQ to the NSW South Coast and on to the National Capital in Canberra.
Hino offered up a number of different configurations including tipper, tipper-dog, stock crate, curtain siders, a tilt tray and even a prime mover-semi rig hauling a shipping container on a skel.
The trip through Sydney’s southern suburbs, past Wollongong and Kiama to Nowra and an overnight halt near Batemans Bay was followed by a demanding climb up Clyde Mountain on the Kings Highway to Canberra. The route covered many of the typical working conditions that operators of these trucks would encounter in a normal working day and the trucks all showed their strong capabilities off very well.
The Hino 9-litre is a superb diesel truck engine, smooth quiet and powerful, and is now available in the 700 FH, FR and FS models, in a varying range of GVMs with 18, 26 and 32 tonne capability, and with either 320 or 360 horsepower variants depending on the model.
While the Allison 6-speed fully automatic model is available in most variants making it ideal for urban and city operations in cement, waste, tilt tray and tipper operations, the headline act is Hino’s own, self-developed, 12-speed AMT, which is the pick of the crop.
Mated to the Hino 9-litre the 12-speed is incredibly well matched, with amazingly smooth shifts, perfect timing and incredible efficiency. A new rotary gear selector on the truck’s dash enables the driver to select drive , reverse or neutral as well as a slow manoeuvring function while the driver can select gears via a shift selection stalk on the left had side of the steering column. Manual or automatic modes re selected via a push button on the end of the stalk, and gears can be changed up or down at the touch of the stalk, although in manual when a gear is selected, the truck will hold that gear until the driver changes it, whereas in auto mode the gearbox will select the next appropriate gear automatically.
The Jake brake exhaust brake on the 9-litre with AMT is a two-stage selection, unlike the 13 litre which has a three-stage selection. The exhaust brake works superbly, with the driver able to select the first stage and punch down to say seventh gear and hold the truck on a steep descent like Wollongong’s Mt Ousley at 40km/h, all the way to the bottom in safety and comfort. It was an impressive performance repeated the next day on the run down the steep 40km/h limited hill into Queanbeyan.
We got to sample all of the configurations and it made us realise that all of them have their standout talents and qualities that will make them attractive to buyers, who may in the past have chosen a high end Hino 500, but who are currently unable to do so, at least until the new Euro 6 trucks arrive on our roads next year.
Of course that is not discounting or even potentially cannibalising sales for the Hino 13 litre which will still has market niches above the 9-litre models.
The 13-litre, mated to the ZF made 16-speed AMT, is available in two versions of the FS as well as in the SH, SS and FY with GVMs ratings from 20 tonnes to 32 tonnes and with either 450 hp or 480 hp power options. Hino’s 12-speed AMT is available in the 28 tonne FS2845 450 horse model, while the rest of the heavy line up comes with the ZF 16 speed AMT.
We found ourselves behind the wheel of the 13 litre powered prime mover hauling a container skel for the final undulating leg into Canberra and with some stern climbs and descents it handle the task with relative ease.
Hino has definitely done a lot of work on NVH in the cabs, and the inclusion of an ISRI suspension seats in the driver’s position across all 700s makes the task of driving one all day every day, just that bit easier.
The large Hino infotainment screen is both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatible and the entire cockpit is well designed and seems to be less fussy than before.
Having the gear selector on AMT model in a rotary dial configuration on the dash makes the steering column less crowded and easier overall to use.
The company has also introduced a number of new Built to Go models as part of its ‘Project Vortex’ plan, which aims to try to reduce, the at times ponderously long delivery delays with truck body builders. Hino tells us that there are now six new heavy duty Built to Go 14 pallet curtain sider bodies available with 700 Series, which it says will enable buyers to mix and match to suit payload, area of operation and topography. These include the FR1A 320hp 6×2, FS1A 320hp 6×4, FS1A 360hp 6×4, the FS1E 480hp 6×4, the FY1A 360hp 8×4 and the FY1E 480hp 8×4.
This is a strategy all of the Japanese truck makers are pursuing vigorously in an effort cut down on the wait time for truck deliveries.
It will be interesting to see how Hino’s strategy for stemming the loss of 500 Series sales while that model range is not available will go but operators could do worse than have a look at the entry level 700s and its superb 9-litre as a worthy replacement.
