It has been a long time coming, but the Australian truck market now has a Hino 8×4 with a load sharing suspension, and this was PowerTorque’s first time in a twin steer Hino in Australia and a chance to see how well this model will perform in Aussie conditions.
The Hino organisation has a long tradition of building right hand drive 8×4 models, not only for Japan, but also for the truck market in the UK and Ireland, which has a requirement for 8×4 tippers capable of handling rough quarry conditions and a 32 tonne GVM, with an axle maximum capacity of 8.55 tonnes.
The FY model is aimed at the vocational end of the market, although it may also serve well as an urban distribution truck. As a result it does not have all of the sophisticated electronics, and does not need them.
Of course all of the safety devices are available and many of them will automatically turn on when the truck is started. This means if the driver is one of those people who wants to turn all of the automatic systems off, they are going to have to studiously turn them off quite a few times each day. The truck records these instances and that kind of behaviour may lead to the driver getting involved in some ‘counselling’.
The camera mounted on the nearside A-pillar is part of the optional monitoring Hino can offer as part of the package. There is also a function on the Hino Connect system which allows the driver to have video calls direct to HQ if and when required. On one of the drives, I connected to Barry Noble, from Hino Product & Engineering Support, remotely from the cabin to run through the intricacies of some of the connectivity and electronic systems.
The entertainment system screen on the 700 is now the same as the one we have seen released on the 300 and 500 Series models in the past couple of years. The information screen in front of the driver has improved greatly, as Hino transitions across to the latest technology. There is a commonality of both functions and controls across the Hino range from light duty up to these heavy models.
Functions like cruise control and following distance for the Adaptive Cruise Control are on the steering wheel. This seems to be the home for these kinds of control in all of the latest trucks coming onto the scene.
The interior designers of the cabin have come up with some neat ideas, but there still isn’t a drinks holder big enough for a large water bottle or flask. However, the triangular tray on the top of the central binnacle has enough room for all of the odds and ends a driver needs to keep close at hand.
This tray also includes an additional slot along the nearest edge which is deep enough to drop a mobile phone into. On this drive it was possible to keep my phone, my sunglasses and my EWD visible in the slot as I drove along.
From the driver’s point of view, most controls are simple and close at hand. The left-hand button on the left-hand side of the steering wheel controls the multi-information display in the middle of the dashboard, directly in front of the driver. Left and right buttons scroll through the information a driver can use for a pre-trip routine. The right-hand side buttons on the wheel are those for the cruise control.
