Hino have come up with an all new 700 Series range, which has extended the overall range and now includes all of the state-of-the-art electronic sophistication you can throw a stick at. Apart from a full safety suite, there is now a new engine available, at nine litres, and a much improved transmission, a genuine 8×4, plus a refresh of the overall look and feel of the 700 Series.
PowerTorque took two examples of the new Hino models out on the road to get some perspective on the new models and to test their mettle took the nine litre around Brisbane and up the Toowoomba Range, then tested the 13-litre hauling a fully loaded semi up the gruelling climb of Cunningham’s Gap.
It has been a long time coming, but the Australian truck market now has a Hino 8×4 with a load sharing suspension, which will enable the model to maximise mass potential on our roads. This was PowerTorque’s first time in a twin steer Hino and a chance to see how well this model will perform in Aussie conditions.
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.
Climbing up into the cabin of the larger prime mover, the SS 2848, is a different proposition to the FY model. The 700 cabin with the 13 litre engine sits 120mm higher than the model fitted with the nine litre. They are both 700 Series models but they really do look and feel different.
Like everything Hino come up with in terms of design this is a functional truck, but, despite that functionality, the interior looks and feels comfortable and sufficiently modern. Sophisticated no, effective yes.
The nine-litre engine is an innovation, and a good one for Hino. It provides them with a model which fits into many operator preferences around the lighter end of the truck market over 16 tonnes GVM. This does not have the feel of a truck design shoe-horned into an application, it preforms like a truck designed specifically for these kinds of vocational tasks.
When it comes to the prime movers, the 700 has come a long way from the first models brought into Australia nearly twenty years ago. This has the look and feel of a sophisticated prime mover and all of the systems available as standard on the truck stand as testament to the radical development path Hino have been on.
Limitations like a small choice of wheelbases may well be a disadvantage, but if that is its only drawback, other factors may well get the new 700 over line in many cases.
