Hino 300 Series 817 4x4 2023 Review

The Hino 817 4x4 is not a new truck. In fact, this incarnation dates back to 2017. With this truck, it appears that Hino has taken an ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it’ attitude.

However, the market loves it. Popular with utilities companies, fire and SES services, tradies and even recreational users, the Hino 4x4 has solidified itself as an adaptable and efficient 4x4 truck.

The Hino 817 is available in Single Cab and Crew Cab configurations with both powered by a 165hp (121kW), 464Nm, four-litre, four-cylinder diesel engine mated to a six-speed manual transmission and a two-speed transfer case.

However, if you’re not wanting to swap the cogs yourself, you can opt for a (rather expensive) Allison automatic gearbox with the same transfer case.

It’s worth noting here that the transfer case used in the 300 Series 817 4x4 is the same as that used in its 500 Series 4x4 big brother, so it’s well over-specified and certainly won’t let you down.

Our test consisted of two vehicles: one a customised off-road beast with a manual gearbox, the other a more standard offering with a Hino tray, Allison auto and aftermarket wheels and tyres with singles on the back.

The flash off-roader had the singles as well but with bigger 305-width tyres as opposed to the more standard truck, which had 285s. Both were 70 profile on 19.5-inch wheels.

I was more interested in the heavily modified version with the manual box and all the trick gear which we’ll get to later, but first let’s take a look at the standard vehicle and how it shapes up.

Your standard 817 4x4 sits on a 3500mm wheelbase, it has a 7500kg GVM and a GCM of 11,000kg. You can have those figures downrated to 4495kg and 7995kg, but that would defeat the purpose of having such a big truck in the first place. So, for the purposes of this story, we’ll stick with the big figures.

The suspension on these trucks is multi-leaf front (six in fact) with a two-stage leaf system on the rear. Our trucks were riding on the standard spring setup with the addition of a set of aftermarket Power Down shocks all round.

The standard truck gets two linked fuel tanks with the main tank being 100L and an auxiliary tank of 70L.

Overall length is 6205mm, height is quoted as 2565mm and width is 2130mm.

The Crew Cab is nominally a five-seater but Hino says you can option it up to a seven-seater, although we reckon you’d have to be pretty good mates to squeeze seven in.

The first thing to note about these trucks is the single wheel and tyre fitment on the rear. This means that the front and rear tracks are the same, which is very handy in off-road conditions. This modification is not a Hino option but done by aftermarket companies. However, we were told that dealers can help with this.

The custom bar work on the trucks was done by All Terrain Warriors (ATW) out of Yandina in Queensland, as was the removable body on the manual truck.

In the body were two fridges, heaps of storage, a full electrical system including an inverter so you could run 240V accessories, a slide-out compartment for the barbie, and heaps more. The body is bolted onto the tray and can be easily unbolted and lifted on jacks, so you can basically set up your camp, unbolt the body and drive the truck off without breaking down your campsite. Very clever.

The truck was also fitted with front and rear winches, excellent light bars for the full illumination effect, and solar panels on the roof.

To add to the off-road ability of the truck it was fitted with a No-Slip Detroit-type locker on the rear diff from Powertrax Traction Systems.

It’s worth noting here that with all the accessories and the custom body, the big Hino weighed in at 5440kg, so it’s no lightweight. But consider here that there is still over 2000kg of payload until you get to GVM, and you can tow a 4500kg trailer if you so desire.

That’s the advantage of having a fully rated truck.

Our aim was to drive from Canberra to the coast pretty much off-road, a feat that we achieved without too much trouble.

The tracks we used ranged from dirt roads to fire trails and power-line access tracks. Some of it was easy and at other times we needed a fair amount of the off-road ability of the Hino 817s.

And that ability is not something that the Hinos are short of. Gearing for one thing is very good – especially in the manual where the six speeds are well spaced with a very low first gear at 6.369:1, ranging up to fifth which is direct and then sixth which is overdrive at 0.782.

The transfer case ratio is a very useful 2.224 and the diff ratio is 4.625. This all translates to a final ratio in first/low of around 65:1, which is serious crawling territory. By way of comparison, a HiLux diesel with manual transmission has a final ratio in first/low of 39.5:1, so the Hino is up there.

The Hinos are fitted with manual freewheeling hubs which is a bit of a novelty these days but once you lock them in you can swap in and out of 4x4 on the fly via a push-button on the dash, which is very handy on the fast dirt.

Low range is engaged via another button but you need to be stopped for that one. We certainly did use low range on this trip and it was terrific. In those situations where you really need to crawl and pick through seriously difficult terrain, the low-range selection of gears was a real help.

A push of another button and the ABS and traction control can be disabled as well, which is another help in tricky conditions.

Engine braking from the four-litre engine is great. Being a four-cylinder mill, it means you have one litre per cylinder, which really helps the retardation. We had one very steep hill to descend which was about three to four kilometres of twisty dirt road. I took this in second/high with the exhaust brake on and didn’t touch the service brakes once. The engine braking just held the truck back to around 20km/h and we simply eased our way down. Very impressive.

Similarly, on the way back up, the lugging ability of the Hino engine came to the fore. In third, at around 1200 to 1400rpm, the 4.0-litre engine dragged the 5.5-tonne vehicle and its occupants up the hill with ease.

We never really ran out of ground clearance with the big 305/70/19.5 wheel and tyre combo. With the standard 17.5-inch wheels and tyres, ground clearance is quoted as 205mm, but we had plenty more than that. In standard form, approach angle is 34 degrees and departure angle is 30 degrees, but the bigger wheels and tyres would improve on that again.

I did scrape once coming down a particularly steep rocky outcrop but I’d only dragged the towbar which we’d left in.

In all, this is a very impressive off-road machine.

On the blacktop, the Hinos were great too. The ride is pretty good with the added weight of the custom body, barwork, winches and other accoutrements smoothing out the heavy-duty suspension.

The driver suspension seat is a big help both on and off the road, and with the dual-cab configuration there is plenty of room for the seat to slide and tilt for taller drivers.

The engine is a bit noisy by modern standards and the big aggressive tyres, while great on the dirt or off-road, do give off a roar on the highway, but it’s not overly intrusive and you soon get used to the environment.

Cruising at highway speeds in the auto I did find that there are some gaps in the gearing and it was sometimes easier to lock out the overdrive, but the manual was fine and by flicking between fifth and sixth keeping up with the traffic wasn’t a problem.

Overall, I really enjoyed my two-day jaunt in the Hino 817s and it gave me a new respect for these trucks. Although they are part of the 300 Series range of light-duty trucks, they are anything but light-duty. They are big – especially with the larger single wheels and tyres – and they are tough.

We put them through some really tight situations where we were literally pushing through overgrown tracks and really using the brush bars on the manual truck, and they came through unscathed in terms of body damage, something that quite impressed me. Mere mortal 4x4s would have shown some damage for sure.

It will be very interesting to see how the replacement vehicle for these 817s shapes up. Hopefully it will be as strong and capable as these current trucks. Meanwhile, take a look at what you could do to trick up your work truck to be one of the sharpest-looking and most capable off-roaders in the country.

Specifications:
Engine: N04C UT
Displacement: 4.009 litres
Power: 165hp/121kW at 2500rpm
Torque: 464Nm at 1400rpm
Emission control system EGR and DPR meeting ADR 80/03 using Euro 5 STD
Transmission: Six-speed manual with two-speed transfer case (Allison 1000 Series auto opt)
GVM: 7500kg
GCM: 11,000kg
Wheelbase: 3500mm
Max nominal body length: 4865mm (Single Cab) 3840mm (Crew Cab)
Fuel: 170L (1 x 100L, 1 x 70L)
Front brakes: 321mm discs (hydraulic)
Rear brakes: 287mm discs (hydraulic)
Park brake: Transmission (end of transfer case)
Safety: Driver and passenger air bags, ABS, stability control, traction control, cruise control