Kennards highlights Hino heritage

Kennards Hire has paid homage to its strong ties with Hino by restoring a 1968 Daihatsu D200 truck for its museum collection

Kennards Hire has long enjoyed a strong relationship with Hino, and underlining that fact is the former’s restoration of a 1968 Daihatsu D200 truck – a distant forefather of the Hino trucks that are currently part of the Kennards hire fleet.

The D200 is a part of the Kennards Hire museum collection of decommissioned equipment, which spans an eclectic array of hardware from chainsaws to pressure cleaners, ground aerators and more.

Fully operational, the Kennards D200 required only a mild body and interior restoration along with a mechanical checkover before being finished off with some older Kennards corporate logos, as fitted to the firm’s hire trucks in the 1970s.

Daihatsu trucks first went on sale in Australia in 1965, before Daihatsu and Hino both became a part of Toyota two years later. Daihatsu then became fully integrated with Toyota in 2000, before being formally wound up in this country in 2005.

The restored D200 shown here was originally sourced from Gossin Industries, which handled distribution for Daihatsu in Australia before it handed control back to Daihatsu Japan in 1975.

The truck is powered by a 2270cc diesel engine and has a two-tonne load capacity.

The Executive Director of Kennards Hire, Angus Kennard, said the Daihatsu brand was a key ingredient in the company’s success in the early days.

“Kennards started with a mixed fleet of 50 Daihatsu trucks – tippers, long-wheelbase cab chassis and short-wheelbase models,” he said.

“It got us into the truck business in a big way.”

Kennards now has around 500 Hino trucks on its hire fleet, including tippers, vans and tilt trays.

“We’ve had a long-term relationship with Hino and Toyota over the years,” Kennard said, adding that the modern hire fleet also includes Toyota HiLux utes, skid-steer loaders and forklifts.

“With Hino, we feel we are buying the best truck available. They’re ergonomic, safe, reliable, easy for all our customers to drive, and they have good resale value.”

Kennards highlights Hino heritage

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