We join the Hino Roadshow

Over the past few years, Hino has upgraded its product range across the board so that it now has a thoroughly modern range of trucks that spread from the car-licence 300 Series up to the B-double-capable 700 Series.

The first to be upgraded was the 500 Series Wide Cab in 2017 and then the Standard Cab in 2019 – the Wide Cab variant taking out the Trucksales Safety Award in 2020. Next was the 300 Series in 2020 which was honoured with the 2021 Trucksales Safety Award, and then the 700 Series received a major upgrade in June 2021. It didn’t get an award but it was a finalist in the 2021 shortlist.

Through most of this time we were in a state of flux and mild panic with the pandemic, and the launches obviously suffered. So Hino’s sales and marketing teams came up with the great idea of taking examples of each of the various series of trucks in different configurations and drive them around the country for people to experience.

The start of this Roadshow was to be in Townsville to coincide with the Townsville round of the Repco Supercars Championship, in which Hino is fairly heavily involved.

Consequently, Hino invited the Australian trucking media to FNQ for a drive program to refresh us – and in some cases introduce us – to the full range of Hino trucks.

The drive program would begin in Cairns and take us up to the beautiful Atherton Tablelands via the Gillies Range Road, also known as ‘Australia’s windiest road’. It was a gutsy call by Hino as this road is not only windy, it’s bloody steep too!

The second part of the drive program would be a less dramatic, though still picturesque, drive down the Bruce Highway from Cairns to Townsville to link up with the Supercars event.

Our first section of the drive program was up the Gillies Range Road to Lake Barrine. Here I was assigned a Hino 616 Trade Ace. All the trucks were carrying a load and the Trade Ace acquitted itself well up the steep and circuitous road to the lake. I found I could hold the six-speed auto ’box in third or fourth and it fairly marched up the steep grades.

Comfort was great, with the fully adjustable steering column letting me get into just the right position for a smooth and cruisy ride, and the standard suspended driver’s seat in the Trade Ace package (Wide Cab only) is a terrific inclusion.

The 616 is powered by Hino’s N04 four-cylinder four-litre engine, which has 150hp (110kW) and 420Nm of torque. This drives through the six-speed Aisin A860E auto. The combination is a great mix and there’s always plenty of grunt, and gears, on hand for the hills and twisty bits.

Lake Barrine is a wonderful place and really worth a stop if you’re up there. The Tea House is a must-do stop for a cuppa. It’s on the banks of the lake, which is a crater lake of pristine, clear water that is 65 metres deep and filled with fish and turtles.

The lake used to be a favourite for water skiing back in the ’50s and ’60s and is still a popular destination for locals and tourists.

Lake Barrine is part of the Crater Lakes National Park which, in turn, is a part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area that supports a wide range of flora and fauna. More than180 bird species have been identified in this rainforest and you may be lucky enough to see one of the few species of marsupial active during daytime – the small musky rat-kangaroo.

Our next leg was across from Lake Barrine to Lake Tinaroo, which is an easy drive through the lush and fertile Tablelands country. For this drive I had the Hino 500 Series tilt tray. This vehicle is the official Repco Supercars Recovery Vehicle and you’ll be hearing more about it soon when I do a full review.

From Lake Tinaroo it was another easy drive through the Tablelands, which I did in luxury in what I called ‘The Limo’: a lovely 700 Series 2848 curtainsider. This is the same truck I had for a couple of days soon after launch back in December.

This truck features an air-suspended cab and the Next Generation ISRI NTS2 driver seat, which combined to give a really smooth and luxurious ride. It also had the full suite of active safety features including the Jacobs-type ZF retarder, which can pull the truck up to virtually a standstill without having to use the service brakes.

Other great features included the radar cruise control and the steering-wheel controls for the cruise control and the vehicle info screen.

The 2848 has a GVM of 28,300kg and a GCM of 63,000kg. My test rig was a 6x4 with Hino’s E13 six-cylinder 13-litre engine putting out 480hp (353kw) and 2157Nm of torque driving through a 16-speed ZF TraXon AMT with the aforementioned retarder.

The 700 Series really has come a long way from the previous model. In fact, as I was discussing with a colleague, you could be mistaken for thinking you’re in a European truck when, in fact, you’re in a Japanese truck. It’s that sophisticated and quiet and smooth.

On the second day of our drive program, I got to drive a prime mover version of the 700 Series with a low-loader trailer and another truck on the back. This was equally as impressive – and even though it didn’t have much of a load, it was still a lovely truck to drive.

In a way, I thought it was a bit unfortunate that on the way back down from the Atherton Tablelands, down through Kuranda Pass and back to Pacific Hino in Cairns, I was allocated one of the smaller Hinos.

The Kuranda Pass, or the Kennedy Highway, is steep as it drops down towards Cairns. At times it offers 10- to 15-degree slopes that twist and turn and challenge the best of braking systems. I was keen to see how the Hinos performed and would have loved to be in one of the bigger ones, but my little 300 Series did a wonderful job with its engine brake on and me shuffling down the gears from time to time.

It’s worth noting here that the Hinos are all fitted with disc brakes all round and they do a great job, but there’s nothing like a bit of engine braking to make sure the truck doesn’t get away, and this was certainly a good test.

We got down the hill in quick time and then it was onto the Hino dealership where the trucks were parked up for the night prior to our run down to the Townsville the next day.

In all, I think it was a gutsy call by the Hino team to send us up to the Atherton Tablelands and back again. It’s a far cry from running around one of our capital cities or trundling up and down the Hume. It was a true road test and gave us a real inkling of the capabilities of these Hino trucks – from the smallest to the largest.

A test like this shows more than just the power of the vehicles, it tests the braking systems, the cooling systems, and things like the air-conditioning systems in the tropics.

As mentioned, the Hino Roadshow will be traversing the country to bring the trucks to people – especially in regional areas. So keep an eye out for them, or talk to your local dealer to see when they’re coming to town and get along and take a look, or even a test drive, for yourself.