Hino 500 Series Standard Cab Media Coverage July - November 2019

500 Series Standard Cab Media Coverage July - October 2019

500 Series Standard Cab Online media coverage ATN https://www.fullyloaded.com.au/truck-reviews/1907/hino-500-series-standard-cab-review https://www.fullyloaded.com.au/truck-reviews/1908/best-new-trucks-of-2019 Diesel

http://www.dieselnews.com.au/the-heart-of-the-matter-for-hino/#more-20690 Fleet Auto News https://fleetautonews.com.au/hino-shifting-standards-for-medium-duty-trucks/ Owner Driver https://www.ownerdriver.com.au/truck-reviews/1907/hino-500-series-standard-cab-video Power Torque https://powertorque.com.au/hinos-slimline-500-series-truck-review/ Prime Mover http://www.primemovermag.com.au/featured/article/head-to-head-hinos http://www.primemovermag.com.au/featured/article/first-on-the-scene The West https://thewest.com.au/lifestyle/motoring/car-carrier-hot-on-hino-ng-b881267319z https://thewest.com.au/lifestyle/motoring/tweaks-to-keep-goods-rolling-ng-b881324760z Transport Trucking Australia http://www.truckandbus.net.au/safety-strategy-proving-right-move-for-hino/ Trucksales.com.au https://www.trucksales.com.au/editorial/details/automatics-account-for-more-than-65-per-cent-of-hinosales-120988/ Truckworld https://www.truckworld.com.au/news/hino/hino%e2%80%99s_new_500_series_standard_cab_makes _a_big_splash_in_the_medium_minus_duty_market_with_800_orders_in_its_first_six_months/6020/

What do Australia’s leading trucking journalists think?

“The all-new interior is a massive improvement with an attractive chocolate brown trim colour.”

“Hino’s new 500 series standard cab is set to lead its competition in safety equipment and electronic systems.”

Brenton O’Connor, Power Torque

David Meredith, Big Rigs

“There’s a number of reasons why the new truck is proving popular, headed up no doubt by the standard safety and driver-assist features…”

“The new 500 Series Standard Cab is proving to be the best medium duty truck Hino has released onto the Australian market.”

Joel Helmes, Big Rigs

Greg Bush, Bauer Trader Media

“There is no point in having the ‘safest’ truck if it’s not fit-for-purpose and the Hino Standard Cab range is able to over-deliver on the practical operational criteria in addition to the safety and environmental considerations.”

“What sets the new Hino apart is how this new model has introduced a step-change into the way we have to think about truck design in this part of the market.”

Tim Giles, Diesel

Peter Shields, Prime Mover

“If the Wide Cab models were “The Westoz experience supports impressive, these are probably more Hino’s confidence in the potential of a impressive.” market-leading safety package in medium-duty trucks.”

Steve Brooks, Bauer Media

David Meredith, The West Australian

14 Jun 2019 Big Rigs, National Author: Joel Helmes • Section: General News • Article Type: News Item Audience : 26,329 • Page: 20 • Printed size: 967.00cm² • Region: National Market: Australia • ASR: AUD 2,526 • words: 971 • Item ID: 1133082038

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Page 1 of 4

New Hino FE 1426 has a lot to like

Taking ‘big daddy’ for a spin Joel Helmes

THE new Hino 500 Series standard cab has been on the market now for about six months and, so far, sales have been perhaps even better than Hino might have expected.

There’s a number of reasons why the new truck is proving popular, headed up no doubt by the standard safety and driver-assist features, including stability control and a pre-collision

system.

I have spent a fair bit of time now behind the wheel of the new-gen Hino medium-duty truck, particularly in the 11-tonne, 260hp variants.

This week though Hino Australia tossed me the keys to the big daddy of the line-up, the FE 1426.

If you’re familiar with the Hino model-naming strategy you’d know that means this is a 14-tonne truck with a 260hp engine.

Whichever way you go with your new Hino 500 Series, either 240hp/260hp, you’re going to have the new

five-litre, four-cylinder, turbo-diesel engine under the cab.

Delivering the aforementioned 260hp (191kW) at 2300rpm and maximum torque (882Nm) from 1400rpm, the engine feels just as confident and responsive here, despite the heavier weights.

Comparing apples to apples, ie with the same Allison 2500 transmission, and again loaded to about 80 per cent weight capacity (as was the 1126 I tested) the engine still climbs hills readily and, once again, even accelerated happily up

14 Jun 2019 Big Rigs, National Author: Joel Helmes • Section: General News • Article Type: News Item Audience : 26,329 • Page: 20 • Printed size: 967.00cm² • Region: National Market: Australia • ASR: AUD 2,526 • words: 971 • Item ID: 1133082038

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decent inclines.

The standard Jake brake in the new Hino works admirably to slow you, with the help of the transmission on the way back down.

For the record, in the Hino FE 1426 you can also option your truck with a sevenspeed synchromesh manual or Automated Manual Transmission, though Hino doesn’t expect these options to be particularly popular with Aussie operators.

Like the other Hino 500 Series trucks I’ve driven in recent times that are fitted with the Allison, again, I felt the odd shunt when decelerating that took a little shine off the otherwise smooth power delivery.

The overall drive experience is one of relative ease – this isn’t a difficult truck to pilot around town and that no doubt will be an attractive attribute for the type of operator usually running this size truck.

The steering is light while giving a somewhat disconnected or artificial steering feel/feedback to the driver and does take a little while to get accustomed to.

In this new addition to the Hino range you will find the tried and tested drum brakes all round and leaf springs up front.

My test trucks were also fitted with optional Hendrickson rear airbags, a big upgrade on the standard rear leaf springs I sampled at the Hino’s recent national launch.

Those safety features mentioned before are reassuring and, more importantly, aren’t too intrusive.

For example, Lane Departure Warning works only when you are well and truly over the white line.

Adaptive Cruise Control

(which is standard too) is a nice feature to have if your weekly work schedule includes some freeway or highway driving, perhaps more likely in this, the biggest of the standard cab models.

The reverse camera is a luxury that makes getting the Hino in and out of truck spots safer, faster and easier.

You can also option up your truck with side-mounted cameras for safer lane changes, turns and manoeuvres.

Inside the cab of the Hino 500 Series standard cab you’ll find a car-like environment dominated by the somewhat controversial brown interior highlights/ areas.

If you’re not keen and would rather a single colour interior you’re out of luck – it’s the brown or nothing.

Again, especially in this larger variant, a left armrest would be a welcome addition for the driver’s comfort.

Also, don’t expect to get a decent sleep or rest on the standard mattress in the ADR-approved sleeper berth. This is going to be something you will need to upgrade should you want to use this area for its intended design (the thin foam unit supplied is not going to give you much comfort).

Lastly, I might sound like I’m nitpicking a little, but the car handbrake inspired parking brake control feels out of place in a truck this size.

There are some really good bits in the cockpit to keep you safe, comfy and entertained – headed up by the overall user-friendly layout of the Hino cab.

You’ll enjoy the infotainment system that includes Digital Radio, Bluetooth and USB charging.

Unfortunately, the Hino steering wheel doesn’t give you controls for the infotainment system and I think this a real oversight.

Instead, the steering wheel buttons and controls run only to manipulating the driver info screen (a functional full-colour system) and the Adaptive Cruise Control and this is a pity as most drivers would more frequently use their phone or adjust the stereo settings.

Summing it up: The more time I have spent in the new Hino offering, the more it has grown on me.

The highlights are the new engine, the easy-todrive nature of the vehicle and the standard safety gear.

There’s a few rough edges I don’t think would be major deal-breakers for most operators and these are headed-up by the odd steering feel and brown interior trim.

Some might baulk at a four-cylinder, 14-tonne truck, however my tip is that Hino’s new baby will continue to make strong gains on competitors in this really keenly-fought segment of the Aussie truck market.

Page 2 of 4

c

My tip is that Hino’s new baby will continue to make strong gains on competitors in this keenly-fought segment

A few essential control buttons are missing.

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Inside the cab is a car-like environment.

Page 3 of 4

Don’t expect to get a decent rest on the mattress.

TESTING TIME: Hino Australia tossed our contributor the keys to the big daddy of the line-up, the FE 1426. PHOTOS: JOEL HELMES

14 Jun 2019 Big Rigs, National Author: Joel Helmes • Section: General News • Article Type: News Item Audience : 26,329 • Page: 20 • Printed size: 967.00cm² • Region: National Market: Australia • ASR: AUD 2,526 • words: 971 • Item ID: 1133082038

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This isn’t a difficult truck to pilot around town.

There are some good bits in the cockpit to keep you safe.

Page 4 of 4

AUTHOR: Brenton O'Connor SECTION: GENERAL NEWS ARTICLE TYPE: REVIEW AUDIENCE : 8,000 PAGE: 70 PRINTED SIZE: 2964.00cm² REGION: National MARKET: Australia ASR: AUD 19,484 WORDS: 1383 ITEM ID: 1129987454 01 JUL, 2019

HINO'S SLIMLINE 500 SERIES

Power Torque, National Page 1 of 5

The new mid-range Hino is winning significant support from operators looking to tick all the distribution boxes - Report by Brenton O'Connor.

It's not often that Japanese truck manufacturers launch a new model. The conservative mindset of the Japanese means they don't change a proven truck formula lightly, and they don't jump on fads or trends unless the benefit can clearly be proven.

Lotter sees an ongoing trend in the sales of commercial vehicles due to the market conditions, and also the large infrastructure spending by both State and Federal governments respectively. So much so that Hino Australia was caught short in supply of the run-out model 500

One of the latest additions from Japanese manufacturer Hino is the new 500 Series narrow cabin. This was a momentous occasion in truck terms, as the engineering team at Hino Japan has significantly raised the bar in terms of vehicle safety, emissions standards, and operator comfort.

As an indication of the importance attached to the new 500 Series narrow cabin, the public launch was attended by all the significant staff members of Hino Australia including CEO Steve Lotter and newlyappointed President Sam Suda. Also in attendance was the project lead for the new narrow cab 500 Series, Koyu Goto, who provided valuable insight into the key objectives behind the development programme.

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AUTHOR: Brenton O'Connor SECTION: GENERAL NEWS ARTICLE TYPE: REVIEW AUDIENCE : 8,000 PAGE: 70 PRINTED SIZE: 2964.00cm² REGION: National MARKET: Australia ASR: AUD 19,484 WORDS: 1383 ITEM ID: 1129987454 01 JUL, 2019

HINO'S SLIMLINE 500 SERIES

Power Torque, National Page 2 of 5

-Ill JO BOO SHFiiES Series narrow cabin in 2018, as market demand exceeded expectations. With the new model now in dealerships, Lotter expects increased sales going forward.

Despite Australia's relatively small population, it is an important market for Hino, ranking as the company's seventh-biggest globally - quite an achievement for an economy of our size. It also explains the background to Hino Japan's investment into this market and its willingness to adapt and create models suited to it, a classic example of which was the 718 4x4, a model developed between Hino Australia's head of product development Daniel Petrovski and Hino Japan's engineering department.

The three key objectives for the design team behind the new Hino 500 Series narrow cabin included satisfaction and delight in driving, safe operation, and solutions for management (in other words, increased fuel efficiency).

Hino has increased the appeal and model spectrum of the new 500 Series narrow cabin by introducing a number of new variants, including more flexibility in factory wheelbase offerings, with a total of 54 different models available across three ranges - FC, FD, and FE.

The FC kicks off the 500 Series narrow cabin range with an 11,000 kg GVM, an increase from the previous model's 10,400 kg, and offering increased payload for customers.

This model will be known as the FC 1124 and includes a short cab (non-sleeper) and a transmission-actuated park brake rather than an air maxi brake. The GCM is a maximum of 16,000 kg.

Stepping up into the FD 1124 adds in the Rest Cabin, which includes an ADR-approved sleeper berth and a higher 20,000 kg GCM. In terms of safety, it picks up daytime running lights and LED headlamps over the FC. Going one step further and into the FE 1125, the horsepower rises from 240 to 260 hp (179 to 194 kW).

Improvements are also made to the GVM and GCM, which improve to 14,000 kg and 22,000 kg respectively.

One of the major changes to the new range of trucks is the engine. Power comes from a new 5.0-litre, four-cylinder turbo-diesel, with the cleanest emissions ever produced by a Hino truck. All models meet the PLNT standard, which is the Japanese equivalent of Euro 6.

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AUTHOR: Brenton O'Connor SECTION: GENERAL NEWS ARTICLE TYPE: REVIEW AUDIENCE : 8,000 PAGE: 70 PRINTED SIZE: 2964.00cm² REGION: National MARKET: Australia ASR: AUD 19,484 WORDS: 1383 ITEM ID: 1129987454 01 JUL, 2019

HINO'S SLIMLINE 500 SERIES

Power Torque, National Page 3 of 5

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The A05 is a derivative of the larger A09 six-cylinder engine powering the 500 Series wide cabin. This new engine comes in three power ratings - the 1124 models receive the AO5-TE engine producing 240 hp (179 kW) and 794 Nm of torque, while the 1424-Crew Cab receives the A05-TD with 240 hp and 833 Nm. The range-toppers are the FD 1126 and FE 1426, both of which receive the top-performance engine known as the A05-TC, with peak power of 260 hp (194 kW) and 882 Nm of torque.

Hino has developed this engine to deliver high torque at low rpm, which it achieves through providing 10 to 20 percent more torque than the J07 engine it replaces. The biggest change is the Jacobs brake now standard and integrated into the engine. This provides class-leading engine retardation, in addition to the standard-fit exhaust brake, making for both easier and safer operation and reduced operating costs through decreased service brake wear.

On some of the hilly terrain around the launch venue in Canberra, the engine was able to show off its credentials by providing plenty of pulling power up some of the inclines, ideally matched to an Allison automatic. Hino is claiming an improvement in fuel consumption over the outgoing model; however, this was not possible to confirm on the day, through a lack of comparison data.

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AUTHOR: Brenton O'Connor SECTION: GENERAL NEWS ARTICLE TYPE: REVIEW AUDIENCE : 8,000 PAGE: 70 PRINTED SIZE: 2964.00cm² REGION: National MARKET: Australia ASR: AUD 19,484 WORDS: 1383 ITEM ID: 1129987454 01 JUL, 2019

HINO'S SLIMLINE 500 SERIES

Power Torque, National Page 4 of 5

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What was impressive, though, was the outstanding performance of the engine braking. Controlled through a one-position (on or off) switch in general driving, I had to cancel it on some of the descents as it was providing too much retardation.

Transmissions includes six-speed synchromesh manual gearboxes as standard on the FD and FC models. The FE receives a seven-speed manual, adding an extra gear compared to its main rivals.

Automated Manual Transmissions (AMT) are available as option but were unavailable for evaluation on the day of the launch. Both the manual and AMTs are standard with an automatic stop / start system.

The standout transmission option is the Allison 2500. This is a fully hydraulic automatic, which means Hino is the only company to offer a true automatic from car license trucks through to the 2632 wide cab bogie drive model.

The advantages of the Allison are true power shifts with no power loss, and also easier low-speed manoeuvring without the difficulties associated with the clutch actuation of an automated manual. The gear selector for the Allison improves operation with a T-bar-style shift lever to make gear selection a breeze.

Throughout the drive day a range of models with various bodies and specifications were available to test. As expected, the synchromesh manual was both light and direct and simple to drive, with a light clutch pedal feel.

The preferred transmission, though, has to be the Allison automatic as it is pretty much idiot-proof; this means in rental fleets and fleets with a revolving door of drivers, the risk of damage to the clutch and transmission is removed.

Furthermore, with the increasing traffic congestion in our capital cities, the Allison allows the driver to focus their time on the traffic situation rather than contemplating which gear to select.

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AUTHOR: Brenton O'Connor SECTION: GENERAL NEWS ARTICLE TYPE: REVIEW AUDIENCE : 8,000 PAGE: 70 PRINTED SIZE: 2964.00cm² REGION: National MARKET: Australia ASR: AUD 19,484 WORDS: 1383 ITEM ID: 1129987454 01 JUL, 2019

HINO'S SLIMLINE 500 SERIES

Power Torque, National Page 5 of 5

H I! JO 5DQ

SERIES

Vehicle safety is the area where Hino has invested much of its resources to make this a true 'safety-truck'. Importantly, all safety features are fitted as standard.

In addition to vehicle stability control and reverse camera, the new Hino 500 Series narrow cabin will include Pre-Collision System (PCS) Safety Eye (SE), Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) and Pedestrian Detection (PD). Additional standard fitment safety features include ABS, traction control, driver's airbag and a UN EVE R29 safety cabin.

"Hino Japan has significantly raised the bar in terms of vehicle safety, emissions standards, and operator comfort" PCS is an active safety system that can detect potential collisions with another vehicle, pedestrian and/or other object in advance of the impact and help prevent them, through use of camera and radar technology. Also included as standard fitment on the new truck is adaptive (radar) cruise control and lane departure warning, which throughout the test procedure worked very well.

The all-new interior is a massive improvement with an attractive chocolate brown trim colour rather than the drab grey found in most Japanese trucks. The standard ISRI driver's seat is great, although it needs armrests fitted.

The fit and finish is a step above its competitors with a multi-function steering wheel now included, something we believe is unique for a Japanese truck. The interior is not only visually appealing, it's also functional, designed with typical Japanese efficiency and a no-nonsense layout. The new 6.5-inch high-definition audiovisual unit provides audio entertainment as well as the reverse camera and satellite navigation, and has the ability for telematic connectivity.UJr

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AUTHOR: David Meredith SECTION: MOTORING ARTICLE TYPE: NEWS ITEM AUDIENCE : 205,782 PAGE: 14 PRINTED SIZE: 489.00cm² REGION: WA MARKET: Australia ASR: AUD 13,786 WORDS: 516 ITEM ID: 1150947312 27 JUL, 2019

Car-carrier hot on Hino

Weekend West, Perth Page 1 of 2

Car-carrier hot on Hino When it came time to upgrade, the crew at Westoz did their homework DAVID MEREDITH

W

elshpool-based Westoz Transport is a relatively recent entrant in the Perth carcarrying business and manager Carlos Del Toro admits it came about after several years working in dealerships wore thin.

The business started with a single truck handling six cars a day but within six months had grown enough to force a budget addition to the fleet: a second-hand Hino.

Now Westoz handles hundreds of cars a week, so reliability, urgency and uptime were critical to the upgrade.

Mr Del Toro was close to a decision on replacements earlier this year after assessing two Japanese brands; Hino wasn’t initially in the equation because the old truck hadn’t really inspired him.

But some final reading and research into the newly released 500 series standard cab had him walking across Kewdale Road for a closer look.

“Once I drove it, that was it,” he said.

The engine delivers an extra 170Nm with two less cylinders.

The test drive highlighted a range of appealing aspects, namely the huge improvement in ttorque, orqu or que qu e, q quieter uiiet eter ter iinterior nter nt eriio er ior an ior and da suite of safety features Mr Del

Toro couldn’t ignore — particularly, the collision avoidance system.

Both his new trucks have sleep alert systems as well.

Mr Del Toro has been careful to employ former dealership people who understand the car business, as drivers, and the quirks of dealership operations and personnel. “I wanted car people that needed to learn truck driving rather than truck drivers that needed to learn about car distribution,” he said.

It’s paid off, with big support from dealers and dealer groups from Perth down through the south-west.

Other regional areas are serviced when needed.

The new trucks are mainly metropolitan movers and do about 100,000km each year.

Price P Pri Pr ric ice wise ice wiise Mr Mr Del Del Toro Toro says the Hinos worked out nearly $10,000 more up-front than the other Japanese brands, although he said Mike Kennedy at WA Hino seemed the keenest to expand on the extra value.

“He underlined the pulling power of the new four-cylinder engine, and also noted that the Hino has the bigger Allison six-speed transmission, while the competition only has the five-speed or an AMT, which I disliked anyway,” he said.

“There’s ten grand right

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there.”

There’s a taller final drive in thi model, this thi d l which hi h d drops from 2200rpm tto 180 1800rpm at 2200 100km/h. The fuel economy improvement is significant.

Service intervals for the Hinos are every 20,000km and Mr Del Toro relies on Hino’s capped price service program for maintenance at the local dealer, WA Hino, rather than a maintenance contract.

But he has added a three-year extended warranty.

The Westoz experience supports Hino’s confidence in the potential of a market-leading safety package in medium-duty trucks.

While it is likely competitors will follow that lead soon, Hino is working hard to spread the message operators can virtually eliminate serious rear-end collisions when their drivers are behind the 500-series steering wheel.

The test drive highlighted appealing aspects

AUTHOR: David Meredith SECTION: MOTORING ARTICLE TYPE: NEWS ITEM AUDIENCE : 205,782 PAGE: 14 PRINTED SIZE: 489.00cm² REGION: WA MARKET: Australia ASR: AUD 13,786 WORDS: 516 ITEM ID: 1150947312 27 JUL, 2019

Car-carrier hot on Hino

Weekend West, Perth Page 2 of 2

The Westoz team — Gabe Vanni, Carlos Del Toro, Ben Gardiner and Al Lickfold.

Hinos are a good fit for inner-city car transport

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AUGUST, 2019

SETTING THE STANDARD

ATN - Australasian Transport News, National Page 1 of 4

TRUCK REVIEWS

Hino 500 Series

SETTING THE STANDARD Regarded as the best medium duty truck Hino has released onto the Australian market, Hino’s 500 Series Standard Cab ‘smart truck’ gets taken for a test run around Canberra and beyond W O R D S

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&

I M A G E S

G R E G

B U S H

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SETTING THE STANDARD

ATN - Australasian Transport News, National Page 2 of 4

W

ith six months’ sales of Hino’s new 500 Series Standard Cab under its belt, signs are of an ever-so-slight narrowing of the gap between Hino Trucks and perennial market leader Isuzu in the Australian medium duty truck range. Of course, Hino’s 500 Series Wide Cab, released a couple of years ago, may also be a factor in this modest but significant sales boost in that segment. But it’s most likely at the expense of Isuzu.

Hino has strategically slowly but surely accelerated the exposure of its new 500 Series Standard Cab since its November 2018 media launch in Tokyo. Drive days over a few months around Canberra followed, where the vehicles were put to the test around the national capital, Queanbeyan and the rolling hills towards Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.

First off was the Sutton Road Training Centre in the Canberra suburb of Majura, where nine Hino 500 Series Standard Cab medium duty trucks were lined up and ready to hit the road.

Before that, however, came a few WATC H T H E

VIDEO

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Above: Plenty of twists and turns in the hills south of Canberra FULLYLOADED.COM.AU August 2019

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SETTING THE STANDARD

ATN - Australasian Transport News, National Page 3 of 4

Above: All the info

(left) Left: The four-cylinder A05

below: The vehicle

!

#

although one was merely to show-off Hino’s manoeuvrability. A course dotted with witches’ hats was set

Hino 500’s capability in tight turning situations.

Top prize for the adrenalin rush came from the ' 7 ) $'7)% 9

although it was a representative from Hino behind

the crew cab.

The AEB is part of Hino’s standard safety package; its primary aim is to avoid rear-end collisions at 3 !

and a visual dashboard warning alerts the driver of 82

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And that’s exactly what happened. You know it’s

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situation. But at least you know it’s there. "

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' ( ) $') % impressive attribute of the new Hino 500 Series Standard Cab. The Suttons Centre had a skid

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this is an important feature of the new Hino.

Other safety items include Pedestrian Detection (PD) and Lane Departure Warning (LDWS).

3

had a manual transmission. This reflects the ratio of customer demand for the Allison auto in Hino’s medium duty line-up and the way of the future for savvy fleet buyers.

MULTIMEDIA SYSTEM It was time to head for the hills. All trucks were loaded 46

hilly terrain south of Canberra gave the four-cylinder A05 engine plenty of opportunity to show its

though much of the route was quite undulating and

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SETTING THE STANDARD

ATN - Australasian Transport News, National Page 4 of 4

A perfect opportunity to test the LDWS occurred during the drive when we came upon a couple of lycra-clad cyclists riding two abreast. These two had no intention of moving into single !

Restraint came into play when it was decided against opting for the horn. Of

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a go.

One additional item that should be

Hino Traq telematics. '

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multimedia system provides â&#x20AC;&#x153;real-time tracking and vehicle operational

the Hino Traq on-line portalâ&#x20AC;?. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the gateway to the connected world that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve certainly been dreaming about asking these guys for over 10 < The multimediaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s GPS system came

reversing camera at the end of the day.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the gateway to the connected world that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve certainly been dreaming about.

A microphone situated at the back of the truck was heard loud and clear when instructions came from the back during the tight reversing process. If thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not

operate a drone direct from the screen.

But that may take a little patience.

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no doubting the quality of these new Hino 500 Series Standard #

notably the safety package (which is standard across all vehicles) remains to be seen.

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01 AUG, 2019

The Future of the Black Box

Diesel, National Page 1 of 4

CONNECTED TRUCKS

The Future of the Black Box Truck development is at a tipping point, in electronics terms. Black boxes have been added to the cabins and now it’s time to integrate the functionality into a single system.

Tim Giles talks to one of the suppliers of these systems, Directed Technologies.

A

s the pace of development of electronics continues to increase many truck cabins are becoming crowded with little black boxes. In the next stage of development of telematics and safety electronics the proliferation of black boxes is set to decrease as all of the functions become part of a single platform.

Telematics and electronics in trucks have come a long way in the last 20

years. Over that time, the electronic system throughout the entire trucks has become digital. Trucks now use a CANbus throughout the vehicle to power and control everything from tail lights, to engine mapping to refrigerated trailer temperature. Add to this, the fact that most of this data is also being streamed back to base at a steady rate so operators and customers can see what the truck is doing and how it is performing.

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We don’t actually have a name for the units which are being placed in new trucks today. Originally, it was the radio and then it was the entertainment system with CD player and then it became a navigation system as well. At this point it was called an AVN, audio-visual navigation. Now it is becoming so much more than what was essentially a double DIN-sized black box in the middle of the dashboard. On the new Hino trucks the unit is being called the multimedia hub.

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The Future of the Black Box

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integrated options, which remained inflexible in their parameters and didn’t offer much bang for your buck in the Australian context.

Coming in later, with a more targeted and task specific set of products, were an array of technology providers able to jump on the electronics revolution and offer specific telematics tools, like satellite tracking, reversing cameras, dashcams, navigation units, mass monitoring and so on. Add to this the Intelligent Access Program systems and it became possible to fill the truck’s dashboard with black boxes and wires.

The trucking industry does not require the kind of electronics which is being built into modern cars. Anything that is in truck needs to have more of a fleet focus as it is a business tool. As a result, the trucking industry is looking for something else and, especially if they have a wide variety of brands in the fleet, they’re not likely to buy into a brand’s system which blocks others out. What they are looking for is for the truck manufacturers to offer a more open system which will interact with the other trucks in the fleet, as well as with their business systems and back office.

GETTING CONNECTED Diesell talked about this topic with one

This may stick, it may not.

The point at which it was clear that telematics were going to become a standard fitment in every truck, was when the Japanese truck manufacturers announced, one after the other, that every new truck would have some form of telematics hub included. Although the systems were quite rudimentary, in modern terms, the basic concept created a pathway to integrated electronics.

Telematics has been around for a long time and has had the power to provide a lot of data to the operator and help the driver in their daily tasks.

However, the first systems to come online were expensive European-based

of the suppliers of this latest generation of black boxes, Directed Technologies.

The company is one of several looking to fit electronic platforms into trucks, which can be fitted to the truck before sale and then be loaded with customised application software, after sale to a particular customer. Directed already supply such a system to Hino and Mercedes Benz and a similar system is on offer in Isuzu and coming on stream in other brands.

The basic concept is a double-DIN unit in the cabin which will run the usual stuff like radio, bluetooth phone connection, navigation, and reversing cameras, but will also include much more. The basic system runs on the Android platform used in many smart phones.

One of the fundamental parts of these new systems is that they are simply an operating system onto which you can load applications. However, it will not be possible to download apps from anywhere. Instead there will be a curated app store where vehicle specific

apps can be developed and certified as suitable by the supplier of the black box involved.

“If we don’t curate the apps in the system then you will get people watching Netflix while driving along and using Google Maps and hitting bridges,” says Brent Stafford, Directed Technologies Executive Director. “We need to make sure we’re getting the safest systems out there. If it is not curated, you will get people trying to press small buttons while driving along, which is unacceptable. The environment in which you control the apps with things like voice commands needs to be carefully controlled.”

This opens up a much wider usage of electronics in the truck cabin. It will be possible to develop and load up a dispatching app or an account invoicing app, if an owner-driver wants to run their entire business from the cabin of the truck. One recent request was for an app to be used to control the power take-off (PTO), for example.

With the addition of an electronic driver tag it is possible to fully customise the user experience of the black box to the individual driver and also allow their records and preferences to move from truck to truck. The system will be able to interact with the driver and with the other truck systems. When approaching a delivery point the system could automatically alert the customer to the vehicle’s arrival for example. All of the training and inductions required by the driver for any particular task can be included and displayed.

Another area of functionality which will further extend the capabilities of these kinds of systems will be sensors which can be placed in different parts of the truck and connected to the CANbus.

This could mean temperature sensors in the load space, load sensors on the suspension, loading dock sensors, air freight ULD sensors and any other sensor which can be thrown at the freight task.

It would also be possible to develop an app for a freight forwarding service and contractors who could bid for a job live on the seven inch screen in the cabin. The system will be able to connect to the Wi-Fi at the truck’s base or a customer’s facility. It can also connect via a sim card in the truck or be tethered to the driver’s phone.

“We wanted to make a system that

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Brent Stafford, Directed Technologies Executive Director and Mark Whitmore, Directed Technologies Head of Business Development.

could breathe with the requirements of the market,” says Mark Whitmore, Directed Technologies Head of Business Development. “The transport fleet sector has so many different individual requirements. A flexible system like this enables the truck manufacturer to offer a system which can be tailored exactly to the needs of the customer.

“There’s such a profound change coming through, as people decide to digitise their business. We were thinking about how we could create a system in-vehicle where we could plug into that new thinking, in a way that maybe hadn’t been thought of before. The multimedia hub we are fitting in the Hino range has been designed as that.”

The possibilities for the future are endless. It would be possible for a driver to finish a day’s work and use a system like this to access Netflix to watch the latest episode of their favourite TV serial.

Then the system could log onto Uber Eats and get some food delivered to the truck.

At the moment, digital assistants like Siri or Alexa are not available, but they cannot be far away. Voice to text and text

to voice software is developing fast in the current electronic climate.

Larger fleets already have very sophisticated backend and business systems and do not need another sophisticated telematics system in the truck which replicates what they already have. More important to them would be using the system to monitor everything in the truck and send all of the data required down a pipe into the existing business systems. In the opposite direction the data flow could include work instructions, training and so on.

“For safety packages these kinds of systems may leave the fleet manager more exposed,” says Brent. “So, it will not be a matter of the system giving the performance data to the fleet manager.

It will be the system recording that it has identified a safety issue and then it has communicated this to the driver. It has closed the loop, as it has offered a relevant training package, the training has been done by the driver. It won’t even tell that to the fleet manager because the procedure has taken place. If the driver doesn’t do the training package or continues to do the

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same thing, only then does the system inform the fleet manager of the issue.”

STARTING WITH THE TRUCK MAKERS These black boxes need to connect to the CANbus on the truck and, in some instances the truck maker will only allow certain amount of limited data to be used. Over time they will be opening up this channel to systems like the one on offer from Directed to get full value from it. Some of the truck manufacturers are on board with this already, while others are a lot more secretive about the data being produced by their trucks’ systems.

“The truck manufacturers themselves are now dealing with their own mixed fleets,” says Brent. “Volvo is one example.

I’ve got trucks from Europe, I’ve got trucks from Japan and some Japanese manufacturing is now happening in Thailand. Now they are very different platforms, different engine management programs. There is another level of complexity. You can have three separate platforms multiplied by 300 different use cases, plus much more.

“They still need someone, locally in

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a market like ours, who can understand the complexity and deal with local issues to suit local conditions. That needs to be done either at the device level in the vehicle or the cloud level.”

Another major development which is gaining pace among the truck manufacturers is to open up their existing telematics platforms to enable the telematics in the fleet to communicate across brands and not be locked into a particular brand’s telematics system.

“In the past, the truck dealer was able to sell the correct solution to the correct customer, but they can’t sell connectivity,” says Mark. “The market needs have changed, so who is the customer going to go to solve the problems? The dealer network is not keeping pace with the changing market. In my opinion, the truck manufacturers need to develop specialist dealerships, like the way that telcos set up separate shops to help small businesses.”

Another factor which will increase the amount of functionality for these new systems will be as truck engines migrate from Euro-5 to Euro-6. The level of data available from the CANbus in a Euro-5 truck is quite high, but the amount is multiplied many times in the Euro-6 powered trucks. This means there is more data, which enables systems to more closely monitor things improving functionality.

CONNECTIVITY AS A SERVICE “Data going back to the cloud can also be retransmitted for something like a rollover report, it can be live on

Electronic platforms can be fitted to the truck before sale and then be loaded with customised application software.

the platform,” says Brent. “It can be transmitted to other trucks in the area.

It’s really just a data pool, and like we see with something like blockchain, it’s all about how you can share the data between the platforms.

“Where there is value to share, like with safety data, it doesn’t really matter about the technology. It’s all the same, whether it’s LTE, 5G or the vehicle to vehicle to infrastructure communication, dedicated short range communication like tolls and 5.8 GHz technology, it can be quite neutral. The key is that you transmit the data quickly, receive it quickly and make better

The basic system runs on the Android platform used in many smart phones.

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informed decisions.”

It can get even more sophisticated where the system can be instructed not to give the driver any messages when they are going around roundabouts or when the vehicle is braking, in order to reduce distraction at the most critical times.

When these new systems eventually come onto the second hand market the telematics is still useful. It may have come out of the Woolworth’s fleet and their dispatch app can be removed, but it could easily be loaded up with an app for a different dispatcher.

“We are giving the truck manufacturer the ability to further personalise the truck in the same way as they do when they fit a particular body type onto the chassis,” says Mark. “So, we can add something like the Aldi despatching app into the system. There are some really intelligent things we can build into it.

There is no reason why these couldn’t become tolling platforms. The system could be used to pay for fuel or pay for parking, all of those things which waste the driver’s time.

“I can say categorically that in five years time telematics will be standard on all trucks. They’ll be using it for service delivery to the customer. There will be a much more sophisticated telematics offering through truck dealerships.

Things like temperature sensors, weigh in motion, trailer trackers will be normal on all vehicles.”

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SMART TRUCK SETS HIGH STANDARD

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truck technology

SMART TRUCK SETS HIGH STANDARD

Regarded as the best medium duty truck Hino has released onto the Australian market, Hino’s 500 Series Standard Cab ‘smart truck’ gets taken for a test run around Canberra and beyond. Greg Bush writes

W

ITH SIX MONTH’S sales of Hino’s new 500 Series Standard Cab under its belt, signs are of an ever-so-slight narrowing of the gap between Hino Trucks and perennial market leader Isuzu in the Australian medium duty truck range. Of course Hino’s 500 Series Wide Cab, released a couple of years ago, may also be a factor in this modest but significant sales boost in that segment. But it’s most likely at the expense of Isuzu.

Hino has strategically slowly but surely accelerated the exposure of its new 500 Series Standard Cab since its November 2018 media launch in Tokyo. Drive days over a few months around Canberra followed where the vehicles were put to the test around the national capital, Queanbeyan and the rolling hills towards Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.

First off was the Sutton Road Training Centre in the Canberra suburb of Majura where nine Hino 500 Series Standard Cab medium duty trucks were lined up and ready to hit the road.

Before that, however, came a few demonstrations of the Standard Cab’s capabilities, although one was merely to show-off Hino’s manoeuvrability. A course

dotted with witches’ hats was set up, not only to test out driver skill but to also to illustrate the Hino 500’s capability in tight turning situations.

Top prize for the adrenalin rush came from the Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) exercise, although it was a representative from Hino behind the wheel, with spectators safely ensconced in either the passenger seat, or in the back seat of the crew cab.

The AEB is part of Hino’s standard safety package; its primary aim is to avoid rear-end collisions at moderate speeds. In the first instance audible alarms and a visual dashboard warning alerts the driver of an impending collision. Then, after all that and no manual action is taken, the truck will apply the brakes, bringing it to a complete, and sudden, halt.

And that’s exactly what happened. You know it’s coming, and the “car” is front is not much more than a cardboard cut-out. Still, it’s an impressive feature that doesn’t need to be tested out on a normal traffic situation. But at least you know it’s there.

Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), along with the AntiLock Braking System (ABS), was another impressive attribute of the new Hino 500 Series Standard Cab. The Suttons Centre had a skid pan available, and we were able to determine the differences

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SMART TRUCK SETS HIGH STANDARD

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Above: Skid row: Vehicle Stability Control workout Right: All the info at your fingertips with Hino’s Multimedia System (left) Below right: The four-cylinder A05 engine packs a punch Bottom: Plenty of twists and turns in the hills south of Canberra Opposite bottom: Thrill ride: The Autonomous Emergency Braking exercise

between “switch on, switch off”. With truck rollovers seemingly becoming a common occurrence, this is an important feature of the new Hino.

Other safety items include Pedestrian Detection (PD) and Lane Departure Warning (LDWS).

Interestingly, of the nine trucks on offer, only one had a manual transmission. This reflects the ratio of customer demand for the Allison auto in Hino’s medium duty line-up and the way of the future for savvy fleet buyers.

Multimedia system It was time to head for the hills. All trucks were loaded up to around 75 per cent of capacity, so traversing the hilly terrain south of Canberra gave the four-cylinder A05 engine plenty of opportunity to show its credentials. The engine proved to be no slouch, even though much of the route was quite undulating and steep, and will not disappoint prospective buyers.

A perfect opportunity to test the LDWS occurred during the drive when we came upon a couple of lycra-clad cyclists riding two abreast. These two had no intention of moving into single file so, rather than spend time following at their leisurely pace, we were forced to overtake on the narrow, winding road.

Restraint came into play when it was decided against opting for the horn. Of course LDWS is cancelled out once you put the indicators on, but we did give it a go.

One additional item that should be mentioned however, is the addition of the new, smart multimedia system, with Hino Traq telematics.

According to Daniel Petrovski, Hino Australia’s manager product strategy, the multimedia system provides “realtime tracking and vehicle operational information such as operating time, fuel usage, driver safety and whole-offleet monitoring, which is accessible through the Hino Traq on-line portal”.

“It’s the gateway to the connected world that I’ve certainly been dreaming about asking these guys for over 10 years,” Petrovski says.

The multimedia’s GPS system came in handy during the drive, as did the reversing camera at the end of the day. A microphone situated at the back of the truck was heard loud and clear when instructions came from the back during the tight reversing process. If that’s not enough, the multimedia system can also operate a drone direct from the screen. But that may take a little patience.

There’s no doubting the quality of these new Hino 500 Series Standard Cab trucks, but whether old-school drivers will embrace the new technology, notably the safety package (which is standard across all vehicles) remains to be seen.

“It’s the gateway to the connected world that I’ve certainly been dreaming about.”

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Hino shifts the standard in medium-duty trucks

Prime Mover, National Page 1 of 2

> Hino shifts the standard in medium-duty trucks After its first six months on sale, Hino claims its all-new 500 Series Standard Cab has shifted the standard in the medium-duty segment, primarily due to its class-leading safety levels.

“So far, strong sales volumes are reinforcing what we believed when we launched the all-new 500 Series Standard Cab in November 2018,” said Hino Australia General Manager of Brand and Franchise Development, Bill Gillespie.

“Customers are no longer willing to accept safety as an option in the Australian medium-duty segment, which is why our trucks feature a classleading safety package as standard.

“There have been almost 800 orders of the all-new 500 Series Standard Cab, which positions us well to meet our sales targets for the year,” said Gillespie.

According to Hino, the 500 Series Standard Cab boasts a standard level of safety that has never been seen before in a Japanese mediumduty truck in Australia, including Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS), and a Pre-Collision System (PCS) with Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), Pedestrian Detection (PD) and Safety Eye (SE).

“These safety features have been particularly appealing to our customers in the agitator/mixer industries, while the Hino build attributes of Quality, Durability and Reliability continue to impress our customers in the traditional tilt tray applications,” said Gillespie.

“While safety is the primary motivator for many customers, they are also attracted to the superior torque, increased power and improved fuel

efficiency of the heavy-duty Hino A05 turbo-charged five-litre four-cylinder diesel engine,” said Gillespie, adding that the six-speed Allison 2500 Series fully automatic transmission is available across the range and accounts for 65 per cent of sales to date.

“Customer orders of the 500 Series Standard Cab have been strong across the country with New South Wales leading the way, followed closely by Victoria and Queensland.”

He went on to say that in the overall medium-duty segment – which covers 500 Series Standard Cab and its award-winning stablemate, 500 Series Wide Cab – Hino has sold 908 trucks year-to-date, which translates to a 30 per cent market share – a promising increase when compared to 860 units and a 26.9 per cent share in the same period last year.

“With very strong customer orders, we are striving for an overall yearly sales result of over 6000 units, which would be our best result since 2007.” said Gillespie.

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Hino shifts the standard in medium-duty trucks

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Hino 500 orders have been strong.

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HINO HITS A CENTURY

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FEATURE

HINO HITS A CENTURY The 100th Hino joins the Century Batteries Fleet – Words by Chris Mullett.

Images by Sarah Barnsley

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HINO HITS A CENTURY

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CENTURY BATTERIES

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HINO HITS A CENTURY

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FEATURE “When you compare the advantages of the Hino 500-Series, the gear shift pattern Allison six-speed automatic transmission is a case in point, the gear shift pattern of the Allison automatic transmissions in the Hino 500 Series is superior to any alternative truck on the market. With full power shifting differentiating it from an automated manual gearbox it means the vehicle can cross a junction without a delay and maintain progress with traffic flow.

“From a driver comfort perspective, the ISRI 6860 870 seat used in the GH and FS is fantastic and the ISRI 6860/

with up to 240,000 km for the 500-Series. It is anticipated the 700 Series will operate on a five year replacement cycle with a total distance travelled of approximately 900,000 km. The 28 vehicles operated in New Zealand run under a slightly different replacement programme, due to lower average distances travelled each year.

Maintenance requirements are completed on a 10,00020,000 km basis, dependent on the vehicle type and duty service. Each service is completed at the closest appropriate HINO dealership to the vehicle operating location such as

David Blackburn 84

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HINO HITS A CENTURY

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FEATURE The Right Charge When it comes to replacing a battery for your truck, van or ute, do you head for the cheapest unknown brand or do you ask advice from a battery specialist?

If the answer is to go for the lowest price option, then you probably buy Chinese tyres and reckon you know more than the fleet operators. Cheap to purchase. doesn’t necessarily mean cheap to operate, and you’ll find out the perils attached to this form of fleet management when your truck is sitting parked up somewhere remote because of a tyre or battery failure.

It’s fair to believe that a tyre or battery specialist knows considerably more than you do about the products available. Just because one is black and round and the other product is black and rectangular and different brands look relatively identical from a casing perspective, doesn’t mean that what’s inside is the same level of technology.

PowerTorque asked Johnny Kennedy, the technical guru at Century Yuasa batteries in Queensland to explain the answers to the questions you’ve probably never asked.

“At our manufacturing facility in Carole Park, Queensland, we produce around 1.1 million batteries per year and are in the process of investing $6,000,000 to increase production with the implementation of new equipment to raise that production level to 1.3 million,” said Mr. Kennedy.

If you thought all batteries were equal, time spent with the technicians at Century Yuasa will soon convince

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Batteries that supply the internal power requirements for in-cab heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems require a battery design that can specifically handle long periods of supplying constant power without recharging.

These deep cycle batteries are a totally different design from a typical auto battery.

In Europe batteries need to be able to cope with minimum temperatures as low as -18c. In Australia the upper limit of temperature tolerance for Century batteries is +80c.

Commercial vehicle batteries can be subjected to pretty torrid conditions. Not just extreme hot and cold temperatures, but endless corrugations and bumps while on road. These conditions create havoc for batteries, attacking critical internal components, which, for batteries of inferior design, can lead to early failure.

Century Batteries has addressed this with thicker full frame cast plates improving the strength and durability of the battery. Additionally, the company’s exclusive Platelock k™ Technology uses an adhesive that binds the battery plates securely together to provide superior vibration and impact resistance.

This is a vastly different construction from that of your normal “No-Name” brand retail battery, and essential if you want reliable power in your truck on typical rough roads to combat vibration, as well as high ambient temperatures while providing exceptional performance and longer life in heavy haulage applications.

Manufactured using some of the toughest internal

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HINO HITS A CENTURY

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CENTURY BATTERIES In long haul, on-highway interstate truck operation the Ultra Hi-Performance Severe Service battery is designed to cater for starting and semi-cycling for onboard accessories. The design is highly resistant to vibration and features a Full Frame cast plate design with Platelock technology, glass mat separator and Labyrinth lid technology. It is backed by an 18-month warranty.

Century Hi-Performance Truck, Bus and Heavy Equipment batteries are designed to provide short haul, off-highway intrastate truck drivers with dependable performance and reliability. Manufactured using Calcium plate technology, this range of Hi-Performance batteries feature higher cranking capacity, lower self-discharge as well as reduced water loss. It is backed by a 12-month warranty.

In operating conditions where short haul, off-highway vehicles require extra starting power Century recommends the Ultra Hi Performance battery for its greater resistance to vibration. The construction design uses cast positive plates, expanded negative plates, PE Separators and labyrinth lid technology.

It is backed by a 24-month warranty.

Finally, the Century Hi-Performance battery is designed for short haul off highway vehicles where vibration is reduced

than the universal battery test standard of 40oC, which is far more realistic to the under-bonnet temperatures of Aussie commercial vehicles.

Being able to resist the effects of extreme heat or cold are just part of the features and benefits of a Century battery.

The double layered lid and advanced labyrinth lid design assists in the retention and condensation of water vapour that is produced in the battery during operation and charging. It prevents leaks during tilting and vibration and if the battery is overcharged the excess gases it produces are safely discharged by the integrated central venting system.

The design incorporates an integrated flame arrester to prevent the risk of a reaction between oxygen and hydrogen.

Water loss is reduced by 40 percent and this in turn extends the service life of the battery by up to 30 per cent.

Century has been making batteries in Australia for 90 years. The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in-depth knowledge of the climatic and operating conditions that are unique to our country have been instrumental in the final designs of the batteries it makes here for our use.

When it comes to specifying a replacement battery

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GOING WITH THE FLOW

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FEATURE

GOING WITH THE FLOW Brisbane operator H2Flow Hire maintains a fluid approach to business

R

unning an efficient fleet takes a variety of different skill sets ranging from mechanical aptitude and understanding, the introduction of specific programmes to initiate the checks and balances that control the fleet and a strong understanding of customer service.

Having taken that company from concept stage to culminate in a successful public stock issue, the three partners - Scott Beioley, Paul Ryan and Mark Broekman - were looking for a new venture and realised that the effective and efficient supply of water to various industries could become their next collective challenge.

One attribute that is generally not up for discussion, except possibly in the coach-travel sector, is a high degree of understanding of the tourism industry.

“We started H2Flow Hire with three second-hand trucks and from the outset we brought in a mechanic to work through the fleet and bring everything up to the correct standards so we could progress the business,” said Scott.

The three equal partners involved in H2Flow Hire, the Brisbane-based specialists in the supply of water and fluid-based distribution services, did in fact all work together for many years building up tourism accommodation businesses.

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GOING WITH THE FLOW

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H2FLOW HIRE “Interestingly, the same mechanic is still with the company as Fleet Service Manager, but the fleet has now grown to over 100 vehicles and 80 trailers.”

The H2Flow Hire truck fleet operates in both wet and dryvehicle hire, providing the transport of water and associated services through its fleet of truck-mounted water tankers ranging in capacity from 6000 litres to 28,000 litres. For cartage of smaller literage volumes there are water-tank trailers available for hire of 1500 litres upwards.

The supply of domestic quality approved water requires each potable tanker to be licensed under similar regulatory control to the restaurant industry, and in this category H2Flow Hire can supply rural landowners that require water for domestic use in times of drought, or for inner-city operation the same quality water can be supplied for swimming pool installations and refills.

The entrepreneurial skills of the three partners have enabled H2Flow Hire to continue its planned expansion into other water supply areas, such as civil earthworks and excavation sites to assist with soil compaction or dust control; regular horticultural watering programmes such as required for the creation of gardens and lawns, or to reduce erosion during the development of new housing and industrial estates.

“A new area we have recently entered is for soil erosion prevention where we use a polymer to provide stability by spraying banked areas bordering major road development.

We also can provide a polymer-based spray that assists in soil retention, and erosion avoidance during the development phase of a major earthworks project.

“It’s areas such as these that are ideal for the Hino 500 Series bogie-drive as a 15,000-litre water truck. This has a side-mounted cannon and a 15m-wide boom spray for polymer spraying. This level of performance enables us to complete these types of tasks quickly and effectively,” added Scott Beioley.

The company has grown from its original depot at Sumner Park to include a new head office and depot at Beenleigh, plus further depots at Mango Hill and Griffin on the northside of Brisbane.

The company fleet of approximately 100 vehicles comprises bulk water cartage, water blasters, vacuum trailers, solar-powered fuel tankers trailers and also, in a new development, tanker trailers for the supply of AdBlue to vehicles operating away from the usual truck stop depots. Also available are mini-tippers and relocatable site tanks of 28,000-litres and 56,000-litres capacity.

Forging a good relationship with Hino Trucks Australia has resulted from the specific needs within the company for vehicles able to travel and maintain slow running speeds while spraying water through truck-mounted water cannons and chassis-mounted spray bars.

“We have standardised now on the Hino 500 Series for our medium and larger weight vehicles. With an Allison torque-converter automatic transmission, the driver and operator is able to select a suitably slow speed and maintain that without the risk of excessive clutch wear,” said Scott.

“An automated manual transmission (AMT) simply does not have the right level of control when travelling at very slow speeds, or while operating a power take-off to pressurise the spray systems. We found excessive clutch wear and varying degrees of speed control when trialling AMTs. “Since ordering our first Hino 500 Series fitted with an Allison automatic transmission, we have repeatedly ordered more examples with a further four new trucks currently being supplied through Sci-Fleet Hino. Bodies are supplied by Peak Engineering Transport Services of Peak Crossing, QLD, with bodies for civil use supplied by STG Global of Ormeau on the Gold Coast.

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01 AUG, 2019

GOING WITH THE FLOW

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FEATURE “We work closely with Hino for parts supply and also when specifying vehicles. Hino has been very good when it comes to supplying engineering charts to the bodybuilders. This assists in the correct placement of bodies to maintain excellent weight distribution. On our latest Hino 500 Series, when fully laden to GVM, it was exactly one tonne under maximum weight limits on both the front and rear axles.

“On the pump side we use the Truck Master Series by Finsbury and Hatz motors to drive the pumps on the larger trucks. We have YANMAR stationary diesel engines for the smaller trucks and water tankers. Hatz motors are more expensive than other makes but they are superior in terms of reliability and longevity.

“We maintain our fleet efficiency by servicing on a timebased interval, rather than distance, as our vehicles do not travel high kilometres through the year. We have full NHVAS accreditation for our larger vehicles and each piece of plant or equipment undergoes a regular A, B or C-service, supported by an independently completed full annual three-day examination protocol that coincides with the C-Service.

The company has established a tyre-maintenance programme with Bridgestone Tyres, which supplies all vehicles with a standard steer-tyre pattern and a standard drive-tyre pattern, which is consistent across all vehicles throughout the fleet.

The standard reverse camera system fitted to Hino trucks makes additional camera fitment for forward left-hand side vision much easier and are simply added to the incab digital display.

“We see reverse cameras as essential. The installation of front left-hand side camera vision is also a major safety benefit for operators working on horticultural watering. It displays the position of the water cannon and spray bar effectiveness on the screen in front of the driver, without restricting vision of the road ahead.

“The automatic gearbox with Hino is a better proposition for our type of work. Our 9000-litre mid-range Hino 500s with single axles carry a load exceptionally well, providing zero trouble with the gearbox. We see our future certainty with Hino and the good experience we have with the 500 with a similar experience extending down to the 300 Series,” added Scott.

“Our maintenance requirements for the past 7-8 years with our larger vehicles have been completed through M.K. Equipment Services of Rocklea and since the move to fully automatic torque converter-equipped transmissions, clutch repairs are no longer a feature of our service and maintenance regime.

The Hino 500 Series is available in 4x2, 4x4, 6x2 and 6x4 configuration with the choice of a standard cab or wide cab. Power options cover the spectrum of 215–350 hp with peak torque ratings from 673-1422 Nm.

“We incorporate telematics where there is an advantage. As an example, all our pre-check protocols are completed by the drivers using their mobile phones prior to the start of their working day. As soon as the drivers have completed their pre-start check it is visible on our management system. It also monitors the visual inspection of the vehicle including tyre condition,” added Scott.

It’s the safety features of the 500 Series that are of particular interest, with the inclusion of vehicle stability control and reverse camera, ABS, traction control, ECER29 cab rollover protection and front under-run protection on all MY17 Wide Cab models, with the addition of Hino Pre-Collision System with pedestrian detection, autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control and lane departure assistance all fitted to the new MY19 500-Series Standard Cab models.

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Scott Beioley

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WHY SAFETY IS NOT AN OPTION

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WHY SAFETY IS NOT AN OPTION DANIEL PETROVSKI Daniel Petrovski is the Manager of Product Strategy for Hino Australia.

His role incorporates the critical business functions of product planning and future product strategies for all Hino vehicles in Australia.

Petrovski leads a team of engineering, product development and vehicle homologation personnel, and ensures the Hino products for the Australian market meet ever-changing market requirements and developing trends.

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EB, VSC, PCS, ACC – the list of acronyms for safety features on Hino trucks has become quite extensive and continues to grow. Until recently, these crucial safety features were not even available in Australian passenger cars – their fitment as standard equipment has been fast-tracked due to their ability to minimise crashes and potentially save lives.

According to the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads calculations, every road crash fatality costs the community an estimated $2.7 million, and every hospitalisation costs $239,000. You can immediately see the massive cost of accidents to the broader Australian community. With increased responsibilities and obligations under Occupational Health & Safety and Chain of Responsibility legislations, we know safety is at the forefront of our customers’ minds. This is why for the allnew Hino 500 Series Standard Cab, we have selected, as standard equipment, the most comprehensive active safety package ever offered by a Japanese manufacturer in the Australian medium duty truck market.

Headlining the substantial leap forward is the Pre-Collision System (PCS) which includes Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), Pedestrian Detection (PD) and Safety Eye (SE).

These innovative safety systems can save lives and hundreds of thousands of dollars, but what are they, how do they work and why are they important?

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september 2019

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PCS – Pre-Collision Safety In the all-new Hino 500 Series Standard Cab, PCS includes Safety Eye (SE), Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) and Pedestrian Detection (PD). PCS uses both camera and radar technology to detect potential collisions with another vehicle, a pedestrian and/or other objects. PCS continuously scans the road in front of the truck and assists the driver to actively minimise the type of accidents that regularly occur through poor vision, driver distraction or poor judgement. In this case, PCS detects the vehicle ahead via Safety Eye, and warns the driver both audibly and visually on the Multi Information Display.

AEB – Autonomous Emergency Braking If the driver fails to react to the imminent danger, PCS can, as a last resort, engage Autonomous Emergency Braking to apply the brakes to minimise the vehicle’s speed and subsequent damage to the vehicle in the event of an accident, or in some circumstances, assist the driver to avoid the collision altogether.

ACC – Adaptive Cruise Control ACC takes the basic principle of cruise control a step further – while maintaining the speed set by the driver, it also continuously scans the road in front of the truck. If a slower vehicle is detected in front, the ACC will reduce the engine acceleration and even engage the engine brake to adapt the truck’s speed to that of the other vehicle.

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WHY SAFETY IS NOT AN OPTION

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The ACC system will then continue to ensure the truck maintains a safe following distance from the vehicle in front. This intelligent speed adaption means that cruise control can be used more often – it is particularly valuable on Australia’s many regional and extra urban single lane roads.

LDWS – Lane Departure Warning As the name suggests Lane Departure Warning System alerts the driver both visually on the Multi Information Display and audibly through the speakers if the vehicle deviates from its lane without the indicators being triggered by the driver.

SW – Staggering Warning Erratic driving due to fatigue or a medical condition triggers the truck’s Staggering Warning which alerts the driver via audibly and visually. It also pre-charges or prepares the PCS system to get ready for a potential incident.

VSC – Vehicle Stability Control Working in conjunction with the brake and engine control systems, VSC helps to stabilise the vehicle when turning on a curve. This may prevent the truck from potentially rolling over when entering a corner too fast. VSC operates by monitoring the steering angle, wheel rotation speed, yaw rate and lateral G forces. VSC can then autonomously take the appropriate action required such as reducing engine power and/ or applying individual brakes with the intention of keeping the vehicle upright and safely negotiating the corner.

According to the US National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA), such intervention could prevent up to 56 per cent of rollover crashes and 14 per cent of loss-of-control crashes. This is why Hino led the market when it introduced VSC as standard equipment to our entire 300 Series range in 2011. This critical lifesaving feature was extended to the 500 Series Wide Cab and 300 Series 4x4 in 2017, and, most recently, the allnew 500 Series Standard Cab models.

Hino is the first and only Japanese truck

A reverse camera will be a standard feature on all Hino trucks by the end of 2019.

manufacturer to offer Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) as standard equipment on every model from the 300 Series car licence through to the 500 Series 6x4 350 horsepower FM models.

TC – Traction Control Traction Control is another safety feature introduced first in Australia by Hino. It is especially useful in slippery conditions, and, of course, works in conjunction with the broader VSC system.

Reverse Camera A reverse camera eliminates the blind spot at the rear of the vehicle and

optimises visibility around the truck – it will be a standard feature on all Hino trucks by the end of 2019, and is equipped with night vision capability plus a microphone and is linked to the truck’s audio visual unit.

A long-term safety leader At Hino, safety is not an option – the benefits speak for themselves. We are passionate about offering a range of commercial vehicles that include the highest levels of safety available, and with drivelines engineered for an ideal balance between the best driving performance and the best operational efficiency. p r i m e m ove r m a g c o m a u

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TRUCKS ON TEST

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DIESEL September-October 2019

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THE BIG LITTLE TRUCK OR THE LITTLE BIG TRUCK? Driving the new Standard Cab Hino 500 does beg a question about what is going on here, is this the big little truck or the little big truck? Even if you don’t know the answer, it is clear this new model has a lot going on and has introduced some new concepts into the medium duty truck market. hese Hino 500 Standard Cab models are one of those invisible segments of the market, overshadowed by the bigger, more glamorous and exotic trucks on our highways. The humble little 11 tonne GVM truck is one of those unsung workhorses of the transport and logistics world.

The Hino 500 Standard cab 1124 and 1126 are simply a platform on which to carry something from A to B, whether it be a pile of parcels, a broken down car, a few pallets of beer or a small tankful of liquid. The job is rarely noticed and only rarely over a long distance, but every town will have plenty of trucks like this going around keeping the wheels of business rolling.

Of course, it is not just the Hino which goes unnoticed, it is all of the trucks of this size doing this kind of work which go largely unnoticed or uncared for. What sets the new Hino apart is how this new model has introduced a step-change into the way we have to think about truck design in this part of the market.

Having said all of these positives about the new 500, the fact of the matter is it is still just a truck and one which will perform some pretty mundane tasks in the overall freight tasks of its working life. The chances are the driver who takes this out of the yard and around town every day will have little idea about what is going in the truck. It’s the nature of the beast, just get the freight on the truck, off the truck and

T

make sure you get the con notes signed.

This thought provokes another question for Hino. Why throw so much innovation and sophistication at such a mundane truck? The answer to this one is probably, because they can. This truck is made in this way, not just because it can, but because Hino believes it can demonstrate the value of what it is bringing to the table to anyone who cares to look.

The whole 500 Series Standard cab range brings a much more sophisticated platform to the table but these 11 tonne GVM examples also bring another innovation to the table, a five- litre engine which will knock your socks off. The new power plant comes from a bit of pragmatic lateral thinking back in Japan, but sets a new precedent here in Australia.

What has to change, as from now, is our idea of what a Japanese truck is like and how it performs. The old way of thinking about what a Japanese truck is like and how it performs which has been less and less relevant over the past 10 years.

The change can be traced back to the change in the Japanese economy. After decades of steady growth and an economy in, seemingly, permanent boom, when Japanese truck makers were driven by a growing domestic demand, overseas sales for the truck makers were an afterthought and very little adaptation to target markets took place.

All of this changed when the Japanese economy tanked in the late nineties and

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didn’t improve much before the GST hit ten years later. This ongoing period in the doldrums meant the truck manufacturers had to wake up to export markets and start to think seriously about non-domestic truck sales and adapting design to suit operators other than the Japanese.

This has seen an unprecedented series of developments in Japan, alongside the purchase of two major Japanese players, UD and Fuso, by European truck makers.

Research and development dollars have been used to ensure from the outset that new designs are suited to the rest of the world, as well as the Japanese home market.

THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF THE 500 When it was first revealed in Japan last year, the new Hino 500 Standard Cab for Australia didn’t look that spectacular at first sight. The ever-conservative Hino designers had tweaked the basic cabin design, but only a real expert would be able to tell.

It is not until you drill down into the nuts and bolts of the new 500 that the step changes become apparent. The engine looks different, feels different and is different. The way this power plant

works with the programming for the Allison automatic transmission makes it even more different.

The smarts included in the electronics are the instantly obvious change to the casual observer and Hino has only scratched the surface of what the currently available computing power is capable of.

The level of state-of-the-art safety systems included in the package are probably one of the biggest indicators of how far we have come.

The latest and greatest safety system appeared in top-end luxury cars and then the most expensive high value high mileage top power prime mover, but in a small city run around truck loaded with a variety of odds and ends to deliver? The inclusions of these systems tell us a change is happening and it is happening fast.

If the truck looks little changed on the outside, sitting in the driver’s seat tells a different story. Turn the key and the dashboard lights up. The display looks distinctly non-Japanese. This is not a functional read out of a few numbers with little design thought. This is a well designed graphical interface which tells

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a story which is easy to comprehend and use by the driver.

There is also plenty of choice for the driver to decide which indicators they want to look at as they are driving along.

There’s a the straight forward analogue clock coupled with a read out of the trip odometer and a fuel consumption figure for that trip.

Scroll through to the green leaf option and the driver gets a live read out of acceleration and fuel consumption. on two simple bar indicators. Keep these bars small and the driving economy goes up, then they are rewarded with a score at the top left showing how well they are doing.

Next comes this driver’s personal favourite, the graphical representation telling you what is going on with the active cruise control, following distance, and its settings. Smart use of these systems can have a relaxing effect on the driving conditions, even in busy city traffic.

There are many more options which can be revealed and set by the drivers, customising the heads-up display. This test drive didn’t allow enough time to go through all of the options and get it set up

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A driver who just jumps into this truck with no prior knowledge and heads down the road will not do any worse than they did with their previous truck.

just right for the driver’s taste. Let’s leave that to the full-time driver.

This is one of quite a few things this driver will need to know. The truck is not going to react the same way as their previous truck did. To get the best out everything which is going on here, they are going to need some new information to use this new truck properly.

This need to train a driver for this truck might set off some alarm bells, but have no fear, a driver who just jumps into this truck with no prior knowledge and heads down the road will not do any worse than they did with their previous truck. It’s just that they could do so much better armed with some understanding of the set up and systems on tap.

THE HEART OF THE MATTER Once out on the road and negotiating traffic in a loaded truck it is possible for the driver of the new Hino 500 to begin to understand the heart of the matter. This engine declares its difference as soon as the driver puts their foot down. This is a different engine note, the rpm levels look a bit low and the transmission is grabbing the next gear well before one would normally expect.

Take a look at the engine and its specifications and the reason for this difference become obvious. This is a medium duty engine with a heavy duty

sensibility. This Diesel truck test took two different variants out on the highway of the FD model, the 1124 and the 1126. These are both fitted with the A05C engine, one at 260hp and the other at 240hp.

The 260 puts out maximum power at 2300rpm and maximum torque at 884Nm at 1400rpm, but the torque is still over 800Nm at 2300rpm. The 240 puts out maximum power at 2300rpm and maximum torque of 794Nm at 1400rpm, but with torque still over 750 Nm at 2200rpm. This 5.1 litre A05C four cylinder engine has been developed from the six cylinder engine used in some of Hino’s larger trucks. Its success at the larger end of the market prompted Hino to try and use the same technology at a lower GCM. This may be one of the problems which will be created because of the use of this particular engine in this particular application. For anyone who has driven a wide range of heavy duty trucks over the years, this is a very easy engine to understand. Keep your eye on the rpm levels, let the engine lug if it wants to. Anyone used to keeping a 15 litre Caterpillar engine between 1,250 and1,750rpm will feel at home here.

The fact of the matter is, many of the people who will be tasked with driving this particular 11 tonne truck could well have come out of a progression from a large

ute, to a large van or perhaps a light duty pantech and then upgraded to a medium duty truck. Their experience will be more about high revving engines, basic manual gearboxes and car-like transmissions. From that point of view this truck will feel and sound very different.

Because this A05C Engine is such a low revving torquey engine, when using the eco-setting on the Allison gearbox, the impression, to a casual observer, is of a lazy engine, not working very hard. However, the fact of the matter is, despite this impression it is getting the job done extremely efficiently and is more than a match for any high revving comparable engine.

Any driver looking for a different perception from this engine and gearbox only needs to click the switch to power mode on the Allison 2500 transmission.

Suddenly, the rpm levels get much higher and the rate of acceleration seems to increase considerably. We can be sure that the fuel consumption also increases at the same time.

In actuality, in most situations the power mode is not needed, the way the truck actually performs in eco mode is more than a match for any of the competition.

However, the boy racer in our truck driving community will be able to make lots of noise and race the traffic between traffic

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lights if they really want to.

On this test drive the power mode did come into its own, climbing Mount Ousley from Wollongong to Sydney with a loaded truck. Selecting power saw the engine get up past 2000rpm and pull like a good’un.

If power mode had not been selected, the truck would have still made the climb more than adequately, perhaps taking little more time, but the job would have been performed with a lot less noise and fuss, in a much more relaxed way.

It seems that the days have gone when anyone driving a Japanese truck knew when to change up because the over revving buzzer came on. Going by the markings on the tachometer, the ideal rpm, marked in green, is between 900rpm and 1800rpm.

Anyone buying this new Hino 500 will be expecting to get the much improved fuel consumption which is being claimed for the truck. If they want to get that sort of result then it would be a good idea to make sure the driver is properly informed about the best way to drive this truck, with this engine.

It doesn’t take much, the smarts within the Allison transmission do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to ensuring the truck in the right gear at the right time.

However the driver needs to be shown not to be concerned about the relatively low rpm levels and relatively low noise level they are experiencing. This engine is at its best between 1500 and 2000rpm.

ON HIGHWAY EXPERIENCE On Diesel’s test route the truck climbed Mount Ousley easily while sitting at 1600rpm, in a relatively high gear and

Turn the key and the dashboard lights up. The display looks distinctly non-Japanese.

accelerating past trucks working their way down through the gearbox. The way it pulled in this kind of situation is very impressive.

On another climb and in cruise control the truck sat at 63 km/h at 1750rpm without any fear of the engine not getting the job done. The transmission was in eco-mode.

The other advantage of the fact that this A05C engine is a downsized model is the fact that it is possible and have a proper engine brake. This is not an old exhaust brake, this is a genuine compression brake and, as such, effective when descending long grades at high masses. On this test the truck would hold just under 100km an hour downhill when the correct gear is selected manually.

If the driver can get the rpm level up to around 2000, the engine brake will hold on quite well on a loaded truck. It is simply a matter of making sure the right

manual gear is selected on the descent.

All of the functions involved with active cruise control can be controlled from a single round multifunction button on the right-hand side of the steering wheel. Meanwhile a similar button set on the left of the steering wheel controls the information screen directly in front of the driver.

In terms of the time taken on this road test, it was not possible to go through the many available options on the information screen in front of the driver and on the wide range of functions which can be available from the infotainment unit in the middle of the dashboard.

However, one of the more interesting items is a tyre pressure monitoring system. Anyone who wants to use this system simply needs to option in the tyre pressure sensing dust caps, a small electronic sender unit, which is plugged into the trucks CANbus and then acquire the app which can be loaded into the entertainment system.

Then they will find a tyre pressure monitoring option on the central screen and the driver can use this to check that tyre pressures are within the desire parameters, at any point. If the tyre pressures go outside of the set parameters then the system will post up an alarm to say where the over pressure or under pressure has been detected.

This small addition is just one of the many options which will be coming down the pike for truck buyers. The multiple options made available to buyers of the top end prime movers are nowgoing to be offered to those buying the smaller trucks in the fleet.when buying the smaller trucks in the fleet.

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FEATURE

HINO 500 SERIES A

decade is a long time for anyone in vehicle sales, but for Hino Australia the past ten years have illustrated the company’s ability to hold its market share as total commercial vehicle sales, and the level of competition, have risen.

At the close of 2010, Hino’s commercial vehicle sales success ranked at 14.6 percent of market share, with gross sales of 4177 vehicles to achieve second place overall in a market that reached sales of 28,614 units.

At the close of 2018, and with a total CV market that had grown to 41,426 units, Hino’s overall positioning was at 13.6 percent, representing sales of 5646 vehicles, maintaining its second placing in line behind Isuzu, which held 24.2 percent with sales of 10,027 units.

With sales figures in for the first seven months of this year (YTD July VFacts), Hino is currently running at 14.3 percent of the total market of 22,083 units with sales of 3155 vehicles. Isuzu maintains its lead with sales of 5122 units to achieve market share of 23.2 percent.

Isuzu’s amazing sales performance of maintaining market leadership status for 30 consecutive years is unsurpassed in the commercial vehicle industry, but as with any record, there’s an element of challenge as the competition has a target at which to aim, rather than just a company to beat.

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The key to Hino’s future lies with new product and a closer focus on creating vehicle specifications that suit the market, rather than just suiting the manufacturer.

It’s in this scenario that Hino is putting its faith in the increasing range of Hino 500 models it is bringing to market, selling on increased driver appeal and overall higher levels of vehicle safety.

The standard cab 500 Series has a uniform width of 2175mm but is available in three different configurations as a day cab, a sleeper cab or a crew cab. There are six wheelbase variants with leaf spring and air bag suspension options for the FC models, four variants for the FD models and five variants for the FE models. Threepoint access and egress give safe movement in or out of the cab, but the lower front step is actually quite high off the ground.

HINO to product appeal. In overall terms the Hino 500 Series brings a much more standardised approach to vehicle and driver safety including a range of features that other manufacturers either cannot match or add only as extra cost items.

Starting at the front of the cab and working backwards, the headlight treatment throughout most of the range includes LED low beam headlamps, LED fog lamps, LED cornering lamps and LED daytime running lights (DRL).

The headlamp high beam relies on Halogen globes and the cab itself conforms to full ECE R29 rollover crash protection. DRLs are proven to reduce accidents and offer vastly superior daytime visibility when compared with the alternative of running with dipped beam headlamps.

Enter the cab and the ISRI NTS-2 seat is fully air suspended, infinitely variable for position and definitely one of the most comfortable fitted to any commercial vehicle. With a lap-sash diagonal seat belt and high headrest it provides any driver with an ideal driving position when aligned with the reach and rake adjustable steering wheel. If during the course of your day a lamp globe fails a tell-tale warning comes up on the dashboard.

We’ve come a long way from presuming that one white Japanese truck is identical in look and feel to any other.

The digital information screen between the dials of the dashboard is clearly visible to the driver and illustrates inclusions such as lane departure warning, fuel levels, coolant monitoring and fuel and AdBlue tank levels.

It also shows the drive ratio position for the Allison automatic transmission and whether the truck is set for ECO or Power, switchable through a button located next to the gearshift lever.

Bill Gillespie is Hino’s General Manager, Brand and Franchise Development and along with Daniel Petrovski – Hino’s Product Manager they provided PowerTorque recently with an exclusive briefing on how they believe they can take Hino products on to a higher performing level in the Australian market.

“The 2018 market reached an all-time high with a growth rate of 15.3 percent and in that market, Hino achieved above market growth of 17.1 percent,” said Bill. “Parts revenue increased by 10 percent to $58.3 million and the customer connect programme in conjunction with the dealer network delivered a complete suite of advantages to owners,” he added.

The introduction of the Hino 500 Series has certainly enabled the company to lift its perception amongst customers as a serious and equal contender for line honours when it comes

Vehicle stability control is standard, as is adaptive cruise control, a great way to reduce the risk of rear end collisions or flattening members of the public. The precollision safety system (PCS) uses EHF radar and an image sensor and is configured to provide protection against injury and damage to both vehicles and pedestrians and operates above 10 km/h when travelling towards another vehicle and between 12 km/h and 80 km/h towards a pedestrian.

The adaptive cruise control (which Hino Motors Limited calls Scanning Cruise II) is controlled through buttons on the right-hand side of the steering wheel spokes and features easy adjustment of sensitivity determined through the selection of the appropriate distance ahead of the vehicle. Get too close in terms of closing speed on a vehicle ahead in the same lane and your vehicle will down speed to match it. This is proven to end in a better case scenario than running into its rear.

Although passenger cars have had SRS airbags for driver or passenger protection for years, trucks have been slow to follow. For the 500-Series the Hino has a driver’s SRS airbag, a seat belt with pre-tensioner, a steering column with a crash absorption function and side strengthening impact resistant beams in the doors.

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FEATURE

Through the association of Hino with Toyota the company has become much more intent on including safety features found regularly on cars, hence the car-like driver aids of adaptive cruise control, lane departure assist and vehicle stability control. That said, there are obviously still some diehards in the company structure that have not seen fit to include disc brakes, blind spot warning and ECAS that have become common on its European counterparts.

Having mentioned all the safety features and driver benefits, the one major comment yet to be made is to reference the driving experience. Hino has brought its 500 Series much closer to the expected standards attributable to European manufactured vehicles but with Japanese practicality when it comes to fit, finish, reliability and durability.

The drive experience has moved on from the expected hard ride from a non-compliant front with the rear axle adding its own level of influence. The ride quality is much improved, together with the ergonomics, so the driver can sit back and enjoy cruising with the traffic flow, rather than causing their own mini holdup. Vision is excellent through the large door mounted mirrors supported by spotter mirrors and the smoothness of the transmission is what makes this truck so much better than those with AMTs and manual gearboxes.

As Bill Gillespie explained, “The market for the first half of the year was lower than expected and this has been attributed to a number of factors including political elections, supply chain pressure, currency pressure and market forecasts.

Hino is hanging its aspirations on its new four-cylinder, 16-valve, common rail direct injection, A-Series A05C engine as a low friction, high fuel efficiency engine of 5.1 litres which comes in two power and torque calibrations.

“We are resilient and very happy with the new 500 which is enabling us to rise above the market variations. Exchange rates have to be managed and there will probably have to be moves on pricing later in the year.

Go for 177 kW at 2300 rpm and you get 794 Nm of torque at 1400 rpm with a single stage turbocharger or opt for 191 kW at 2300 rpm and you get 882.6 Nm of torque at 1400 rpm and enjoy a two-stage variable geometry turbocharger. Both run with SCR and a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPR), with the top performing four cylinder producing 11 percent higher torque output than the preceding J07E engine of 6.4 litres and beating the previous 5.1 litre diesel by 38 percent.

“We want to position ourselves as a full-service brand and we now exceed market expectations in a lot of respects.

We have invested in our customer call centre to improve the overall customer experience and callers speak to a trained Hino team member whenever they communicate with us,” he added.

The new four cylinder has adopted some of the componentry strength that is designed into the previous A09C in-line six cylinder and its sibling, the J07E five-cylinder, such as with the crankshaft journal diameter and gudgeon pin strength. It also boasts compliance with the Japanese PPNLT emissions legislation which matches Euro6 requirements and it provides a full “Jake Brake” engine retarder.

“We’ve incorporated a lot of features in the multi-media system which includes a 6.5-inch touch screen,” said Daniel Petrovski.

“This system is the mastermind for viewing remote cameras, including reversing camera and blind spot vision, it provides inter-active satellite navigation, USB charging slots and radio and CD player options, together with phone connectivity,” he added.

Buyers can choose to have a seven-speed manual gearbox with the FE, or six-speed manual with the FC and FD models. Those that want an AMT can choose the six-speed in the FD1124 or the seven-speed of the FE. But for ease of application as well as reduced journey times and less driveline stress the ideal alternative is to pick one of the Allison 2500 Series six-speed, fully automatic transmissions.

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FIRS ON THE SCENE

JASON COOKE OPERATES A FLEET OF TOW TRUCKS IN THE BRISBANE METROPOLITAN AREA FROM HIS BASE IN MT GRAVATT. ALWAYS KEEN TO LEAD FROM THE FRONT, JASON AND HIS TEAM UTILISE A RANGE OF HINO TRUCKS TO EXPEDITE THE PICK-UP AND DELIVERY OF DAMAGED AND BROKEN DOWN VEHICLES. he tow truck industry is a niche category in road transport. While there are few barriers to entry, achieving long term success is another matter altogether according to Jason Cooke.

“In any industry you’ll have the occasional cowboy. People who buy a cheap truck and think they are going to set the world on fire,” says Jason. “We tell people who have been involved in accidents to either make their own decision about who tows their vehicle or to ring their insurance company, which at the end of the day is usually paying the bills.”

Jason is committed to presenting a good image of his business and the towing industry in general and goes beyond ensuring the trucks are immaculate and adorned with genuine hand pin-striping

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and enough LED lights to rival Luna Park. The drivers are expected to present a professional image by wearing long trousers and clean high visibility polo shirts. Above all they are expected to be diplomatic in their dealings with people and to foster good customer relationships.

“You usually get people at their worst at an accident or a breakdown,” says Jason.

“With a breakdown they know the repair is going to cost them, plus they’re frustrated because their trip has been interrupted. Often they’ve got their kids with them. A smash will cost money and inconvenience as well. So I always say to my drivers, no matter what’s happened, if you go to a smash or a breakdown the first thing to ask is ‘are you OK?’” Ultimately, the towing function is secondary and will be taken care of

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Jason Cooke.

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either way whether it’s by Jason’s people or someone else.

“We just make sure the people are OK and ask if there is anyone they want us to call such as a wife, husband or even dad.,” he says. “People have to understand we’re not there to take their car and run and we make a point of assuring them we’re there to make sure they are OK first. And that is usually very much appreciated.”

Tow Trucks Brisbane has been contracted to Ready Towing for RACQ breakdown jobs for 22 years and has accredited relationships with the majority of motor vehicle insurers. Jason, through his Tow Trucks Brisbane business, is a respected operator who for many years has been

encouraged and mentored by Steve Economidis of Gabba Collision Centre.

Tow Trucks Brisbane has a number of holding yards spread across the Brisbane area for the convenience of its clients.

Jason was one of the first towing operators in Queensland to decide to use a Hino as the basis for a tilt tray tow truck and says he hasn’t looked back since. To Jason, Hino and the local Sci-Fleet dealerships do more than just sell him new trucks.

“At the end of the day Hino’s are a reliable vehicle. Availability for parts is second to none and they always try to help you,” he says. “I’ve dealt with Hino and Sci-Fleet for 15 years and it’s never just a matter of them selling

me the truck – it’s always about their follow up. The salesmen are always there to answer any questions and the workshop manager is always ready to solve problems over the phone or get one of their mechanics to come out and help us. It’s a good relationship and I wouldn’t go away from the Hinos.”

The evidence of Jason’s commitment to the Hino brand is the seven sparkling Hino’s currently at work, ranging from three Hino Series 300 trucks through to FE1426 and FD1124 models of the latest Hino 500 series. Jason chooses automatic transmissions for the reliability and simplicity of their operation and for the way the engine and transmission technologies work

Average fuel consumption on the new Hinos is around 4.8 kilometres per litre.

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seamless together.

“An auto is always better for the driver because not all drivers can handle a manual and there’s nothing worse than replacing clutches all the time,” he explains.

There is one Hino remaining in the fleet fitted with a ProShift automated transmission which has covered approximately 400,000 kilometres during the past five or six years. Jason intends to replace it with a new fully automatic FD dual cab before the end of 2019.

The trend towards dual cabs has been influenced by the RACQ work where circumstances often involve transporting a family in addition to their broken down vehicle. For the same reason Jason considers the Hino dual cabs are more convenient for his own business involving non-auto club call outs to Tow Trucks Brisbane. The latest dual cab FE1424 has only been on the road a few months but Jason is delighted with its performance already.

“We can tow 6.2 tonnes on a dual cab with 7.1 metre tray length. This allows us to go out and pick up a recreational vehicle on the back which, as far as I know, no other dual cab in Queensland can do legally,” he says. “They can only go 3.8 or 3.9 tonnes on their FDs so we can nearly double the weight on the Hino FE and carry the stranded family of up to five people.”

Jason Cooke started his working life as a very young butcher’s apprentice and had his own shop at just 17 years of age. He found his true calling more than 30 years ago when he and his father became involved in towing in the rural city of Wagga Wagga. Following some years involved with Royan’s Truck Repairs, Jason commenced his own towing operation and has seen his dedication to his profession as much more than a just a job.

“When I started 30 years ago all you wanted to do was get the car onto the back of your truck and get it to the

“We can tow 6.2 tonnes on a dual cab with 7.1 metre tray length. This allows us to go out and pick up a recreational vehicle on the back which, as far as I know, no other dual cab in Queensland can do, legally,” Jason Cooke Tow Trucks Brisbane

holding yard or the smash repairers.

Now the first thing is to make sure people are OK and then we can worry about the rest,” he said. “Their vehicle is not going anywhere and the damage has already been done.”

In addition to accident damaged vehicles and breakdowns, Tow Trucks Brisbane also transports a lot of machinery including forklifts, compact bulldozers and excavators, and access equipment such as scissor lifts. Although the larger trucks are set up to transport 20 foot containers, Jason is not enthusiastic about this type of work as it can lead to damage of the trucks.

“I once had a driver forget to unlock the container pins, causing damage that cost $2,000 to 3,000 to repair for a job worth just a few hundred,” he recalls.

The performance and the fuel economy of the latest four cylinder Hino engines in his trucks has impressed Jason. He acknowledges that any concerns in regard to Hino engines going from six cylinder to five and then to four cylinder configuration, have not been justified.

He has no qualms about their abilities.

“These latest engines are excellent.

Like any business person I watch the fuel bill all the time. I only use Caltex diesel so I know I’m getting good fuel and we spend between $11,000 and

$15,000 every month,” Jason says. “I noticed that the first of the latest Hino’s was up to $400 a month cheaper and now it’s settled in to be constantly $500 cheaper than the five cylinder ProShift that it replaced. That’s $6,000 a year and just about covers the cost of rego and insurance.”

A recent return trip between Brisbane and Hervey Bay proved just how economical the Hino’s can be. Carrying a well-equipped Nissan Patrol the tow truck was loaded up to full weight on the outward leg and travelled 660 kilometres for the return journey and consumed just 104 litres of diesel.

“I wanted to see what it could do on the highway and achieved better than six kilometres-per-litre which is never heard of,” says Jason. The average fuel consumption around town for the FE and FD Hinos is consistently between 4.8 and 4.9 kilometres-per-litre which Jason regards as excellent. With all of its necessary equipment, a tow truck can weigh up to 7.4 tonnes before being loaded and with four wheel drives and dual cab utes now being Australia’s most popular vehicles it is typical for Jason’s trucks to be running at a gross weight of ten to 11 tonnes.

Jason and his drivers don’t regard accidents or breakdowns as one-off events and this frequently results in follow up calls from previous clients or from other people who have been referred to them.

Social media forms another plank in the platform for the marketing of Tow Trucks Brisbane and online feedback is encouraged. Tow Trucks Brisbane is an enthusiastic supporter of several community charity initiatives and was awarded Best Tilt Tray and Best Company Display at the 2019 MS Queensland Lowood Truck Show.

“I love towing,” Jason declares. “I tell my drivers if you don’t love the job you won’t last. No matter where you are or what time it is, one call and we’ll be there for you.” i

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HEAD TO HEAD HINOS

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HEAD TO HEAD

HINOS THERE HAS BEEN MUCH SAID AND WRITTEN ABOUT THE LATEST HINO 500 ‘STANDARD CAB’ MODEL. THE OFTEN HECTIC LAUNCH EVENTS AND INITIAL TEST DRIVES INVOLVE EXPERIENCING HALF A DOZEN OR MORE TRUCKS IN ONE DAY, SO PRIME MOVER AIMS FOR A MORE COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT OVER TWO WEEKS IN THREE DIFFERENT MODELS.

ue to its multitude of updates and changes there is certainly plenty to say about the new Hino 500 ‘Standard’ cab range, so called in order to differentiate it from the ‘Wide’ cab range released in Australia in 2017. The Standard cab followed in November 2018 and is the fifth generation of the Hino 500. Virtually every aspect of the

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truck has been reviewed and refined with many of the changes drawing upon Hino’s parent company Toyota’s expertise from its extensive global research and development programs.

The Standard cab line up has now grown from 33 models to 54 with more wheelbase options to allow for the fitment of bigger bodies. Hino has the only Japanese 14 tonne GVM

crew cab on Australian market with the weight distribution ideal for tilt tray work. Hino has been achieving the dominant market share for this application with the additional benefit of a perceived brand endorsement by the high profile automobile associations which use them.

The three Standard cab models in this exercise are an FC 1124 tray back with

The torque features help make the vehicles very driveable at low speeds in traffic.

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HEAD TO HEAD HINOS

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an automatic transmission, an FD 1126 curtainsider again with an auto and a FE1426 curtainsider equipped with a seven speed manual gearbox. Each truck is loaded to around 80 per cent of their specific GVMs and over the period of two weeks we operate them in city, suburban and highway conditions.

These latest models feature a full new interior with ‘earthy’ tones such as the coffee coloured upholstery which is complemented by some silver and faux carbon fibre trim pieces. This is a refreshing change from the dolphin skin grey we have become so familiar with in most Japanese trucks. Another difference is the implementation of a ‘smart’ steering wheel with integral controls for the multi-function display and the Adaptive Cruise Control.

Much obvious thought has been given to the biometrics and the pedals have been relocated to contribute to additional leg room and the ISRI NTS2 suspended seat is easier to adjust than its predecessor and has an extra 48mm of adjustment and the redesigned mounting helps achieve almost 30mm of additional head room. With a rating of up to 150 kgs any driver will be able to operate these trucks in comfort. The floor around the lower steering column mount has been re-engineered with additional bracing and the steering box mount to the chassis has also been reinforced which contributes to a very positive road feel for the driver.

The steering geometry incorporates extra wheel cut angles which result to excellent turning circles relative to the wheelbases.

Pursuing the engineering mantra that ‘safety is not an option’ the Hino is equipped with the most comprehensive suite of safety systems currently available in a Japanese truck in the Australian market. These include Vehicle Stability Control, lane departure warning, a pre-collision system, Autonomous Emergency Braking, pedestrian detection and Hino’s Safety Eye system.

These integrated functions are not just gimmicks; and while some may operate unobtrusively beneath the surface such

The Hino 500 is equipped with a new four cylinder Hino AO5 engine.

as VSC, systems such as the Adaptive Cruise Control make the driver’s task easier and contribute to reduced stress caused by other vehicles which switch into our lane and then inexplicably decrease their speed. The ACC simply maintains the gap between vehicles as pre-set by the driver. It’s comforting to know that the truck will automatically slow down if the driver’s attention is momentarily on the mirrors when some inconsiderate ignoramus decides that the right thing to do is slow down in front of a truck travelling on the open road.

The big deal under the cab is the new four cylinder Hino AO5 engine which at its capacity of five litres is not exactly small. The engine is based on the architecture of Hino’s AO9 nine-litre sixcylinder which is fitted to the 700 series in Japan and the 500 Series Wide cabs in Australia. It’s got a big crankshaft with 90mm diameter crank pins and a short crank throw of 130mm that keeps the piston speeds down and, combined with the twin turbochargers (one wastegate type, the other a Variable Geometry Turbo), a maximum torque is delivered at relatively lower rpm.

For the FC 1124 and the FD 1124 models the engine is rated at 240hp but the crucial peak torque of 794Nm is at

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1,400 rpm. The FD 1126 and FE 1426 have the slightly higher power rating of 260hp at 2,300rpm and a maximum torque rating of 882Nm at 1,400rpm. A check of the engine graphs shows more than 750Nm of torque is still available at maximum power at 2,300rpm.

When we drive the seven speed manual in the 14 tonne FE model for the first few kilometres it takes some concentration to shift up at 1,500 rpm or even lower rather than at 1,700 or 1,800. To assess the hill climbing abilities of each truck we pull into the Hawkesbury River rest stop on the M1 Motorway in order to begin the northbound ascent up over Joll’s Bridge from a standstill. All three models have no difficulty accelerating all the way to achieve the 100 k/hr speed limit before the summit. The same torque features also make the trucks extremely driveable at lower speeds in traffic.

Models equipped with the Allison 2500 six speed are accounting for around 70 per cent of 500 Standard cab sales to date. The transmission selector is a T bar unit unique to Hino and is much more intuitive to use than the keypads often used to control Allison transmissions.

The selector lever is fitted with a power/ economy switch that changes the shift parameters, and a lock out button to

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TEST DRIVE

FC 1124 tray back with an automatic transmission.

isolate top gear in circumstances where the transmission may be shuttling between ďŹ fth and sixth due to a combination of load and terrain.

Transmission technology developments have brought about a signiďŹ cant change in the perception of what is required to contribute the best fuel economy in a medium duty truck. For decades it was generally accepted that a driver-controlled manual gearbox will deliver the best economy but today the expectation and reality are that the automatics provide the most fuel efďŹ ciency. The torque convertor â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;locks upâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; from third gear and higher and the overdrive 0.6:1 top gear in conjunction with the various ďŹ nal drive ratios available exploit the torque of the engine in a beneďŹ cial way.

The manual 14 pallet FE we drive has the Hino Stop-Start system which automatically stops the engine when the truck is stationary and restarts when the driver takes their foot off the brake. This feature is also ďŹ tted to Hino Standard Cabs equipped with the two pedal sixspeed automated manual transmission.

Switching from model to model underscores the many similarities and 58

highlights the differences. All use the same parking brake lever and on the full air braked FE1426 the lever operates an air valve which controls the maxi brakes, while in the lighter speciďŹ ed units it operates a cable connect to a parking brake assembly at the rear of the gearbox. The majority of media â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;driveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; events are scheduled during daytime hours to suit collective schedules and to enhance photo opportunities so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s refreshing to spend some time in medium duty trucks during the night. The FD and FE models have LED headlights which provide a patch of crisp pure white light directly in front on low beam, and high beam delivers distant and broad illumination of the road ahead as well as the shoulders. Cornering and fog lamps complete the package.

After a couple of weeks of driving three quite differently specâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d examples we can conclude that there is nothing â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;standardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; at all about this range and if anything, Hino has set a completely new standard for medium duty trucks which should appeal to the market and cause potential buyers to question their loyalty to other brands. The category-leading safety and

driver support systems are important but in the ďŹ nal analysis the trucks have to perform their intended functions as well.

There is no point in having the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;safestâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; truck if itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not ďŹ t-for-purpose and the Hino Standard cab range is able to over-deliver on the practical operational criteria in addition to the safety and environmental considerations.

september 2019

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FAST FACT

medium Japanese truck below 15 tonnes GVM to have a proper engine brake integrated into its engine. The â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Jake Brakeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; has just one setting and

exhaust brake to provide classleading hill descent control. Similar to the larger prime mover engines

to increase the revs to over 2,000

! reduces reliance on service brakes to

"

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HAVING A POWERFUL, CLEAN AND EFFICIENT MINDSET Prime Mover, National Page 1 of 2

DANIEL PETROVSKI Daniel Petrovski is the Manager of Product Strategy for Hino Australia.

His role incorporates the critical business functions of product planning and future product strategies for all Hino vehicles in Australia. Petrovski leads a team of engineering, product development and vehicle homologation personnel, and ensures the Hino products for the Australian market meet the ever-changing market requirements and developing trends.

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HAVING A POWERFUL, CLEAN AND EFFICIENT MINDSET t Hino Australia, we know our customers want the best performance available, but they also want this performance delivered with improved fuel efficiency and in the most environmentally responsible way.

No longer is an organisation’s carbon footprint merely a tick-box exercise.

Increasingly, a company’s ability to minimise its impact on the world is a key factor in its decision-making processes.

Organisations are also faced with increased operating costs; not least of all is the cost of fuel.

At Hino, a key element of our solution is the all-new 500 Series Standard Cab and its heavy-duty A05 five-litre four-cylinder diesel engine which delivers superior torque, improved power and reduced fuel consumption.

The A05 is a derivative of the larger A09 six cylinder heavy-duty engine fitted to the 700 Series heavy duty models in Japan and the heavy duty 500 Series Wide Cab models in Australia.

The new engine has three power ratings, which are dependent on the 500 Series model selected - the FC 1124 and FD 1124 models receive the A05-TE engine, which delivers 240hp at 2300rpm and

A

october 2019

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794Nm of torque at 1,400rpm.

FE 1424 crew models receive the A05-TD with 240hp at 2300rpm and 833Nm at 1,400rpm.

The range-topping FD 1126 and FE 1426 models receive the top performance engine in the A05C-TC, which produces peak power of 260hp at 2300rpm and a very healthy torque rating of 882Nm at 1400rpm.

The high torque output and the low revving nature of this engine is further evidence of its heavy duty genes – while reducing rpm improves the fuel efficiency, it also reduces stress on the engine and ultimately improves reliability and durability.

The new A05 engine produces as much torque as the larger J08 engine in the 500 Series Wide Cab models, and has ten to 20 per cent more torque than the J07 engine in the outgoing Standard Cab vehicles.

The A05 delivers its torque across a lower and wider rpm range, and delivers improved drivability and incredible hill-climbing performance.

The increased torque ratings and wider torque range allows the new engine to be driven comfortably at lower rpm than the previous engine, reducing

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HAVING A POWERFUL, CLEAN AND EFFICIENT MINDSET Prime Mover, National Page 2 of 2

engine noise and fuel consumption.

This is a heavy duty engine that we have been able to fit into a medium duty truck, resulting in a driving performance that is the best yet from a medium duty Hino truck.

Our customers have very positive feedback on the fuel savings and reduced operating costs delivered by their all-new 500 Series Standard Cabs.

Many are reporting the new model delivers in excess of the expected ten per cent improvement in fuel efficiency when compared to the previous model.

For some high kilometre fleets, this equates to a reduction up to $75 per truck per day.

A broader benefit of the reduced fuel consumption of the all-500 Series Standard Cab is significantly lower carbon dioxide emissions.

Tow Trucks Brisbane, which is featured

on page 26 of this issue of Prime Mover is one of many customers for whom the new truck and engine have delivered significantly reduced fuel consumption.

The all-new 500 Series Standard Cab is also the cleanest Japanese medium duty truck in Australia.

It meets Japan’s stringent post-Post New Long Term (pPNLT) emission standards, which is essentially the equivalent of the European Euro 6 emission standards.

Hino is leading the way with cleaner emissions well before the next level of emission regulations is legislated.

At the heart of these heightened clean credentials on the all-new Hino 500 Series Standard Cab range is the exhaust after-treatment system, which combines Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) and Diesel Particulate Reduction (DPR) catalysts.

The DPR captures the unburnt particulate

matter (soot) from the engine exhaust before it exits the vehicle, and the SCR converts oxides of nitrogen (NOx) in the exhaust gases into nitrogen and water through a chemical reaction with a reducing agent (urea) that is absorbed into a catalyst.

These two proven exhaust emissions solutions have been used by Hino in the Australian market since 2011 in thousands of vehicles.

The new model requires minimal amounts of Adblue, courtesy of using these two solutions to meet the pPNLT emissions standard, with refilling required only every third or fourth diesel tank fill, which is again a saving for customers.

For businesses focused on reducing their carbon footprint and costs, the all-new 500 Series Standard Cab just makes better business sense.

High kilometre fleets are seeing reduced operating costs with the new 500 Series Standard Cabs.

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Built for the Wide Brown Land

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RURAL TRUCKING MATTERS

Built for the

Wide Brown While many medium-duty trucks rarely break away from the ‘burbs, there are some that do the long highway hauls just like their big brothers. Paul Matthei set off from Brisbane bound for Sydney via Tamworth and Dubbo to evaluate the performance of Hino’s all-new 500 Series Standard Cab in the wide-open spaces.

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t’s true the majority of medium-duty trucks are used in short-haul urban roles, but there are certain operations that require smaller trucks to do regional or even inter-capital runs that are normally the preserve of the semi-trailer and B-double sets.

While it’s obvious, due to their high load capacities, that larger combinations have major efficiency advantages over smaller trucks for most long-distance hauls, for

38

some specialist applications including racehorse transportation, household furniture relocation and certain timesensitive courier work, the medium-duty truck may be the only practical option.

Yet many medium-duty trucks of the past possessed inherent inadequacies when it came to long distance work.

Many originated from the UK, where high horsepower was not high on the agenda, their subsequent performance on Australian

highways was typically mediocre, at best.

Early Japanese trucks weren’t all that much better. Again, the requirement in Japan for high-performing medium-duty trucks was simply not on the radar, with most spending their lives working in and around crowded streets in major cities.

In Australia, the typical dearth of power and torque from medium-duty truck engines made life on the highway for the drivers of these vehicles akin to drudgery.

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Built for the Wide Brown Land

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RURAL TRUCKING MATTERS

Land There’s nothing worse, from a driver’s perspective, than to be crawling up a long grade in low gear with a string of impatient car drivers following hard on your heels.

It certainly created range anxiety of a different kind, often engendering a fanciful desire to chop a hole in the floor to push the accelerator down further and get that sucker going. It also heightened the chance of crashes due to frustrated car drivers attempting to overtake the truck in unsafe circumstances.

From my own medium-duty truck driving experience, it always intrigued me that a truck which performed quite well zipping around urban areas suddenly morphed into a slug when faced with the hills on a highway. This serves to highlight

how much extra grunt is needed to maintain reasonable momentum on big climbs in a loaded heavy vehicle compared to relatively flat running.

On the flip side, another notable deficiency of earlier medium-duty trucks doing long distance work could be found on steep descents where fade-prone drum brakes and decidedly lacklustre auxiliary braking efforts from the typical exhaust brake were a potentially disastrous combination if the driver failed to select low gear.

Often you could hear the change in engine note when the butterfly flap inside the exhaust system flipped around to block the flow, but in most cases it was debatable whether this actually translated into any

meaningful retardation at the rear wheels.

This meant that selecting low gear with the engine revving madly and regular dabs of the brake pedal were the order of the day on the very steep declines.

The other major issue with medium-duty trucks of yore was the ride quality. Again, in the metropolitan environment where speeds are slower and roads generally smoother it’s not such an issue. But at 100km/h on a lumpy highway or byway, the driver often felt like at any moment they were set to be catapulted through the roof.

Adding insult to injury was the typically uninspiring driver’s seat which simply offered all the comfort and support of a church pew.

Gratefully, things have progressed markedly in the medium-duty truck realm and the latest offerings, typified by Hino’s all-new 500 Series Standard Cab, are a world apart from their ancestors.

Most importantly, every aforementioned deficiency of medium-duty trucks – engine performance, braking and ride – has been suitably addressed.

The purpose of my recent inland trip from Brisbane to Sydney, crossing the Great Dividing Range multiple times and traversing a number of highways less travelled by regular interstaters, was to determine how well the new Hino 500 Series Standard Cab is suited to the sort of regional and interstate work typical of some medium-duty operations.

The test unit was an FD 1124 Automatic fitted with a 10-pallet curtain-sided body with an aluminium tailgate loader, loaded with three tonnes of sand in Bulka bags located just forward of the rear axle.

This model has a standard gross vehicle mass (GVM) rating of 11 tonnes and, depending on the weight of the body, a payload capacity of around seven tonnes.

An eight-tonne GVM is optional, in which case the payload capacity is approximately four tonnes.

Wheelbase options are 4.3, 4.9, 5.2 and 5.5 metres with corresponding maximum body lengths of 5.8, 6.8, 7.2 and 7.8 metres respectively.

There are four significant features of this truck that are traditionally not associated with medium-duty trucks. There’s the optional Hendrickson HAS 200 rear air suspension, an Allison 2500 Series sixspeed automatic transmission, ISRI 6860

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Built for the Wide Brown Land

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NT S2 driver’s seat and a Jacob’s engine brake, which is standard fitment on the A05C-TE 5.1 litre four-cylinder engine that in this variant delivers substantial figures of 177kW (240hp) at 2,300rpm and 794Nm (585lbft) of torque between 1,200 and 2,000rpm.

Interestingly, each of these components goes a long way towards addressing the aforementioned shortcomings of previous medium-duty trucks, particularly on long hauls. So as you can probably tell, I was pretty excited to take this truck on a lengthy journey to see just how much difference they actually make.

the heavy-duty versions of the 500 Series Wide Cab models in Australia.

As such, the A05C engine has the same robust construction as its big brother including 90mm diameter crankshaft main bearing journals and a high-rigidity engine block, both of which bode well for a long, trouble-free service life.

In performance terms, the A05C comes with three different ratings depending on the model. The FC 1124 and FD 1124 models share ratings of 240hp at 2,300rpm and 794Nm of torque at 1,400rpm, while the FE 1424 crew models harness 240hp at 2,300rpm and 833Nm at 1,400rpm.

The truck’s dash display showed 4.9km/l (13.8mpg) average fuel return and the AdBlue level was still above half full.

PACKING A PUNCH Firstly, let’s start with the powertrain. Hino’s A05C engine is something of a pocket rocket. With a swept volume of 5,123 cubic centimetres (CC), around the same cubic capacity as the average Ford and Holden V8 car engines of the ‘80s and ‘90s, it has been deliberately over-engineered to enable an extended service life under arduous operating conditions.

Such is the robust nature and design of this engine, with mostly highway running a service life of one-million kilometres should be attainable, provided the appropriate servicing procedures and intervals are maintained.

Key to the strength of this engine is that it is a four-cylinder derivative of the six-cylinder A09 engine which powers the heavy-duty 700 Series trucks in Japan and

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Meanwhile, the range-topping FD 1126 and FE 1426 models boast 260hp at 2,300rpm and a healthy 882Nm at 1400rpm.

A-CLASS ALLISON The engine is but one part of the powertrain package, with the quality and compatibility of the transmission behind it playing an equally important role in determining the overall performance of the vehicle.

Whether negotiating peak hour traffic snarls, cruising at 100km/h on the highway or powering up the steepest climb of the Great Dividing Range, the Allison auto never fails to optimise every last ounce of power and torque from the engine, contributing to excellent fuel economy and superb drivability.

There are, in fact, a number of reasons why the modern-day Allison automatic

has effectively relegated the manual transmission in medium-duty trucks to the dinosaur era. For a start, there is the obvious ease of driving aspect which plays a big part in reducing driver fatigue during long periods behind the wheel.

In addition, the intrinsic design of the auto provides a couple of clear advantages over manual and automated manual transmissions (AMT), particularly when accelerating from rest and when climbing hills. Firstly, whenever the lockup clutch is disengaged the stator inside the torque convertor provides a torque multiplication effect by redirecting oil flow from the turbine back to the impeller, thus increasing the torque or turning force produced by the impeller above and beyond the maximum torque level produced by the engine itself.

Further to this, the shifts are lightning quick meaning virtually no break in power delivery between gears. On top of all that, as previously mentioned, the unit features a lock-up clutch in the torque converter which activates between second and sixth gears, effectively providing direct drive and eliminating inherent torque converter slippage which robs power and fuel efficiency.

All of these features working in harmony proved a boon during my trip which traversed some of the most mountainous terrain on the eastern seaboard between Brisbane and Sydney.

While obviously due to its three-tonne payload the Hino was a tad steady on the steeper climbs, it nonetheless displayed a gritty determination that enabled a relatively respectable velocity to be maintained and the ‘smarts’ to keep the engine operating in the most economical and torque-rich band between 1,200 and 1,600rpm.

MAKING THE GRADE Nowhere was this more evident than during the long and steep ascent of Cherry Tree Hill halfway between Mudgee and Lithgow. In fact, it was the perfect test because east-bound road works at the foot of the climb had the speed limit set at 60km/h, so there was no chance of any acceleration or run-up before the climb commenced.

To my delight, the plucky powerplant hooked into the grade with gusto and

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Built for the Wide Brown Land

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kept the speedo needle glued to 60 all the way to the top of that considerably lengthy climb. I resisted the temptation to manually lock in third gear and Allison didn’t disappoint, holding that gear right to the summit.

Upon reaching Lithgow early evening the temperature had plummeted close to zero and traces of sleet were strafing the windscreen as I guided the Hino towards the infamous Scenic Hill escarpment which connects the low-lying city with the Bells Line of Road over the Blue Mountains.

The first left-hand hairpin on this ascent is a killer that over the years has brought many a truckie (including this one) undone.

So sharp are both the turn and the elevation that a fully loaded semi’s nearside drive wheels can easily lose traction, bringing the rig to an unceremonious halt. With no chance of starting off again on such a steep slope, the only option is to holler for ‘Thommo’, the local heavy towing operator, for a pull up the hill.

There was no need for Thommo to leave his warm living room this time around as the little Hino rounded the bend and powered up the snaking escarpment, again holding third gear for most of the climb at around 1,400rpm and between 45 and 50km/h. Once again, the tenacity of the engine and the synergy between it and the Allison transmission on what is among the toughest climbs in the country left a big

smile on my face.

On top of the mountain there was a fresh challenge, with a gale-force sou’wester blowing across the roadway with the intent of sweeping all before it. These conditions always make a heavy vehicle driver nervous, especially those with curtain-sided or van bodies that act like a giant sail…

Pleased to say my nerves were soon calmed when I realised part of a throng of technology packed into the Hino 500 Series had sprung into action, mitigating the pushy force of the cross wind. Yes, the Vehicle Stability Control did its thing beautifully and the sure-footed Hino tracked like an arrow along the serpentine-like Bells Line of Road, taking everything, from the buffeting wind, twists and turns, ups and downs, in its stride.

As it was mid-evening by this stage, frequent use of high beam highlighted the far superior white light penetration of the LED low beam headlights compared to the halogen high beams and driving lights with their far less pervasive yellow light.

Hopefully full LED headlighting will be part of the next upgrade.

Approaching the steep descent of Bellbird Hill on the eastern edge of the Mountains, I manually selected second gear and allowed the Hino to meander down the winding grade at 40km/h with only intermittent use of the engine brake required to maintain that pace. This

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speaks volumes for the effectiveness of the Jacob’s Brake which has previously been the exclusive territory of the heavyduty truck world.

At the end of the two-day trip I alighted from the vehicle feeling almost as fresh as when I started. Put simply, the alliance of strong performance from the engine/ transmission combination, the relatively smooth ride and good ergonomics offered by the ISRI seat, along with the comprehensive package of active and passive safety features, made this long distance trip, with some challenging conditions thrown in for good measure, a very enjoyable experience.

Another pleasant surprise came when checking the fuel and AdBlue consumption over the trip. The truck’s dash display showed 4.9km/l (13.8mpg) average fuel return and the AdBlue level was still above half full. Given the tank holds 19 litres, for the 1,250km trip it had only used about eight litres of AdBlue.

All up it was a positive endorsement of the ability of Hino’s new 500 Series medium-duty truck to perform equally well in a variety of roles from around town to long distance hauls.

This is an important factor considering the versatility of a vehicle to capably manage a range of applications can ultimately lead to improved productivity and efficiency within a business.