While the Hino 300 is classed as a light duty 4 x 4 truck it is not a softroader. It went through extensive testing in Australian conditions to ensure that it was well suited to our environment.
Hino Australia had a prototype truck for 3 years and did over 40000 km as a work vehicle for the Cook Shire Council in Far North Queensland. Cook Shire covers from Cooktown to the Jardine River in Cape York and has over 1600 km of unsealed road in their area.
The 4 litre diesel engine develops 121 kilowatts at 2500 revs per minute and 464 Newton metres of torque starting at 1400 revs per minute. The engine will go a maximum of 3100 rpm although with its new six speed gear box it only needs 2440 rpm to sit on 100 km/hr
The main fuel tank has 100 litres capacity while the auxiliary fuel tank behind it can hold an additional 70 litres of fuel.
The vehicle comes with both single and crew cab configurations and the good thing about the crew cab is that it has good air conditioning for the passengers in the second row.
Along with vehicle stability control every Hino 300 has antilock brakes, traction control and an exhaust brake.
By being tuned to handle the rough conditions it can be jarring for the driver but to help this it has driver seat suspension which is magnetically dampened.