I just spent four months working at my seasonal spring job, working as a truck driver. I was talking with Paul a few weeks ago and telling him about about my job driving a brand new Hino box truck (Hino is a division of Toyota). I sent a few photos to Paul and he mentioned that a lot of CC readers enjoy trucks and truck stories. He also suggested that I write a story about what it is like to be a truck driver here in Oregon. So here goes.
Some 7 years ago after looking into my job options I ended up becoming a school bus driver, and getting a Class B Commercial Drivers License in the bargain. I drove school buses for 2 years, and then I quickly realized that I was suffering from a bad case of job burn out. So I started looking around for another place to work. That was when I found out about a local plant nursery that would hire truck drivers, or in my case bus drivers, to deliver plants all over the state of OR and WA during their busy season. (Which in this case is the months of March through June.) I applied with them and I was hired.
I love the job, but sometimes it gets a bit draining and tiring. The good things about the position are: I never go to the same place two days in a row. The scenery is always changing. Most everyone I deal with is happy to see me, ( or at least not mad at me.) The flowers I deliver to the stores are beautiful. I don’t have a boss looking over my shoulder, and as long as I make the deliveries in a reasonable amount of time, don’t have any accidents, and deliver the right shipment to the right store everything is good.
The bad things about the position are: I can spend up to 11 hours on the road. That makes for a very long day. The Hino box trucks have a good suspension system, but I still get jostled around in the cab as I head on down the road. And 10 -11 hours sitting in one place, doing one thing, can really be a drag. Another bad thing is not having anyone to talk to. I have a few words with the people who are at the garden centers that I deliver the plants to, but 10 hours is a long time to spend alone with just my thoughts, and the radio to pass the time.
The Hino weighs about 20,000 lbs empty. The maximum legal weight I can carry is 26,000 pounds. I have driven it at the maximum weight and I can tell right away when I am heavily loaded. With that much weight it takes longer to accelerate, and it takes longer to slow down.
The truck has drum brakes all around, and they are air brakes. As the driver I am always aware of the brake air pressure, which normally runs at 120 psi. (I have a gauge on the dash that I can refer to.) If the brake pressure gets down to around 60 psi a red light comes on and a warning horn sounds continuously. If the pressure goes down to around 10-15 psi the brakes will automatically be applied, and the parking brake knob will pop out of the dash. Then the truck cannot be moved until the pressure builds back up enough to overcome the brake application spring pressure. (Which would be around 15-20 psi). I have had several occasions when I had to use the brakes pretty hard, and when I could smell the hot brakes I knew that I was pushing them towards their limit.
The truck also has a Jake brake I can use and it makes a big difference when it comes time to slow down, especially on long grades.
The Hino 268 comes with a J08E 7.6 L six cylinder diesel, variable-geometry turbocharger and high pressure common-rail fuel injection. It’s rated at 220 hp @ 2500 rpm, and 520 lb.ft. of torque @ 1,500 rpm. An optional 260 hp version is also available, but I doubt that’s in my truck.
The Hino averages 9.5 mpg, empty or loaded. It has two 50 gallon saddle tank style fuel tanks. (ie one tank on each side). So I have a range of 950 miles. But I start thinking about filling the tanks up whenever they get down to around half full. (I do the same thing in my cars).
The truck also has a DEF tank for the SCR system that cleans the exhaust. The DEF tank holds something like 4 or 5 gallons. I have been told that the truck will stop running if I ever empty out the DEF tank while I am driving down the road, so I keep the tank very close to full on a regular basis.
Hino medium-duty trucks marketed in the US are made in Williamstown, W.VA., and have many components supplied by American suppliers. The even sell a diesel-hybrid truck in the smaller COE version.
One of those American components is the Allison six-speed automatic transmission, which is standard in these trucks.
My line of sight when I am sitting in the cab of my Hino truck is 8 feet off of the ground. (When I am sitting in my Mustang my line of sight is 3.5 feet off of the ground.) So I am spending all of my time when I am driving my truck looking a long ways down the road. When I seen something questionable going on up ahead I start slowing down. I can change lanes if I need to, but my usual response is to just start gradually start slowing down until I can clearly see what the situation is that I will shortly find myself dealing with.
Knowing that if I need to stop in a hurry it will still take a fair amount of distance and time makes me very aware that the slower I am going if a problem occurs the better off I will be. I try to keep close to the speed limit of 55 for trucks here in Oregon. My usual cruising speed is 61 mph. I have had the truck up to 70 mph, but I did not like going that fast, and I did not keep up that speed for very long. Also knowing that truck tires are speed rated at 75 mph keeps me from really pushing things. The Hino also has a 75 mph top speed regulator.
This truck, and almost all large trucks for that matter, have dual rear tires installed. As the driver it is my responsibility to make sure that the rear tires are properly inflated. The quick and dirty way to do that is to smack them with my tire thumper. I put together a few pieces of pipe, and I use that as a tool to beat on the rear tires at the start and the end of every trip I make. When I thump the tires I can tell from the sound if the tire has air in it, and by listening to the tone I can tell if the tires have something close to the same amount of air in them. The problem with dual tires is that one of the tires can be totally flat, and the other tire will be holding up the load. And the driver would never know about the flat, if it was the inboard tire, by just looking at the tires. (And the inboard tires have a greater load on them than the outboard tires.)
The truck is 13 feet tall. I always have to be aware that if I try to drive under anything that is not at least a little bit over that height then bad things are going to happen. I once drove under a railroad bridge that was 13 ft, 6 inches tall. I was sweating every one of those extra 6 inches that day. And I swore I would never do anything that stupid again in my truck. (And I haven’t.)
All in all I enjoy being a truck driver. It is a much better job that some of the positions I have had over the years. I don’t think I will be doing it forever, but I think I will stick with it for the foreseeable future.
I’m surprised it isn’t equipped with a tire pressure monitor system.
I have never seen a box truck like this one equipped with a tire pressure monitoring system. I know some of the big semi trucks have such a set up.
But you need to keep in mind that this is a basic vehicle. And as such the builder is going to rely on me, the driver, to keep an eye on things like the tire pressure.
A pleasant surprise to hear the trucks are “built” here in the usa, I suspect the people at the factory are glad about that as well. Thanks for the slice of your truck driving life, article, well done!
Great story thanks for sharing.
I know a couple gear jammers that are Amateur radio operators (HAM radio) they pass the time making contacts and rag-chewing while they drive. Just to be clear I’m NOT suggesting Citizens Band, its become a toxic melting pot for lowlifes the last 20yrs.
I would take the time also to listen to a whole lot of Waylon Jennings, but thats just me 🙂
PS: Is “gear jammer” still a valid term in this automatically shifted world?
Thanks, Amazonray, for this article and all the detail-pictures. Never saw a Hino truck on the road here, although I believe they have a branch in Belgium for their European operation. The much smaller Dyna, that’s the only Toyota truck I’m familiar with.
Being a conventional truck is also special. I must say that the grille seems to belong to a much bigger truck. Conventional trucks are not offered anymore in Europe, only COEs with set-back front axles for maximum maneuverability; regardless size and weight.
This segment is typically called a “distribution truck” here. Trucks that don’t drive long distances, generally don’t have a sleeper cab, and can be found in and around cities to deliver their cargo at the stores etc. Here’s one comparable with your Hino, a 280 hp Scania P-series.
Keep on trucking !
These Hino trucks pretty clearly look to have tilt-cab cabs modified for conventional-truck use. It makes me wonder why they didn’t use the Toyota Tundra cab instead.
I assume Hino’s tilt-cab is substantially bigger inside than the Tundra’s cab. Scania also used their tilt-cabs for the conventional models they had. Then again, Scania never built anything as small as a pickup-truck.
Much bigger a Tundra is only a puddle jumper its not 8 feet wide like a proper truck
Another one. The Mack Mid-Liner with a European “Club of Four” tilt-cab. Renault owned Mack back then, and was one of the Club of Four.
Same cab.
Nice story and always interesting to read about another’s occupation, especially when a vehicle is involved. Your truck looks similar in size to the large Penske rental trucks which I’ve driven several times. I realized the max load is 26k pounds but never realized that empty they are already at 20k!
Thanks for sharing, keep on truckin’!
I just checked the specs: a 268 cab/chassis weighs about 10-11k lbs, so there’s no way it weighs 20k with the body on the back empty. Maybe about 13-14k lbs. Most trucks can carry at least 100% of their empty weight.
Ah, ok, thanks for clarifying that. I was thinking I must have been way over the limit seeing as how my trucks were filled front to back, top to bottom with all the stuff that one tends to move. Half of which of course then seems to end up at the first garage sale in the new place…
Yep, for a straight truck with 2 axles that “at least 100%-rule” is pretty accurate.
Now that I think about it the empty truck may not weigh as much as I thought it did, but I am sure I am close to the right figure. I remember when I went though the scales on the highway my weight was close to 18,000 or maybe 19,000 lbs.
The box has a hardwood floor, and steel reinforcement points where the racks I roll in and out of the box make contact. Plus I am sure that the lift gate weighs a lot. There is a lot of steel in that lift gate, plus all the things needed to run the gate up and down.
There is no way this truck can carry 100% of its weight. I do know that for sure.
The license class for this truck here is class 2 up to 14 tonnes.
I must beg to differ. I hauled 3200lbs of scrap metal once in my ’75 Chevy (Isuzu) LUV that weighed about 2600lbs. Kind of butt puckering for sure. Don’t tell me that a 268 Hino cannot handle 100% of its own weight. We did just that and more at work. Electrical Distribution business. You can deal in spools of wire that weigh more than a crew cab Ford F350 Super Duty 4X4. Our Hino as transfer truck saw that and more every night.
One of those HD railgates with the steel platform tips the scales at around a ton by itself. A box like you describe tips the scales at near 2 tons so add 6,000lbs to the weight of the cab and chassis to get the light weight.
You are certainly correct Paul. These box bodies are mostly aluminum and fiberglass. And wood. Our 268 Hino even had a roll up garage style door on the side for loading conduit. I had it on the scale at Calbag Metals once when cleaning shop for inventory. 13,750lbs empty
Yep tare of about 6 tonnes sounds right for a pantec 4 wheel truck maybe 7 with the tail lift.
Your experiences are different in a lot of respects from those I had in the 1960’s driving my father’s 1949 International KB-11F tractor with the lowbed trailer as well as various dump trucks. There are similarities as well, the main one being the considerable difference in acceleration, deceleration, and handling between an empty and a loaded rig.
Nice! I drove a 268 Hino myself for work. It was an older one, had 485,000 miles when I took the helm. And I can confirm they get about the same mileage loaded or empty. And either empty or loaded with 10,000lbs in the box, they do not go any slower. Steering kind of heavy despite the massive steering wheel, and of course it is power steering. Ours started having issues. I got to drive back to the shop from NE Portland, in a driving November rainstorm with dead windshield wipers. That was…ahem…fun. And it started consuming coolant. I can just imagine what it would cost to rebuild the engine in one of these. Overall, great trucks, and great powertrain. Ours was massively abused, and overloaded every day. In addition to being a local delivery truck during the day, it was also our inter-branch transfer truck. The night driver would go from Eugene, Hillsboro to Longview every single night.
Your truck had a ton of miles on it. This last season my truck had 90 miles on it when it was assigned to me, and when the season ended it had 15,000 miles on it.
One of the best things about the job was spending my time in a brand new truck.
Ray you sir are a professional driver. I too drove a 20 ft box,3 yrs for a St.Louis area grocery chain. That was 30yrs. ago but the skills I aquierd have made me a better driver. My truck was usually overloaded and quickly learned to pretend the hood was 500 ft. long. To this day I anticipate slowing traffic, subconsciously scan the mirrors and instrument panel often and look as far down the road as possible. I commute daily on 22 miles of 2 lane state hwy. Regularly I’ll see a loaded dump semi pull out of the local sand plant a half a mile ahead. I just kick the cruise off and start letting the car coast down because I know at 65 mph I’ll gobble up that 2000ft in just seconds. The bumper chasers pull out to pass then do nose dives when they finally look past the end of their hood. Oh well before I get started on a rant about texting and distracting touch screens I’ll just wish you many safe miles ahead. Thank You for your story. It is good to know some people still know what to do behind the wheel. DRIVE !
I have a “Class A” CDL and am still trying to find a good job.
Aside from height, you also must be aware of your length in a truck, it can be all to easy to turn too sharply with expensive results.
When I was in Japan, in the 80s, I saw a lot of Hinos…99% were dump trucks with COE cabs. Before Hino was “absorbed” by Toyota, they also built cars.
Aside from tire pressure monitors, I’m wondering when trucks will be required to add rear backup cameras (like cars) to the standards list.
A backup camera would be great. There were a few times when I threw the transmission into reverse and hoped to hell that nobody was close behind me.
Isn’t that the truth. I managed to ding the gutter on Capitol Electric’s building, as I was watching the loading dock in the mirrors. And one of my regular stops was Emanuel Hospital here in almost downtown Portland. How I never managed to grease one of the clowns on bicycles with that majestic beast of a truck still amaze’s me. They could use cameras on all sides.
Delivering to the downtown Target is also difficult I hear. Does not surprise me.
Back up cameras are next to useless decent mirrors are far more effective if you know how to use them the camera is useless with a trailer attached, this is the configuration I usually drive though now I am casual in a tipper fleet 8 wheel truck towing 8 wheel trailer 28 tyres this is an old Isuzu 400hp.
When did Hino become part of Toyota? I always wondered that. When I was a child I had some toy trucks that carried the Hino badge, but I had never seen them in person so I wasn’t sure what they were or where they were from. Ah, pre-internet days. Didn’t start seeing them on the road in North Carolina until probably early 90’s, though I think they were still using the “wings” badge at the time?
About 68/9, the very last Hino Contessa cars we got were assembled by Toyota around that period, Hino trucks have been in NZ decades.
Nice four wheeler, we dont get the bonnet variety of Hino here only the 500 and 700 series cabover I drove a 8 wheeler 700 towing an 8 wheel trailer occasionally last season, nice truck to drive only 450hp so a bit underdone wnen fully laden 44,500kg but enough power for traffic on the flat, Ive driven the cabover equivalent of your truck bit in 6wheeler guise with a lazy axle fitted behind the driver it had a 6 speed syncromesh manual the 500/700 have Eaton Fuller Roadranger manuals which I prefer at least with the manual you can downshift to improve the exhaust brake’s performance its not a Jake not even close, but a decent exhaust brake coupled with a retarder is very effective, I very rarely use the footbrakes other than to stop at intersections once already slowed to a crawl on the engine brake, But hey these are things you learn as you progress in your career, good luck with your job.
While we are on the subject, not that I am a Toyota fan any more, but I would love to see them sell a beefed up Tacoma/Tundra-ish light truck under the Hino name. I think they would sell a ton of them. Yeah, baby, it’s a Hino…want to try out the bed?…
That would be Toyota Dyna sized a small cabover truck using Landcruiser 4.2 diesel 6, 5/6 speed syncro trans dual rear wheels carry up to 5 tonnes.
Before I retired from teaching I had a CDL for busses. Meant job security during the summer months. I sure can understand job burnout. Just let the whole thing drop a couple years ago and intend to do the same thing with the AC license this year. Both meant moonlighting dollars. Would have enjoyed your job, I think.
I for one always enjoy CC diversity. Thanks for sharing. One of our vendors uses a Hino 268 with a lift gate. The driver is a friend fellow. I’ll make sure I chat with him more than I used too. He likes the Hino, but it is a little bouncy when it is empty, like most medium duty rigs.
Do conventional trucks in this segment come with cab-suspension ?
No, there is no cab suspension. It is just a basic truck. That is why it is so tiring when I go on long trips. There is an air shock for the drivers seat, but that is it.
I see. Cab suspension is a necessity on cabovers, since you’re sitting right above the front axle. That’s why they all have it, even the most basic short-distance models.
The most comfortable trucks have 3 air suspension systems: axles, cab and seat.
American 8 wheel conventional tractor units dont have air suspended cabs either, horrid to drive compared to anything European and far behind much of the Japanese trucks the Noise alone in a American truck makes them tiring to spend 13 hours driving add in all the road irregularities transmitted into the driver and its hell on wheels, Give me a Volvo,Scania, Iveco, any day in preference.
A lot of the US conventional cab long haul trucks have air suspension on the cab. http://www.midwestwheel.com/%5Cspecials%5Ccatalog0%5C38Cab%20Shocks%20and%20Air%20Springs130010292012.pdf
Standard Hino(good) seat theyve been using since the 80s not the best I agree. Ive spent many hours in Hino cabover concrete trucks with those seats one reason I avoid that work now is the trucks in use.
I agree with that too. They are tiring trucks to drive. Besides the heavy steering input, and the fact they take a mile to stop, in a rig like these, you are always on mental alert so you do not grease anybody. Visibility is poor. But the high seating position is cool, looking in a straight line anyway. I was always more mentally fatigued after my runs than anything, especially since I often had to take that beast in places a Honda Civic would barely fit in. I much preferred our Isuzu NPR/NRR 18 foot box trucks, when I got to use one.
Very informative article. Here in Japan, Hino has become the No.1 producer of trucks and busses – I can remember when it was fairly even between Hino, Isuzu and Nissan, but over the past ten years Hino has clearly taken the lead.
You rarely if ever see a conventional cab here – and I’ve never seen the model you drive. Streets are just too narrow and turns too tight. Everything is cab over.
This is the biggest Japanese truck on our market right now, the Fuso Canter 9C18, rated at 8,550 kg GVW (although Daimler-Benz owns Fuso). Isuzu also offers its N-series (max. 7,500 kg GVW).
That about wraps it up for the “heavy” Japanese diesel trucks here.
An close to nobody is buying them.
I remember we had a end 90’s Mitubishi Canter in the fleet around 2001, nice enough truck in the city, but nobody liked driving it besides me.
I don’t see many HIno trucks around here. I did see one with a rollback wrecker body on it recently. The thing that amazes me is how many Ford Louisville-style heavy dump trucks I still see in use. The big straight trucks with multiple helper axles underneath. When I lived in STL, there was a big Western Star dealer, and they sold lots of really fancy Western Stars with dump bodies and flame paint jobs, leather interior, etc, but around here it seems to be older, beat up Fords and Sterlings that are almost identical to the Fords.
Mixer bodies seem to be a regional thing too…in STL, they were mainly conventional cabs, lots of Volvo and Autocar, and some other brands, with conventional McNeilus Bridgemaster bodies that empty at the rear. Around Cincy, lots of mixer trucks that empty at the front, with a little tiny offset single cab. I did some quickie research, and it looks like Oshkosh builds the front discharge trucks, and they are part of McNeilus too.
I was really fascinated when I saw pictures of front discharge mixer trucks for the first time, especially the big Oshkosh models. Completely unknown here.
This is the standard set-up around here, a cabover daycab truck with 4 or 5 axles. It has been a long time since I saw a mixer truck with less than 4 axles. The mixers with 5 axles are rated between 100,000 and 110,000 lbs GVW.
Great story. I have occasionally driven a big straight truck, but only rarely. You are right about that height thing. Even when you know you have clearance, it is still a scare from the drivers seat. I just resolved a case where a driver was forced into the right lane because of road construction and got the roof peeled off his truck by a low tree limb.
Nice writeup on the job and the truck. I’ve driven some smaller box trucks for work from time to time; one of my former positions involved managing student computer labs for a college and we’d usually borrow a truck from Central Receiving to do our own deliveries. But that truck was an E-350 cab, gas V8, with a smaller box (14 feet maybe?). Nonetheless, it was an interesting lesson in handling and braking performance unloaded versus loaded/partially loaded. The only truck nearly as large as this one that I’ve driven was a 26′ U-Haul moving van.
Nice writeup and comments too , always something new to learn here .
When I returned to the U.S. from Guatemala , C.A. in 1976 , I needed a job hurryupquick and took one driving a 40′ Bob Tail restaurant supply rig , in Los Angeles .
It was a battered 1963 Forester Green Chevrolet C-50 with a V-6 and Muncie SM465 four speed compound low gearbox , no power steering , no heater , drum brakes,not even shock absorbers on it .
I ran that thing hard 5 days the week and I wish I’da had a radio but the doors didn’t lock and back then , even an AM radio would get stolen .
No lift gate , it had a slide out ramp and a hand truck , I had to schlepp dozens of those 75# cubes of grease and 40 gallon barrels of pickles etc. all by hand .
Hard work for minimum wage , as least I was out side all day long , that was the best part .
Charlie Yanoff was the Boss and owner of Charlie’s Restaurant Supplies , a cheap son-of-a-gun indeed .
-Nate
Good article and I thought an Oregon Class B license would allow you to drive vehicles over 26K Lbs.
I have driven trucks that weighed up to 58,000 lbs with my Oregon Class B CDL.
The weight limit on my Hino truck was 26,000 lbs max. It was posted on the side of the truck on each door so that the weigh master at the scales I went through could see what the limit was.
The Class B license basically means that I cannot pull a trailer.
I just spent a week with a nearly-new Penske F-650 in this configuration, in the process of moving all our stuff from LA to Vancouver, WA (relocated to the PNW for work). Mine had a 6.8L gas V-10 instead of a diesel, and got about 6 mpg as a result…but performed flawlessly (if slowly) on our 1000-mile drive. I hadn’t driven a 26-footer in about 15 years, but got the hang of it pretty quickly, and only ran over a few curbs the whole time! I was happy to get back into a smaller vehicle at the end of the week, though.
IIRC, our truck weighed about 12,000 pounds empty and maxed out at 26,000, though with just personal goods in the box and not actual freight, we were well under the limit.
Very cool. Wonder when some slag will come out and say that MS employees play for Phil to increase the numbers and that he never actually plays himself.
I believed from the beginning that they were making huge mistakes with the DRM, etc., and could not understand what they were thinking so I went out and bought a PS4. Now, I am really close to getting an XBone as well.
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