I have landed a pretty good job with my truck but I’m wondering what your thoughts are re my power.
the truck is a japanese hino 195/200hp 530 nm torque non turbo 7.4 liters the truck is 9800 carring capacity all alone and 16000kg’s as a truck and trialer combination . I’ll be using my truck to cart a 3 car trailer carting cars locally the trailer is single axel 45’ probalby weighs 2 tonne. with 3 cars all up about 8 tonne for the trailer. Prime mover weight unloaded around 3 tonne by it self so 12-14 tonne loaded. will this combo be deathly slow. I felt it was a good way to edge in the the articluated market. as I have just upgraded my licence. money is good the truck is light on fuel and easy to drive. rather than jumping head first into a much heavier set up .
I will be loaded 75% of the time
you thoughts.
cheers
meggala
Most are going to tell you no Meggala, but remember there are many on here who were perfectly happy at 32T gross with 150hp and 6 gears years ago. You won’t keep up with the pack but if it’s a foot in the door - go for it 
Should be plenty of power for what you’re doing mate,best of luck!
thanks.
yeah I have read stories of old days here in OZ of guys running tripple road trains with 300 hp.
it should be a good start I own the truck out right so the glitz and glamour can wait 
and the other drivers at the place stay long term and they pay on time at a fair rate so I figure why not.
yeah its 200 hp with a six speed
meggala:
thanks.
yeah I have read stories of old days here in OZ of guys running tripple road trains with 300 hp.yeah its 200 hp with a six speed
That’ll be me then 
, well not quite 300, I think my Mack had 195 
…but I did have 20 gears in the box(es) to help out
A lot of our Dutch guys are still happy enough with 320 hp on a very liberal gross weight limit of 50 tonne 
Early F88 were designed for 52 tonne with less than 300 hp.
I had a covered 2 car 12T Iveco prime mover and 6T single car covered trailer.
Engine was 210 with a six speed box.
Prime mover only, it was okay.
With the drag, it was painfully slow — a splitter box would have helped.
If I bought a combination like that again, I’d want minimum 280, preferably a 320.
Personally, I wouldn’t fancy an 8t trailer behind a 3 or 5 ton prime mover.
the trailer is single axle probably tares @ under 2 tonne
I once ran the Iveco prime mover empty and the drag heavy. It wasn’t a lot of laughs!
The guidance for car trailers / caravans is something like don’t exceed 80% of the towing vehicle weight.
Behind a 2.5T 4x4, I’ve towed a 3.5T trailer. That’s not much fun either! Go as fast as you like uphill, but need to gather it all together before any downhills, and watch the overtaking trailer wash!
The other problem with loading cars is the weight distribution — not easy to get it right — but you’ll soon know when you’ve got it wrong!
Single axle might be more scary - mine was a tri.
meggala:
I have landed a pretty good job with my truck but I’m wondering what your thoughts are re my power.
It’ll do the job. As you have only six gears then torque might be little low, but as your job is local I think you manage at town speeds quite well. I drove my license with wagon and a-frame weighing something between 15 and 20 tonnes, and truck had quite same size engine as yours have, but with turbo. I think it was rated to something about 230 hp and 750 Nm. It managed quite well as long as speed was under 60 km/h but after that… 
will this combo be deathly slow.
Yes.
thanks for that my max total weight will be around 12 tonne so it should do for a while I realize it wont be a rock ship but that will come later.
cheers and yeah 200 hp and 530 nm of torque eeek I might get in to first on occasions
been driving the truck for for almost a week now.
its not fast but it keeps up fine looses some speed on hills but is adequete for the task it is doing it does 90 kph comfortably on the freeway and will do 100 if massaged . it pulls away from the lights quick enough and that is loaded with the equivilent of 2 X 2000 kg cars and one smaller one.
cheers
How’s your MPG?
dropping a little cause its working harder. the work I was doing b4 was light
doing approx 4.7 klms per liter 100% city driving now around 13 mpg
I was doing 5.5klm per liter. 15.6 mpg.
a bit slow on the hills with 3 X 4 four wheel drives on but other wise acceptable
the job is going great.
milage has settled to 4.4 klm per liter over 3000 klms of mainly city driving with freeway work.
and its doing the job adequetly. we would all love more power but I would rather sacrifice it for the mpg/ klm per liter. poin tto point times are a little slower but it doesn’t make that much of a difference.
cheers
meggala:
the job is going great.
milage has settled to 4.4 klm per liter over 3000 klms of mainly city driving with freeway work.and its doing the job adequetly. we would all love more power but I would rather sacrifice it for the mpg/ klm per liter. poin tto point times are a little slower but it doesn’t make that much of a difference.
cheers
Good to hear its going well for you
A lower HP engine that’s working hard all the time — would that be better than a higher HP engine that’s not being stressed (assuming driver doesn’t have a heavy foot and keeps it in the green!)?
funny you should ask I was asking another driver with a merc 340 hp truck pulling a similar set up he was getting 2.5 - 2.8klm per liter.
thats alot of extra fue when you are doing 1500 klms a weekl
these japanese truck motors love to be worked hard. but I don’t rev it right out on a 3200 redline it rarly see’s more than 2.5.
cheers