Hino FM8JR7A

The Hino FM8JR7A impresses with aggressiveness in its exterior design. However, the cabin of the Hino FM8JR7A is equally uninspiring and looks dated. The asymmetric layout of the dashboard and all-black theme of the cabin makes it look as if it belongs to a truck from one or two decades ago. The one impressive thing about this cabin is the ergonomic placement of all the controls and switches.

The driver’s cockpit with the four-spoke steering wheel and analogue instrument console and the cluttered layout of the centre console with rectangular panels for the audio system, AC control panel, and storage cavities could have been designed better. Another thing about the Hino FM8JR7A, which is quite uninspiring, is the lack of comfort and convenience features in it, which further makes the cabin look unappealing.

For a medium-sized commercial truck, the Hino FM8JR7A has an impressive exterior stance and appearance. However, the fact that it looks completely identical to the FG8JP7A means that it has no visual identity of its own, and looks just like a longer version of the former.

The tall and bulky-looking front profile of the Hino FM8JR7A is partitioned into two halves, with the upper half having the big windscreen and the lower half having the grille and wide bumper. The windscreen of the Hino FM8JR7A is large and curved and has rounded edges on all four corners. The pillars beside the front windscreen have the rearview mirrors mounted on them.

The lower half of the front profile of the Hino FM8JR7A has an aggressive stance, thanks to the massive three-slat blacked grille. The upper two horizontal slats of the grille are placed in the middle of the front apron, while the lowest slat of the grille extends on the front bumper and is placed on it. The entire three-slat grille is arranged in a trapezoidal manner, with a larger and rounded logo of Hino Motors positioned in the middle of the top-most slat.

The side panels on the front apron have amber turn indicators mounted on their lower parts. The wide and bulky-looking front bumper has both headlamps and small and rounded fog lamps placed on the extreme corners of it, one over the other.

Coming to the side profile of the Hino FM8JR7A, the overall design of the door panels and trapezoidal side window looks very conventional. The trapezoidal design element mimicking the design of the window panel is good design thinking, though.

Over the six-wheeled Hino FG8JP7A, the ten-wheeled 6x4 Hino FM8JR7A has a longer chassis, which gives it additional load carrying capacity. The Hino FM8JR7A gets the same suspension combination of semi-elliptical tapered leaf springs with double-action shock absorbers at the front and reinforced semi-elliptical main and auxiliary reinforced leaf springs at the rear, as it is there in the FG8JP7A. The braking action is performed by full-air, dual-circuit, S-cam type service brake, and air-operated spring parking brake acting on the rear axle.

The Hino FM8JR7A shares its 7.7-litre, inline-six, water-cooled, and turbocharged diesel engine with the six-wheeled Hino FG8JP7A. This engine is one of the most reliable six-cylinder engines available in the medium-sized truck segment. Coupled with a 9-speed manual gearbox, the engine in the Hino FM8JR7A is tuned to produce higher performance numbers – 280 PS of maximum power and 824 Nm of peak torque output.

A full and proper ABS is the only safety feature that is present in the Hino FM8JR7A.

The additional wheelbase, performance from the engine, and wheels in the Hino FM8JR7A over the FG8JP7A gives the former a significant advantage when it comes to load-carrying capacity. However, we would have wished to see a few design changes or features to make it feel different from the FG8JP7A.