ABC #399

COVERSTORY
HINO-CUSTOM ADVENTURER
HINO ADVANTAGE
The comprehensive Hino Advantage program provides Hino bus customers with
fleet training, a dedicated in-house customer care centre and access to Hino
genuine parts and service, Clark explains.
“Every day a bus is off the road, it is costing operators money and the pressure
to return it to service as quickly as possible can encourage some companies to
take shortcuts, but, in fact, the best option is to simply purchase Hino genuine
parts.”
Most Hino genuine parts are readily available from the Hino dealer network,
with 24/7 support available from the parts distribution centre in Sydney, which
also provides delivery to any Australian capital city as soon as the next business
day, Clark explains.
Hino genuine parts are guaranteed to ‘fit first time, every time’, minimising
downtime and increasing profitability, Clark adds.
All Hino genuine parts fitted on a Hino bus by an authorised Hino dealer come
with a three-year unlimited kilometre parts warranty.
As part of the Hino Advantage suite of business benefits, every Hino bus chassis
comes with a one-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty (whichever occurs first), and
a two-year/unlimited-kilometre standard powertrain warranty, she states.
Top:
The driver’s area
includes a Isri
6860 driver’s seat
and AC boost.
Above:
Styleride Orion 57
x non-reclining
seat-belted seats
with Transporter
vinyl tan trim.
Opposite,
Top + Below:
The company’s
traditional colour
scheme has
been applied to
this brand new
bus, melding
old school cool
with updated
technology.
‘viral’ in local bus circles, being built
in NSW it was going to prove tricky
to get it over the border down south
into Victoria, it would seem.
“The new bus we had to pick
up from Bombala, NSW, as Hino
couldn’t deliver across the border
without having to quarantine for
two weeks when they returned,”
explained Turnbull exclusively to
ABC magazine.
“I drove it back from Bombala
with Dad and it actually seems to
run better than the last few [SB50s]
we purchased.”
So what will the bus be used
for and where does it fit into the
Turnbull’s Bus Service mix? And
where and how did that story begin?
“We have six bus runs in total,”
Turnbull explained.
“My grandfather started the
business up around 70 years ago,
repairing cars and buses. He was
repairing a bus in the early days
and the customer didn’t have any
money to pay him so he gave him
the old bus.
“Back then the bus used more oil
than fuel and they used waste sump
oil to keep it going until they tried
some cored rings and that stopped
the oil usage.”
We can only assume things have
dramatically improved since then
with a current pandemic being the
new challenge for us all…
“We have been fortunate through
Covid [in] country Victoria. We were
able to battle through; just needed
to tighten up spending, etc.
“I’m the third generation in the
business and we already have the
fourth working in the company,”
Turnbull said.
MASTERMIND
So just what is it about this bus that
makes it so special? Its new-age
retro style with cream, tan and
maroon colour scheme definitely
makes what is old new again. Yet
more so, its minimalist styling
means it has a classic look and feel
with all of the modern comforts.
For the parties involved, this is the
first production Custom-Denning
Adventurer body on a twin-axle Hino
RN8J automatic bus chassis.
It pumps out 285hp/213kW from
its six-cylinder overhead-cam ‘Euro
44
ABC November 2020 busnews.com.au