DOT DIESEL for DUMMIES

zenn7 · Feb 20, 2018

Ive owned a few gas cube vans as a contractor for decades and want to get back into it. Bought a 2012 Hino 195 last week with 300 k kms on it. It'll be in an independent diesel shop for a few weeks having work done from springs to def to get it saftied.

Im not particularly mechanical and this is my first diesel. To be honest, after spending alot of time reading this much appreciated forum and all the diesel issues people deal with... I wonder if I made a good choice. But I want a highway/foodservice run and the truck is bought.
Time to suckitup and move forward.
I plan to have the shop owner walk me around the truck for a basic education session. If I would know a half dozen things to focus on learning about.... What would others suggestions be ?

roadeyes · Feb 22, 2018

Not Hino specific, but for all modern diesels idle them as little as possible and if you must idle make sure it's at about 11-1200 rpm's, otherwise low idle will clog the egr valve and will also cause an excessive number of dpf regens.

greasytshirt · Feb 22, 2018

The 195 is a great truck. I have to do relatively little work on these. The biggest thing a new owner should do is be familiar with what liquid goes to what system, and ensure that you take whatever steps necessary to keep them separated. More than once we've seen new truck owners fill them with gasoline at the first fuel stop.

The second big one is to get familiar with how the thing does DPF regenerations. On average they'll do one every hundred miles. Keep an eye on that. Occasionally it might ask for a manual regen. Occasionally is fine. Frequent idling should be avoided if possible.