Bring on the Horses!

News

5 Oct

There’s a palpable feeling of building excitement down the halls of Daimler’s Australian headquarters at Mulgrave in Melbourne’s south-east. I was almost waiting for the team to burst into that iconic Darryl Braithwaite song…..

“We’ll go riding on the horses, yeah, yeah….”

It’s probably no surprise when one learns that the company has 50 orders (we hear its closer to 70) for a truck that no-one outside the company has driven yet. Those orders reflect the faith trucking businesses have in previous models of the brand.

And the brand is…..FUSO.

The model is Shogun, where Daimler has already enjoyed considerable success with its 360, 400 and 460 variants. Now the company has added a chart-topping 510 to the range.

510 signifies the number of horses under the bonnet and with it an increase in torque from the 460’s 2200NM to 2500NM. (The 400 has 2000NM and the 360 puts out 1400NM).

The 510 is Daimler’s tried and proven 13 litre OM471 six cylinder donk as seen in both its M-B Actros and indeed, the Freightliner Cascadia. Ah, the advantages of being a world-wide conglomerate.

This motor hits its maximum power at 1600RPM and that 2500 maximum torque available from just 1100RPM with 84% of that still on tap at 1700RPM – which gives the 13 litre a nice overlap between power and tugging. I believe Daimler would rather me refer to it as ‘Optimal Driveability’, but there you go – different messages to a same conclusion.

I asked Daniel Whitehead (Daimler Trucks head honcho here in Australia) and Alex Muller, boss of Fuso whether there was a lot of work needed to shoe-horn the bigger donk in.

Again, we differed in language with Alex preferring to use the term, ‘Engineering’.

And yes, there was a heap of effort put into the 510 to make sure it worked. In fact the concept of the 510 was formed way back in 2014 with representation to Daimler headquarters from Australia. Stuttgart was receptive to the idea and test mules started running around the Outback from 2017 – and in South Africa where the climate is similar. A priority was to ensure that those 510 horses would be able to walk, canter and gallop without overheating. One visible answer to that is the revised grill you see in the accompanying pics to aid greater airflow.

**510 lets people know you’ve got the horses and the revised grill keeps them cool**

Then there was revision to suspension due to heavier weights and a heap of other technical goodies that I neither understand, nor really care about as long as the whole thing works – and the company assures me it does! Very well indeed.

What is nice to know is that an Australian inspired idea found a sympathetic ear in the upper echelons of the company and was acted upon. And for that bouquets go to Daniel and the team here.

As well as being the instigators, Australia (and New Zealand) are the first markets to have access to the 510, although it will no doubt find favour in others as well, with home base, Japan looking at it closely as well as South Africa.

So, what does it do for the purchaser apart from the obvious? Well you’re going to get there quicker for starters. The 460 is B-double rated but tbh is a bit of a Tortoise fully loaded. The 510 is by comparison, the proverbial Hare.

The market for this type of truck is around town and intrastate – reflected in possessing only 400 litre fuel tanks. But in the event of your Actros or Cascadia being in for service, or better yet a new client who wants something delivered yesterday and the rest of your fleet being tied up, the Shogun 510 will be more than capable of getting its B-doubles there and back again as quickly as most anything else.

Daimler does not see the 510 stealing sales from its smaller engine siblings who are adept at doing the jobs for which they were designed, nor from its big cousins, Actros and Cascadia. Squarely in their sights however are Isuzu, UD and Hino out of Japan, as well as DAF and MAN (anyone seen one of those lately). 510 horses certainly puts Shogun up at the front of the pack.

For the technically minded, the OM471 donk features an asymmetric turbocharger and the latest gen common rail system with variable pressure boosting for ultimate fuel efficiency. Indeed, owners of Daimlers other products with this engine rave about its frugal fuel consumption.

A 12-speed fully automated transmission (AMT) features the clever EcoRoll system, while a powerful three-stage engine braking system gives the driver more control. Upgraded Advanced Emergency Braking System (AEBS) technology and an enhanced Active Attention Assist (AAA) system further improve Shogun’s impressive safety credentials.

Rigid Shogun models, with a wheelbase of more than 4300mm, are now available with the optional Active Sideguard Assist. The latest version of this smart safety system uses a radar to detect a vehicle, cyclist, pedestrian or any physical obstruction on the passenger side blind spot when the truck turning left or moving into a lane to the left and issue a warning. It can now also initiate braking in addition to the warning in order to avoid or mitigate a collision or impact at speeds at 14km/h or below.

All Shogun models benefit from the latest generation of the AEBS that now uses camera and radar camera technology to provide enhanced pedestrian sensing capability, making it able to completely stop for a moving pedestrian in the event the driver does not respond to an audible warning. This system is standard on all Shogun models, as is radar adaptive cruise control.

Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS), a driver airbag, Electronic Stability Program (ESP) and Hill Start System (HSS) assistance function continue as standard elements of the Shogun safety package.

Also new across the range is Intelligent Headlight Control, which automatically turns on and off the truck’s high beam function in response to traffic. Daytime LED running lamps, positioned below the main headlight assembly are now also standard on all new Shogun models.

The ergonomic Shogun interior, complete with its push button start, 7-inch high resolution touch-screen centre display with Apple CarPlay and easy to reach controls, carry over unchanged, but the range-topping 510 model gains a premium leather-wrap steering wheel.

So it appears that there is a Shogun for many and varied purposes. I’ve been unable to hop behind the wheel of the 510 thanks to lockdowns but the guys at Mulgrave assure me that they’ll get one to me ASAP. I’ve been well impressed by the other offerings in the range and the company assures me that the one flaw I found in the early days of this new range – light and slightly vague steering – have been addressed and overcome.

I look forward to a re-acquaintance with ‘The Commander in Chief” (that’s what a ‘Shogun’ is) in the near future. Stay tuned…

Fuso Shogun Range

Shogun 510

Variants: 6x4 Prime mover and 6x4 rigid

Engine: 12.8-litre six-cylinder (OM471)

Emission rating: Euro 6

Performance: 510hp and 2500Nm

Transmission: 12-speed fully automated transmission (AMT)

GVM: 26,000kg

GCM: 63,000kg

Rear suspension: Air