vehicle industry in Ireland. Harris was so impressed with a Hino he saw at a motor show, that he began an association with the Japanese manufacturer. His intent was to be granted the assembly and sales rights for his company in Ireland for light and heavy duty vehicles. J. Harris, which was formed by John Harris, was given a license by Hino to assemble and sell vehicles shipped from Japan. Harris began in the 1960s by importing the Hino trucks as completely knocked down kits (CKD) for assembly at their facility in Ireland. The product line began originally with two demonstrators – the KA 300, a four wheel truck, and the TH 340, a tractor unit. The KA 300 was rated at 32,000 lbs. when operated solo or 64,000 lbs. with a draw-bar trailer. The truck had a 10-liter diesel with an output of 200-hp, fitted with an exhaust brake, coupled to a 5-speed gearbox. Final drive was through a double reduction 2-speed rear axle, and standard equipment included a tilt cab, power steering, and air actuated brakes. The TH 340 was sold by Harris for 60,000 lbs. gross combination weight (GCW) operations and had an 8-liter engine producing 160-bhp at 2,400 rpm. Both these models had been sold for quite a while in Japan, but were a bit outdated, especially the TH 340. The business soon gained a reputation amongst Irish haulers for the truck’s toughness and reliability, subsequently gaining a significant market share. Progressing into the 1970s, a new truck featured heavily in the orders received by Harris. Enter the HE 300 tractor unit (mentioned earlier), which was downrated from the original 70,000 lbs. GCW to 64,000 lbs. for the Irish market. The HE had the same engine and specifications as the older KA 300, but was designed and fitted with stronger components to deal with the greater payload. In 1979, Harris replaced the standard 6-speed Hino gearboxes with the Fuller RTO 9509A 9-speed unit in the HE. Soon, the order book was filling up, and then there was interest from operators in Northern Ireland. Later, Harris began marketing trucks in the rest of the UK and there emerged a number of dealerships for sales and service in England, Wales and Scotland. The Hino ZM model was a truck of interest for the engineering department of Harris. The ZM was only available as a 6-wheeler in various configurations from the Tokyo factory. The company 10-4 Magazine / June 2025 63 shipped in the truck as a 6x4, but Harris saw the potential of developing the ZM as an 8x4 for the Irish and UK dump truck markets, rated at 64,000 lbs. gross vehicle weight (GVW). Later, Harris grew his portfolio further, to include selling Isuzu trucks in 1985 and Iveco trucks in 1994, dominating the Irish heavy goods vehicles market. In January 1988, the Harris Group announced plans for a huge distribution and spare parts plant near Catterick, North Yorkshire, England. The plan for the site was to set up a complete British Hino assembly plant, which was to be completed before 1992. The original ambitious plan didn’t happen, and the large site at Castlevale Park eventually became a new truck distribution and after sales and service facility. The site closed a number of years later. It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Harris, as there was opposition from the UK government, manufacturers, and haulers, accusing Harris of selling the Japanese trucks “through the back door” into the UK. In those days, the UK had a large number of truck manufacturers (sadly, today there aren’t any). Hino couldn’t import directly to the UK, but #4 #5
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