Five rules to pick a small truck

Orsia de Jager says their little family business has been
using their JMC for about five months, during
which time it drove 12 100 km without any problems.

SOUTH Africa currently has more than half-a-dozen cab-over-engine bakkies. Their tiny turning circles make them very manoeuvrable and their low load beds are easy to load with a ton or more.

These bakkies range from the proven Koreans on one side to relatively a newcomer to our shores, Tata’s Super Ace on the other, with the Daihatsu Gran Max in the middle.

Only three of them have engines with which one will want to drive long routes and two of them would rather shirk heavy duty.

To pick a bakkie from this group is easy if one sticks to four rules:

1. The bakkie must pay for itself.

2. More Newtons is better.

3. The staff must ride comfortably.

4. The bakkie’s brand must have a dealer to service it on the delivery route.

Businesses who move small loads over short routes can consider the Tata or the Daihatsu. Tata’s 1,4
workmule has a load bed that is 2,63 metres long and dealers currently offer R10 000 cash back on a new Super Ace, which sells for just under R129 000.

A JMC ready to return to the building site after a service. 

Daihatsu also have a special offer on their standard Gran Max (R139 995), which is sold with a canopy worth almost R11 000. While stocks last, this offer makes the willing little Japanese very attractive for small businesses, especially as the closest Chinese competitor costs about R40 000 more.

This competitor is the JMC, where dealers are now selling their tipper model for the more-than-fair price of R208 880. Against these three small pack donkeys, the Korean cab-over-engine bakkies look and perform like cart horses, but they also cost a lot more, with Kia’s proven K2700 and Hyundai’s H100 respectively costing R10 000 and R18 000 more than the JMC.

Payload and consumption

People who carry payload and drive a 1 000 km or more a month must consider either one of the Koreans or the JMC. The two Koreans and the JMC carry a 1,3-ton payload, compared to the Daihatsu Gran Max’s 1 055 kg and the Tata Super Ace’s official one ton. (In India the unofficial payload must be seen to be believed).

Daihatsu boasts on their website that the H100 and K2700 is a lot more expensive to buy and maintain than the Gran Max and adds the small Japanese’s load bed offers more square metres of space (3,7 m²) than any of its rivals. The low maintenance is due to a cluth protector and the relatively small, high-revving engine which has won its class six times in the Total Economy Run. Without a load the Gran Max’s official consumption is 7,5 km/litre, a bit higher than the Super Ace’s claimed 7,2 km/litre.

Kia and Hyundai have long stopped doing such academic exercises. Their wagons do not run empty and any working bakkie is only as light as the driver’s right foot.

Engines

Newtons show how strong an engine is, while the kilo-Watts show how fit the engine is. In load carriers, more Newtons is better.

This makes the Gran Max the Basothu pony among the four bakkies

— not very strong, but Bruce-Fordyce fit. The 1 495 cc four-cylinder petrol engine makes 76 kW at 6 000 rpm, with 90% of the 134 Nm available from 2 000 rpm. Variable valves automatically adjust to provide more torque at low revs.

The Super Ace’s 1 405 cc engine makes 52 kW and 135 Nm, but there are a lot of mechanical losses between the flywheel and the tyres.

The original cab over engine workhorse: Mitsubishi's L300. 

The Kia K2700 has a 2 665 cc, four-cylinder turbo diesel which makes 165 Nm from 2 400 rpm — enough to comfortably pull a braked trailer of 1,1 ton down to Durban. The engine makes 62 kW at 4 000 rpm, which is not quite the fitness level required to do the marathon back up to Pietermaritzburg.

In the Hyundai H100 a 2 607 cc four-cylinder turbo diesel makes two more Newtons than the Kia (167 Nm) but the smaller diesel makes its torque from 2 200 rpm, which can help lower the consumption again-st that of its Kia stable-mate — if the H100 driver has a light foot. The H100 makes 58 kW at 4 000 rpm.

The relatively new JMC comes with the most cubes of the four, a 2 771 cc turbo diesel that makes 235 Nm at 2 300 rpm and 84 kW at 3 600 rpm.

How do they work?

The Korean bakkies currently set the standard for cab-over-engine bakkies in SA and the kilometres which these wagons drive daily boggles the mind.

One courier that we spoke to drives twice a week between Johannesburg, Durban and Port Eliza­beth. Such long routes can be done in the Gran Max, but it isn’t much fun. I drove the Daihatsu to the Highveld where the dynamic valves and short gears proved very capable to move a few tons of bricks, but I would rather face a dentist’s drill than sit on that high-revving 1,5 engine for a long distance again.

To learn more about the relatively new JMC trucks we asked their owners about their praises or pains. All were happy with their purchases, especially Orsia de Jager, who we found driving for her sick husband in their new JMC Tipper. She said the turning circle in the Chinese was a lot shorter than that of her Isuzu bakkie. She said their JMC on average drives 2 400 km a month — always with a load of lawnmowers and garden refuse — and the first service had cost “about R2 000”.

Prices and warrantees

(All the trucks have 10 000 km service intervals.)

R128 995 Tata Super Ace,
three years/100 000 km.

R139 006 Daihatsu Gran Max,
three years/100 000 km.

R179 880 JMC dropside,
five years/120 000 km, and a five years/120 000 km optional service plan.

R189 995 Kia Workhorse dropside,
five years/150 000 km warranty and a three years/60 000 km service plan.

R207 900 H100 2,6 Euro II dropside,
five years/150 000 km warranty with roadside assist.

(The Koreans guarantee their cab to be rust free for three years/100 000 km and the load bin for one year).